The U.S Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA ) will soon develop an extraordinary and avant-garde pair of high-tech binoculars for their Special Forces that will be 10 times more powerful than anything available today. This new amplified device with an alerting system actually taps the wearer’s prefrontal cortex (anterior part of the frontal lobes of the brain, lying in front of the motor and premotor) to caution secret threats detected by the soldier’s subliminal. According to DARPA this advanced prototype model of binoculars is stimulated by ‘Luke’s Binoculars’ that Luke Skywalker used in Star Wars. Now, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has planned to create their own version of this science-fiction hardware whose prototype will be handed to troops in next three years. The agency also asserts that no scientific advancement is required on the project that is officially named as Cognitive Technology Threat Warning System because DARPA hopes to assemble their cooked technologies already kept in their laboratories from years. The technology ranges from flat-field wide-angle optics, to the use of advanced electroencephalograms, or EEGs, to rapidly recognize brainwave signatures. According to the presentations from the meeting held by DARPA in March at Arlington, Virginia where scientists and defense contractors were expected to participate, the agency demanded that binoculars should have a viewing range of 1,000 to 10,000 meters as compared to the current generation binoculars whose ranges are only 300 to 1,000 meters. The agency also demanded that these binoculars should grant 120-degree field view and should be able to spot moving vehicles as far as 10 kilometers away. But the most notable thing is that these binoculars have nothing to do with the optics because it is just DARPA’s desire to amalgamate EEG electrodes that scrutinize wearer’s neural signals to aid the soldiers to identify the targets with an ease. According to an expert in this field, Dennis McBride, president of the Potomac Institute DARPA’s goals are based on detailed research, he further quoted that: This is all about target recognition and pattern recognition. It turns out that humans in particular have evolved over these many millions of years with a prominent prefrontal cortex. He further described that prefrontal cortex permits brain to lift patterns instantly and also exercises strong impulse control to prohibit false alarms. He also said that EEG will surely permit binoculars to avoid inhibitory reaction and will help the wearer to detect possible threats. According to John Murray, a scientist at SRI International and one of the participants in last month’s DARPA workshop believes that technology is viable in a demonstrative environment but to take it in a field is a different issue. He further added that in few years the capability to measure signals and to analyze them quickly is radically advanced and in this kind of situation lots of other subjects are also involved to build and deploy this technology. It is also not clear that how the final device will look like but the agencies presentations unveils soldiers wearing EEG sensors attached helmet on their heads. However, DARPA’s presentations clearly denote that size and power are also some serious issues that need to be solved but to create a system less than five pounds is still a challenge. If we take an example of another important aspects of binoculars to detect threats by using neuromorphic engineering- the science of using hardware and software to mimic biological systems. Paul Hasler, a professor of Georgia Institute of Technology who specializes in this area and attended DARPA’s workshop describes it by giving an example that if an effort is made to use neural computation to “emulate the brain’s visual cortex’ by creating sensors like brain, it will scan large area and will also help the troops to visualize important activities of their foes. Though companies are not sure to bid on this project but DARPA believes that when the prototype of this high-tech device will be offered to U.S Special Forces and when the military will demand the binoculars after trial it will be the true success for DARPA and for the whole team who all conducted detailed research at DARPA’s workshop to develop this ultramodern device. Via: Wired