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

US Army Chief of Staff To Develop "Thought"

[Anonymous Coward]

US Army Chief of Staff To Develop "Thought"

Re:US Army Chief of Staff To Develop "Thought"

[Anonymous Coward]

"Thought" is grossly overrated, and has been superseeded by "hope" and "change".

TEMPEST...

[armie]

One problem with this is any electrical activity on the brain detected is then amplified. This makes TEMPEST attacks on the thoughts of the soldier much easier as the attacker already has an amplifier attached to the soldier. Solution? Every US Army soldier needs to wear a tin foil hat!

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:Prior to the filter?

[Oktober Sunset]

Drill Sergeant: I am Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, your senior drill instructor. From now on you will speak only when spoken to, and the first and last words out of your filthy sewers will be sir. Do you maggots understand that?

Recruits: Sir, yes sir.

Helmet: What a dickhead.

I can see it now...

[neokushan]

(All thought, of course)

"Private Jenkins, Cover me!"
"Sir, Yes, Sir!....man, sarge is so cool and he has such a great ass! He can cov-er-me-an-e-time-he-likes, tee-hee!"
"Uhh...private Jenkins?!"
"Uhh uhh yes, sarge?"
"...I think I love you, too"

And then they'd get shot or something. Anyway, the moral of the story is...well...I forget, what were we thinking about, again?

Re:You know, helmets are so uncomfortable...

[neokushan]

Yeah and helmets have that nasty habit of preventing battlefield debris from getting lodged in your brain. Somehow I think that's worth being a tad uncomfortable.

change thinking?

[Luke_22]

'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.'

Am I the only one who's thinking "danger!danger!" here?
talking is one thing, changing the way you think is more like... brainwashing?

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.

Re:Oxymoron

[justinlee37]

Nobody was trying to call it military wisdom or anything. War is one of the best funded "industries" around the world, and it's organizers are dedicated strategists. There's nothing unintelligent about them, regardless of your opinions on whether or not they're misguided.

Backspace?

[saider]

Thought : "Roger, Air Force One. Approach terminal Whisky-one"

Transmit (to Roger) : "Terminate Air Force with Whiskey"

Am i wrong to feel a bit disgusted?

[Denihil]

Ugh. I pay taxes every year in the US. They haven't fixed a big pothole outside my house on the road in years, and yet every year we allocate more and more money for military spending. It's a old argument, i know, i know. But honestly now.....i have just all the more incentive to cheat on my taxes.

What happens when...

[purpleraison]

...one of the soldiers gets a tune stuck in his head?

All the rest of the soldiers will hear his mental rendition of "Never gonna give you up" by Rick Astley.

Not a pretty sight. Do we really want to live in a world where you can be MENTALLY Rick-rolled?

I don't think so.