Industry players have said for years now that mixing computers and biology could create in the future the most powerful technology. According to reports, the U.S. military is planning to create cyborg soldiers by implanting chips in soldiers' brain. The chip can directly connect to computers and deliver important military data on battle instructions, enemy's position and maps.
Some neural interfaces are already approved for use with humans, but they provide the user more with noise than helpful data. U.S. military declared that they want to improve the imprecise technology existing at the present time and build devices that can communicate individually and clearly with any neuron in a specific region of the brain.
According to DARPA's Neural Engineering System Design program, Phillip Alveda, cited by Computer World, the soldier cyborgs would be better and safer fighters due to the implanted chip. When today's best brain-computer interface systems will be improved, it will become possible to open the channel between modern electronics and the human brain.
DARPA is focusing its efforts on emerging technology for the U.S. military. The neural interface will work as a translator turning electrochemical language into digital signals, and vice versa. The agency plans that the future neural interface will have the volume of two back to back nickels and fit one cubic centimeter.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced its new program aimed to develop a better neural interface working at the intersection of an electronic device and the biological nervous system. This will make it possible to create unprecedented data-transfer bandwidth and signal resolution between the digital world and the human brain.
Scientists from various fields will be involved in the military's new research project, including medical device packaging and manufacturing, low-power electronics, synthetic biology, neuroscience and photonics. The scientists will create advanced neuro-computation and mathematical techniques able to translate between digital ones and zeros and the biological-electromechanical language.
The military is planning to involve various industry players that will become its research partners, offering prototyping, intellectual propriety and manufacturing services.
According to the Federal Business Opportunities website, on February 2-3 DARPA is hosting a two-day meeting in Arlington, Va, in order to pull partners and researchers together.
