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This is your mind. This is your mind in the Army.

Back in the 1960s, the Army experimenting with mind-altering drugs on soldiers. Now it just wants to know what's in the minds. Actually, a system that record brain and body responses to stimuli could figure out what the solider needs to know.
Written by ZDNet UK, Contributor

The Army and DARPA are working on a system that will, wait for it ... read soldier's minds. Yes, we've come that far. Federal Computer Week explains:

The augmented cognition system uses neuro-physiological sensors that assess a warfighter’s attention by measuring and recording brain activity and body responses, including heart rate, and adapting to his preferred learning style.

Using that data, the system will then influence the way the soldier gets information, according to a Jan. 17 statement from the Army’s Natick Soldier Center in Natick, Mass. The technology will help individual warfighters determine the most important information available and decide the best course of action in varying environments.

It's all part of the ominously named Future Force Warrior program.

The system will be primarily closed-loop, which means it will interpret a soldier's cognitive, emotional, and physical state and then prioritize information through the system for the solider alone. But it can be designed to be open-looped, meaning it would funnel information from the warfighter to someone in another location.

The wireless technology will be integrated into communications, computer, and intelligence systems under development in the Army’s Future Force Warrior, a program that uses next-generation protection, communications and firepower technologies that makes soldiers better protected and lethal in combat. The service hopes to incorporate the technology into Future Force Warrior by 2007.

 

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