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DARPA Unveils System Using Human Brains For Computer Vision

MrSeb writes with news about our coming cybernetic overlords. From the article: "After more than four years of research, DARPA has created a system that successfully combines soldiers, EEG brainwave scanners, 120-megapixel cameras, and multiple computers running cognitive visual processing algorithms into a cybernetic hivemind. Called the Cognitive Technology Threat Warning System (CT2WS), it will be used in a combat setting to significantly improve the U.S. Army's threat detection capabilities. There are two discrete parts to the system: The 120-megapixel camera, which is tripod-mounted and looks over the battlefield; and the computer system, where a soldier sits in front of a computer monitor with an EEG strapped to his head, looking at images captured by the camera, wedding out false threats. In testing, the 120-megapixel camera, combined with the computer vision algorithms, generated 810 false alarms per hour; with a human operator strapped into the EEG, that drops down to just five false alarms per hour. The human brain is surprisingly fast, too: According to DARPA, CT2WS displays 10 images per second to the human operator — and yet that doesn't seem to affect accuracy."

2 of 82 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Welcome to the Machine by Beardydog · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why will you have nice accomodations? Do you own a company that either builds or can rely on robots? I don't, so I expect to live in squalor when robots can do 90% of all jobs. Of course, there will be a violent revolution once 90% of us are living in squalor, but we'll be fighting against an army of corporate killbots, so I don't see it going well.

  2. Re:Welcome to the Machine by sjames · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The sad part is that we have such a dysfunctional view of economic systems that the dream of all mankind for centuries (replacing human labor with machine labor) becomes a nightmare.