Pentagon to Merge Next-Gen Binoculars With Soldiers' Brains
Sharon Weinberger 05.01.07 | 2:00 AM

U.S. Special Forces may soon have a strange and powerful new weapon
in their arsenal: a pair of high-tech binoculars 10 times more
powerful than anything available today, augmented by an alerting
system that literally taps the wearer's prefrontal cortex to warn of
furtive threats detected by the soldier's subconscious.

In a new effort dubbed "Luke's Binoculars" -- after the high-tech
binoculars Luke Skywalker uses in Star Wars -- the Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency is setting out to create its own version of
this science-fiction hardware. And while the Pentagon's R&D arm often
focuses on technologies 20 years out, this new effort is dramatically
different -- Darpa says it expects to have prototypes in the hands of
soldiers in three years.

The agency claims no scientific breakthrough is needed on the
project -- formally called the Cognitive Technology Threat Warning
System. Instead, Darpa hopes to integrate technologies that have been
simmering in laboratories for years, ranging from flat-field, wide-
angle optics, to the use of advanced electroencephalograms, or EEGs,
to rapidly recognize brainwave signatures.

In March, Darpa held a meeting in Arlington, Virginia, for scientists
and defense contractors who might participate in the project.
According to the presentations from the meeting, the agency wants the
binoculars to have a range of 1,000 to 10,000 meters, compared to the
current generation, which can see out only 300 to 1,000 meters. Darpa
also wants the binoculars to provide a 120-degree field of view and
be able to spot moving vehicles as far as 10 kilometers away.

The most far-reaching component of the binocs has nothing to do with
the optics: it's Darpa's aspirations to integrate EEG electrodes that
monitor the wearer's neural signals, cueing soldiers to recognize
targets faster than the unaided brain could on its own. The idea is
that EEG can spot "neural signatures" for target detection before the
conscious mind becomes aware of a potential threat or target.

Darpa's ambitions are grounded in solid research, says Dennis
McBride, president of the Potomac Institute and an expert in the
field. "This is all about target recognition and pattern
recognition," says McBride, who previously worked for the Navy as an
experimental psychologist and has consulted for Darpa. "It turns out
that humans in particular have evolved over these many millions of
years with a prominent prefrontal cortex."

That prefrontal cortex, he explains, allows the brain to pick up
patterns quickly, but it also exercises a powerful impulse control,
inhibiting false alarms. EEG would essentially allow the binoculars
to bypass this inhibitory reaction and signal the wearer to a
potential threat. In other words, like Spiderman's "spider sense," a
soldier could be alerted to danger that his or her brain had sensed,
but not yet had time to process.

That said, researchers are circumspect about plans to deploy the
technology. One participant in last month's Darpa workshop, John
Murray, a scientist at SRI International, says he thought the
technology was feasible "in a demonstration environment," but
fielding it is another matter.

"In recent years the ability to measure neural signals and to analyze
them quickly has advanced significantly," says Murray, whose own work
focuses on human effectiveness. "Typically in these situations, there
are a whole lot of other issues (involved) in building and deploying,
beyond the research."

It's unclear what the final system will look like. The agency's
presentations show soldiers operating with EEG sensors attached
helmet-style to their heads. Although the electrodes might initially
seem ungainly, McBride says that the EEG technology is becoming
smaller and less obtrusive. "It's easier and easier," he says.

But getting the system down to a target weight of less than five
pounds will be a challenge, and Darpa's presentations make it clear
that size and power are also issues. But even if EEG doesn't make it
into the initial binoculars, researchers involved in other areas say
there are plenty of improvements to existing technology that can be
fielded.

For example, another key aspect of the binoculars will detect threats
using neuromorphic engineering, the science of using hardware and
software to mimic biological systems. Paul Hasler, a Georgia
Institute of Technology professor who specializes in this area and
attended the Darpa workshop, describes, for example, an effort to use
neural computation to "emulate the brain's visual cortex" -- creating
sensors that, like the brain, can scan across a wide field of view
and "figure out what's interesting to look at."

While some engineers are mimicking the brain, others are going after
the eye. Vladimir Brojavic, a former Carnegie Mellon University
professor, specializes in a technology that replicates the function
of the human retina to allow cameras to see in shadows and poor
illumination. He attended last month's workshop, but he said he was
unsure whether his company, Intrigue Technologies, would bid for work
on the project. "I'm hesitant to pick it up, in case it would
distract us from our product development," he says.

According to the Darpa presentations, the first prototypes of Luke's
Binoculars could be in soldiers' hands within three years. That's an
ambitious schedule, and an unusual one for Darpa, note several
workshop attendees, who also say they expect fierce competition over
the project. The list of attendees at the meeting ranged from
university professors to major contractors. Spokespeople for Lockheed
Martin and Raytheon both confirmed interest in the program, but
declined to say whether they would bid on it.

Once fielded, Darpa indicates the measure of success lies with the
military. According to information the agency provided to industry,
initial prototypes would go to Special Forces. If the military asks
to keep the binoculars after the trials, "that's exactly what you
want here," Darpa wrote. "That's success."

Why all the rush? "I have to wonder if they aren't under pressure
from Congress to make a contribution (to the war on terrorism), or if
DOD is really leaning on them to come up with some stuff," suggests
Jonathan Moreno, a professor of ethics at the University of
Pennsylvania, whose recent book, Mind Wars, looks at the Pentagon's
burgeoning interest in neuroscience. Darpa did not respond to press
inquiries about the program.

Despite the fast schedule, McBride, of the Potomac Institute, thinks
the idea is doable. "It's a risky venture, but that's what Darpa
does," he says. "It's absolutely feasible."

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