Super Soldiers

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Future soldiers might `taste' war

By Melissa Nelson
The Associated Press

April 23, 2006

PENSACOLA · Military researchers think the tongue could be key in their quest to create the super warrior of the future, giving soldiers sensory powers similar to owls, snakes and fish.

Army Rangers with 360-degree unobstructed night vision, Navy SEALs sensing sonar in their heads while maintaining normal vision underwater -- scientists at the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition are turning sci-fi into reality.

By routing signals from helmet-mounted cameras, sonar and other equipment through the tongue to the brain, they hope to give elite soldiers superhuman senses.

The question is that while animals' brains can process the extra stimuli, it is unknown whether human brains can adapt, said institute head Ken Ford. His facility specializes in "human-centered computing," fitting technology to people to make machines more user-friendly.

"Pit vipers, that's one reason they are so dangerous. They have heat detectors, infrared as well as natural vision," he said. "We know brains can do this."

Dr. Anil Raj, the project's lead scientist, envisions Navy SEALs incorporating sonar into their senses, much like dolphins or whales.

The research is designed to create superior troops, but Ford said the same technology could restore sight or hearing to soldiers wounded in war.

The device, known as "Brain Port," was pioneered more than 30 years ago by Dr. Paul Bach-y-Rita, a University of Wisconsin neuroscientist. Bach-y-Rita began routing images from a camera through electrodes taped to people's backs and later discovered the tongue was a superior transmitter.

In testing, blind people found doorways, noticed people walking in front of them and caught balls. A version of the device, expected to be commercially marketed soon, has restored balance to those whose vestibular systems in the inner ear were destroyed by antibiotics.

The Florida institute is the first to research military uses of sensory augmentation.

Raj began his research using Navy divers for one simple reason: "These guys don't think anything about sticking something in their mouths to do their jobs."

A narrow strip of red plastic connects from the Brain Port to the tongue, where 144 microelectrodes transmit information through nerve fibers to the brain. Instead of holding and looking at compasses and bulky hand-held sonar devices, the divers can process the information through their tongues, Raj said.

Underwater crime scene investigators might use the device to identify search patterns, signal each other and "see through our tongues, as odd as that sounds," said Michael Zinszer, director of Florida State University's Underwater Crime Scene Investigation School.

They plan to officially demonstrate the system to Navy and Marine Corps divers in May.

The research is being funded by the Department of Defense's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

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