US Army To Develop "Thought Helmets"

Hugh Pickens writes "Time Magazine reports on a $4 million US Army contract to begin developing 'thought helmets' to harness silent brain waves for secure communication among troops that the Army hopes will 'lead to direct mental control of military systems by thought alone.' The Army's initial goal is to capture brain waves with software that translates the waves into audible radio messages for other troops in the field. 'It'd be radio without a microphone,' says Dr. Elmar Schmeisser, the Army neuroscientist overseeing the program. 'Because soldiers are already trained to talk in clean, clear and formulaic ways, it would be a very small step to have them think that way.' The key challenge will be to develop software able to pinpoint speech-related brain waves and pick them up with a 128-sensor array that ultimately will be buried inside a helmet. Scientists deny charges that they're messing with soldiers' minds. 'A lot of people interpret wires coming out of the head as some sort of mind reading,' says Dr. Mike D'Zmura. 'But there's no way you can get there from here.' One potential civilian spin-off: a Bluetooth Helmet so people nearby can't hear you when you talk on your cell phone."

Comments

Prior to the filter?

[Dwedit]

Wouldn't this take stuff before people have the ability to filter what they say and speak it out loud?

Re:Prior to the filter?

[cbhacking]

It sounds like they're tapping into the signals that would normally be sent to the muscles (not to the motor nerves themselves, but the last stage prior to them). In a computer analogy, this would be like reading signals between the filesystem driver and the physical device driver - all the "filtering" of what you would actually say has probably already been done. Similarly, this wouldn't catch fleeting thoughts which you would never vocalize. On the other hand, it quite possibly *would* catch thoughts which you would normally say only under your breath or when the mic is off. There's still plenty of potential for embarassment...

Re:doubt they are at that level of reading brainwa

[stranger_to_himself]

For "silent" communication I can see morse being communicated that way, but reading words from the brain ? Maybe one can train people to concentrate and clearly form a few specific patterns which can then be recognized afterward and translated to words, but i doubt you could learn and differentiate so many patterns as to have a wordly communication. Furthermore in the midst of fire exchange, I doubt this would be easier to use than a radio.

I don't think adults can easily learn to use their brains in an entirely new way like this. Maybe if you gave a really young child one of these with some kind of visual feedback for them they could develop a more sophisticated way of communicating with it.

Or better yet, maybe deaf kids could use this to talk amongst themselves. It would have to be started very young though, so the brain could develop and strengthen the areas needed. Actually this is now sounding a bit like the plot from The Midwitch Cuckoos.

ALS

[bigattichouse]

My late father in law (2004) could have used something like this for speech, ALS effectively cut him off completely for the last month or two of his life.

Hillarious

[Bender0x7D1]

'Because soldiers are already trained to talk in clean, clear and formulaic ways, it would be a very small step to have them think that way.'

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

It's been a long time since I had as good a laugh as when I read that statement.