DARPA Working on Spidey Sense for Soldiers 191
anti-human 1 writes to tell us Wired is reporting that DARPA is developing a new optics system to help soldiers identify threats earlier. "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. [...] 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."
Re:Ever hear of the "Sixth Sense" (Score:4, Informative)
Okay, here's one:
Pick someone, anyone, out of a crowd, on the highway (not recommended if you are driving), etc., from who you are out of their field of view. Stare at them intensely for a few seconds. Direct a strong emotion towards them if you can -- hate, fear, rage, etc. I guarantee you that most of them will look back at you nervously. It may not work for everyone because some people are less aware of their '6th sense' than others.
Re:Ever hear of the "Sixth Sense" (Score:5, Informative)
Pick someone, anyone, out of a crowd, on the highway (not recommended if you are driving), etc., from who you are out of their field of view. Stare at them intensely for a few seconds. Direct a strong emotion towards them if you can -- hate, fear, rage, etc. I guarantee you that most of them will look back at you nervously. It may not work for everyone because some people are less aware of their '6th sense' than others.
Re:Ever hear of the "Sixth Sense" (Score:5, Informative)
Humans see principally in three "channels", red, green and blue due to the opsins in your photoreceptors. There is some evidence that some women are tetrachromats however. At any rate, these three opsins give us color discrimination in three mathematical dimensions. However, fish and amphibian eyes are much more complicated than ours. For example, the turtle likely sees in at least seven channels of vision, perceiving a world we could never hope to imagine and here is another fact: In the zebrafish, despite their retinas being much more complex and sophisticated than ours, can repair their retinas from damage whereas we are currently screwed if our retinas go bad.
IAAVS (I am a vision scientist), and neuroscientist.
Re:And yet soldiers don't want this crap (Score:1, Informative)
Frequently in CNN and discovery interviews, I saw the young tank operators from the Iraq war say that they would put their headphones on, play a really violent soundtrack and then blast away on the enemies, and feel like it was all just a video game.
(On FOX, they edit out these statements. Go figure.)
Re:Ever hear of the "Sixth Sense" (Score:3, Informative)
However, lateral lines are found on a lot of vertebrate sea life. They are lines of neural tissue that run down the body of the critter. The exact structure differs depending on if the animal is primarily a mobile one swimming from one place to another or a lurker. (e.g. fish that hang out in coral most of their lives.) These lines of nerves are exquisitely sensitive to pressure waves in the water, allowing the animal to sense the slightest shift in currents. Predator species use the lines to sense the presence of appropriately sized food moving at the right speed. Prey species use them to sense the approach of predators coming from their visual blind spot. There is evidence to suggest that schooling species also use this organ to help stay in formation within the schools. With some species, the lines are also electrical sensors, allowing an animal to sense the emanations even of prey that is lying motionless.
Oblig. Wiki Lateral-line [wikipedia.org]
*Disclaimer: I am NOT a marine biologist or ichthyologist, so my summary is sloppy, but you get the gist of it anyway...
Re:Ever hear of the "Sixth Sense" (Score:2, Informative)