Scientists Develop Brain-Wave Binoculars

Intelligent Binoculars Will Spot Patterns And Movement In A Wider Area Than Human Eye

(AP)  Defense contractor Northrop Grumman has won a $6.7 million contract to develop brain-wave binoculars.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, better known as DARPA, awarded the contract to develop intelligent binoculars that would help soldiers detect threats from miles away. The defense contractor says electrodes placed on the scalp will record the user's electrical brain activity. Responses will train the system over time to recognize actual threats at greater distances than conventional binoculars.

The system would use a custom helmet equipped with wide-angle binoculars capable of producing high-resolution images and electroencephalogram, or EEG, electrodes. Researchers hope to tap into the brain's ability to spot patterns and movement.

In addition to the defense contractor's Linthicum-based Electronic Systems division, members of the team developing the technology are Baltimore-based Sensics, Inc.; SAIC, San Diego, Calif.; Theia Technologies LLC, Wilsonville, Ore.; L-3 Communications Infrared Products, Dallas, Texas; and researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta; Georgetown University; Portland State University; and the University of Colorado, Boulder, Colo.

Team member Paul Hasler, an associate professor in the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, described the technology as an example of "neuromorphic" engineering that uses hardware and software to emulate human intelligence.

"The idea of this project is to build a visual device that is attentive, that can do the kind of low-level visual processing that your eyes do naturally," Hasler said in an e-mail to The Baltimore Daily Record. "You would see a certain picture in your field of view, but the device would actually be looking over a much wider space - and if it found something interesting it would present you with that picture as well."

"You need to present the soldier with many images and then use the person's brain to figure out what is of interest," said Sensics CEO Yuval Boger.

Dr. Robert Shin, assistant professor of neurology and ophthalmology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, said the brain is constantly processing images but most get filtered out.

"There is a level where the brain can identify things before it ever makes it to the conscious level," Shin said. "Your brain says, 'It may be something,' but it might not realize that it is something that should rise to the conscious level."

[cfin5]

(Think bionic man sounds) TOTOTOTOTOTICK!......Movement with brainwaves.....tick, conservative humanoid tick, TOTOTOTOTOTOTICK!......Movement without brainwaves.....tick, liberal humanoid tick :)--- Couldn''t resist,...tick!

[bobnjersey]

this sounds like a ''bridge to nowhere''.

[questionnews]

Deer hunters will be very interested in these things.

[kennedy7955]

I apologize, the cost was there of $6.7 million. Which is a bargain. We still will need the loan from the communists though.

[kennedy7955]

The military after all these years is just getting caught up on bullet proof humvees and body armor. This must be leaving a hankering need from our solders for brain wave binoculars. I wish President Bush had these but I don''t suppose brain wave binoculars would work well on his a-s-s where his brain is.

Stories like this on brain wave binoculars probably make the average American all tingly and proud of their country. Wow, we have brain wave binoculars, gee I wonder what the French will invent to counter brain wave binoculars? Maybe brain wave boots for running in the right direction (away from battle). I bet a lot of Americans liked that little shot at the French.

I noticed the cost of these things and the R&D wasn''t mentioned in the article. What do a pair of brain wave binoculars cost us taxpayers? Probably millions. Maybe the Chinese can make them for a lot less and we can then borrow the money from the Chinese Communist government to pay for them. How else can a bankrupt country pay for these things or anything else?

Now that is democracy and capitalism at its best. Borrow the money from your arch enemies the communists, and then pay them with the loans they provided to make brain wave binoculars.

It would be better bring our troops home from overseas, shrink the military and do away with the need for brain wave binoculars all-together.

[extremophil]

"Brain-Wave Binoculars"? I know a lot of people that would''t be able to make them work.

[rf35]

I don''t see much combat use for this sort of thing. Maybe when coupled with a night vision system, it could be useful to special ops in a few situations. Perhaps sniper-hunting.