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Posts Tagged “

Soldiers

binoculars

Brainwave Binoculars Will Pick Out The Things You Looked At, But Didn't See

Pentagon gadget lab DARPA has just earmarked $6.7 million to develop "brain-wave binoculars." Electrodes placed on the user's scalp record electrical brain activity in an attempt to use the cranium's unrivaled ability to spot patterns. With time, the binoculars can learn to identify objects that would normally pique the user's interest and direct them towards it. The binoculars are supposed to help soldiers out in the field by pointing out tanks or enemy combatants that they may have seen, but not noticed. More »

electricity

Knee Brace Charges Your Cellphone

A knee brace that generates enough electricity to power 10 cellphones was demonstrated by scientists recently. The brace harvests the energy of a person's knee braking after taking a step, similar to the way hybrid car brakes collect energy to charge their batteries. The device only weighs 3.5 pounds, and does not need the intense effort that other human-powered energy generators such as hand cranks require. And while the cellphone measurement given by the creators is pretty useless, they do have several practical applications in mind. More »

power up

Soldiers Go Solar

Australian soldiers are now beginning deployment with wearable solar panels. Just like most of us, their military is weighed down by too many gadgets that are consuming too much power. But unlike most of us, their use of night vision is for more than "recreational" purposes. So the government has spent £1million developing a 14- ounce solar panel that's even effective on cloudy days by pulling power from solar radiation (as opposed to mere light). The technology should save battery trips back and forth to base, as well as lighten the overall load of the Iraq-based troops. Now if they can just develop generators powered by pissing oneself, I'm all set to enlist. [dailymail via spluch]


a bit on the scary

US Soldiers to Get Brain Microchipped to Measure Vitals

rieceimg.jpegThe Department of Defense is pursuing a brain-implantable "biochip" that will measure/relay a soldier's vitals on the battlefield (and off). We don't know much from a technical standpoint about the chips, other than they are about the size of a grain of rice and will have the ability to, at minimum, measure oxygen levels in tissue. But the technological breakthrough involved has little to do with the electronics. More »

gadgets

Tactile Messaging Vest Lets Soldiers Communicate Silently

Just as kids wrote on each other's backs and tried to guess what the letter or word was—something we loved—these tactile vests transmits signals to the wearer tactically. Each vest has 16 vibrating motors that can create 15 patterns with a "very high recognition" rate. In fact, when five volunteers were tested with these signals, only one of them made a single mistake. More »