Tag Archives: DARPA

Telepathic Soldiers?

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Not to be outdone by DARPA’s never-ending list of sci-fi projects, the U.S. Army has decided to step up its game. In the next five years, it plans to spend $4 million in taxpayer funds in order to develop real-life telepathy.

Synthetic Telepathy?

The U.S. Army’s version of telepathy is called Synthetic Telepathy. It bears some resemblance to the style of telepathy seen in the popular Metal Gear Solid 4 video game. But where Metal Gear relied on nanotechnology, this real-world telepathy relies on mind-reading.

Here’s how it works. Soldiers wear helmets containing electrodes. The electrodes read electrical activity in the brain and identify code words. Those code words are then relayed back to a central computer before being dished out to other soldiers in the field. Currently, computers are able to identify 45% of the code words. By 2017, the U.S. Army hopes that number will be closer to 100%.

Guerrilla Explorer’s Analysis

Incidentally, this project first received funding back in 2008. At the time, researchers estimated Synthetic Telepathy would take 15-20 years to develop. It appears they’ve progressed fast enough to shave 6-11 years from that original mark.

At least some soldiers seem pleased by the development. On the other end of the spectrum, civil libertarians are worried about how it could be used by governments against their own citizens. It’s difficult to say exactly how this new telepathy technology will impact our lives. But one thing seems certain. Synthetic Telepathy is coming…and it’s coming quickly.

DARPA’s Real-Life Transformer?

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DARPA-employed researchers are at it again. A few months back, they were trying to predict future crimes. Then they were building invisibility cloaks and creating battlefield illusions. Now, they’ve created a robotic Cheetah capable of running at 18mph, making it the “fastest legged robot” in history.

The DARPA Cheetah: A Real-Life Transformer?

Of course, Cheetah would get crushed in a race against a real cheetah, some of which can reach 70 mph over short distances. Still, 18 mph is more than enough to destroy the old robotic record of 13.1 mph, set by an MIT robot named Planar Biped back in 1989.

Eventually, researchers hope to get the prototype up to 20-30 mph. If it reaches the latter, it’ll pass another milestone, officially becoming faster than any living human (Usain Bolt reached 27.45 mph in a 100 meter race back in 2009). Science fiction has long predicted the rise of mecha warriors. It would appear we are drawing very close to the day when that fiction will become a reality.

Real Life Battlefield Illusions?

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Those wacky folks at DARPA are at it again.

DARPA & Real Life Battlefield Illusions?

Not satisfied with creating invisibility cloaks or predicting future crimes, DARPA has turned its attention to a new project called “Battlefield Illusion.” The idea is to create hallucinations during military engagements that “manage the adversary’s sensory perception.” Here’s more on the latest DARPA project from Wired:

Arthur C. Clarke once famously quipped that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” So perhaps it was inevitable that the Pentagon’s extreme technology arm would eventually start acting like magicians — and try to create illusions on the front lines.

In its new budget, unveiled on Monday, Darpa introduced a new $4 million investigation into technologies that will “manage the adversary’s sensory perception” in order to “confuse, delay, inhibit, or misdirect [his] actions.” Darpa calls the project “Battlefield Illusion.” Of course.

“The current operational art of human-sensory battlefield deception is largely an ad-hoc practice,” the agency sighs as it lays out the project’s goals. But if researchers can better understand “how humans use their brains to process sensory inputs,” the military should be able to develop “auditory and visual” hallucinations that will “provide tactical advantage for our forces.”

(See Darpa’s Magic Plan: ‘Battlefield Illusions’ to Mess With Enemy Minds for the rest)

DARPA’s Invisibility Cloak?

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Yes, it’s true. Thanks to DARPA funding, a group of scientists have done the impossible. They’ve invented an invisibility cloak.

A Working Invisibility Cloak?

We first reported on invisibility cloak technology back in October 2011. This technology is a little different. But don’t get too excited…this invisibility cloak only works for 50 picoseconds…in other words, 40 trillionths of a second. That’s not enough time to blink let alone sneak through the hallways of Hogwarts. While some improvement is possible, it would apparently take a gigantic machine (18,600 miles long!) to make this invisibility cloak last for a complete second.

Guerrilla Explorer’s Analysis

Still, it’s not all for naught. The invisibility cloak, developed with DARPA funding, could help improve fibre-optic communications security. Then again, it could also be used to hide computer viruses as they’re passed into high-speed data streams. Here’s more on this new invisibility cloak from Fox News:

We see events happening as light from them reaches our eyes. Usually it’s a continuous flow of light. In the new research, however, scientists were able to interrupt that flow for just an instant.

Other newly created invisibility cloaks fashioned by scientists move the light beams away in the traditional three dimensions. The Cornell team alters not where the light flows but how fast it moves, changing in the dimension of time, not space.

They tinkered with the speed of beams of light in a way that would make it appear to surveillance cameras or laser security beams that an event, such as an art heist, isn’t happening…

(Read the rest on this new invisibility cloak at Fox News)