US Army Developing Training Holograms With Realtime Conversation Interaction

[Norellicus]

The US Army is ramping up the development of technology right out of the X-Files, "making science fiction into reality" as Dr. John Parmentola—Director of their Research and Laboratory Management—puts it. The list of things currently in the works is amazing: Regenerating body parts on "nano-scaffolding", telepathy through electronic impulses in the scalp, and self-aware virtual photorealistic soldiers that can be deployed in the battlefield through "quantum ghost imaging". To test these they want to use them into a massively multi-player online games like World of Warcraft or Eve online:

We want to use the massively multi-player online game as an experimental laboratory to see if they’re good enough to convince humans that they’re actually human, that can think on their own, have emotions and talk in local slang. I actually interact with virtual humans in terms of asking them questions and they’re responding.

Once they have them perfected, they want to "deploy" these soldiers using something called "quantum ghost imaging". This will allow to create photorealistic, non-cheesy-fake-CNN-looking holograms out of thin air by "pairing photons that do no reflect or bounce off an object, but off other photons," whatever that means. Parmentola explains it as "“like having a tracing tool … that goes over the image and that’s connected to another one on a piece of paper that exactly imitates what it is that you are tracing with the other pen" which leaves me scratching my head as well. He hinted that this is closer than we can imagine.
The rest of their projects are equally mindblowing. Although this used to be the subject of much rumorology and speculation, the Parmentola confirmed that they are working in:
• A project to erase bad memories, which will be critical in helping soldiers with psychological damage.
• Devices that will translate one solider's thoughts into electrical signals that can be beamed to other soliders, to help in stealth operations.
• Growing back body parts, both internal organs and limbs (Parmentola said researchers are not far away from this), using molecular-sized particles that act as nano-scaffolding for the human cells to grow, dissolving after the organ has regenerated.
Let's hope it's no all smoke and mirrors, because this research has the potential to benefit countless others outside the battlefield.

DoDBuzz via Gizmodo

oshi-

skynet, brb

[Dimmauk]

• A project to erase bad memories, which will be critical in helping soldiers with psychological damage.

http://www.cinema.com/image_lib/1336_0012.jpg

[Darus Grey]

Wish i got a job offer to work on this. This is a computational linguist's wet-dream ;0

[_chuchu]

Manchurian candidate, wat

[Zilong]

Implement this shit to some ren-ai/eroge, and the japanese would become extinct within the next 2-3 generations.

[Mizango]

• A project to erase bad memories, which will be critical in helping soldiers with psychological damage.

http://www.cinema.com/image_lib/1336_0012.jpg

Discover magazine and Science daily had a kick ass article on this 2 weeks ago I believe.

[Kuya]

I won't believe it till Kaylia says it's legit.

[oldoldman]

http://www.depauw.edu/photos/PhotoDB...%20Capitol.jpg

Not anymore you're not.

[Charla]

Implement this shit to some ren-ai/eroge, and the japanese would become extinct within the next 2-3 generations.

In the meantime, that's more Asian girls for the rest of us to enjoy, you know.

[Lordwafik]

• A project to erase bad memories, which will be critical in helping soldiers with psychological damage.

http://www.cinema.com/image_lib/1336_0012.jpg

Eternal Sunshine of a spotless mind told us truluv4eva, this will never work!

[Alleya]

There are actually drugs out there right now that are proven to diminish the strength of traumatic memories if they are taken in conjunction with special therapy. Some of them are drugs that were used to treat other things, so they are already approved for use on humans.

The more you know ----*

[Kaylia]

I won't believe it till Kaylia says it's legit.

Not a good idea, I always call bullshit on everything

But seriously, science progress in small step, and everything that sound like science fiction is usually science fiction (or a plain exageration). Those conference are simply trying to impress people with pretty gadget, even if they are completely useless and will never see the day.

Army Science Conference = army advertising

“Quantum ghost imaging,” for example, is as complicated as it sounds. Basically it’s a phenomenon of physics that allows images to be rendered through the pairing of photons that do not reflect or bounce off an object, but off of other photons that did, thereby creating a sort of “ghost” image of it. This technology would enable the Army to generate images of personnel and equipment through clouds and smoke.

Everybody already saw a laser going through smoke. Same concept, but can they really make something useful out of it? The image would probably be distorted and hardly believable in a real context. It will never looks like this http://cache.gawker.com/assets/image..._holograms.jpg


And photon won't bounce off other photon... not quite sure what he meant.

They’re working on creating “photorealistic looking and acting human beings” that can think on their own, have emotions and talk in local slang.

I'm convinced that something like this will be possible eventually...I sincerely doubt they have reached the point where they can mimic human's psyche completely tho. They are probably giving far more credit to their AI than they shoud.

Dr. Joe Tsien, a neurobiologist at the Medical College of Georgia and co-director of the Brain Discovery Institute, has been able to erase certain memories from mice subjected to traumatic experiences in a laboratory environment, Parmentola said. From a practical standpoint, the Army could use this kind of technology to help Soldiers who’ve been psychologically scarred by staring death straight in the eye.

Sound possible on mice. Using it on an human...i doubt so. At least, not anytime soon.

Take mind communication, for example. Experiments have shown that certain thoughts generate electrical impulses on the surface of the scalp, Parmentola said. Think commandos who can stealthily communicate without using their voice or Soldiers who control weapons with their thoughts from a distance over a wireless connection.

I don't see why not. Communicating would probably be very simple (stop/go/be careful..etc) but they could do it. Anything more complex than this won't happens anytime soon, and might not even be possible at all on the field (there is a difference between a huge scanner, and one that you can wear inside your helmet.

Growing back body parts, both internal organs and limbs (Parmentola said researchers are not far away from this), using molecular-sized particles that act as nano-scaffolding for the human cells to grow, dissolving after the organ has regenerated.

Pretty sure it will be possible some day to regenerate cells to some extent (grow back organs and the like), but I wouldn't be magic like the one we see in science fiction movie.

[AoE]

Literal war on terror with an army of King Boos

[Atlasion]

"• Devices that will translate one solider's thoughts into electrical signals that can be beamed to other soliders, to help in stealth operations."

This could be very embarrassing for some soldiers..

[Khamsin]

It's cool they'll be able to help traumatized patients. Let's just hope the procedure is relatively simple, drug free, and can be done to a patient with minimal interaction or therapy. Doing anything that requires supplemental therapy or interactions that make them aware of their pain is likely just going to cause more suffering. Hopefully it's a MIB style quick flash of light and you're done.

[BRP]

self-aware

Uh...

[Alleya]

It's cool they'll be able to help traumatized patients. Let's just hope the procedure is relatively simple, drug free, and can be done to a patient with minimal interaction or therapy. Doing anything that requires supplemental therapy or interactions that make them aware of their pain is likely just going to cause more suffering. Hopefully it's a MIB style quick flash of light and you're done.

Gonna assume this is trolling because it will hurt too much if it isn't.

[Septimus]

First CNN develops the Emergency Political Hologram, now the army wants to recruit night elves and tarans. They better be careful, if China gets this technology they can beam in an army of level 1 fish bots to cause untolled ecological damage to aquatic environments anywhere in the world.

[Charla]

What's the point of a mod trolling though?

[Kiro]

To be awesome?