An information warfare official at the U.S. Department of Defense has urged caution about a capability that can connect directly to electric signals in the human mind, the Washington Times said on Friday.
Referred to as brain-machine interfaces, these technologies are designed to link electrical brain signals with specific devices so users can give commands from their minds.
Lt. Cmdr. Mark Wess, a cryptologic warfare officer, wrote in the May issue of the U.S. Naval Institute’s magazine Proceedings that “no emerging technology is potentially more important to the military.” In the future, Wess sees a world where naval officers can employ BMI tools to control a battleship’s navigation, weapons and engineering systems.
The DOD has made some research and development efforts regarding BMIs. Capt. Ayesha Ahmad analyzed earlier neuroimaging experiments conducted by the department, including a Navy study in which researchers used electroencephalograms to detect lies. The study has a median 95% statistical confidence and error rate lower than 1 percent.
In 2018, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency launched the Next-Generation Nonsurgical Neurotechnology program to develop BMI tools that could be used to facilitate human-machine interaction with unmanned aerial vehicles and active cyber defense systems.
While the U.S. military is looking into these tools, BMI technologies are also being developed by the nation’s near-peer competitors, according to Wess, who warned against potential negative uses of this technology and its ability to gather information regarding human brain functions.
Brain Talker, a joint project between China’s Tianjin University and China Electronics Corp., was announced in 2019. The press release about its creation said it is designed to understand a person’s goals using neural electric signals.
At the Potomac Officers Club’s 10th Annual Defense R&D Summit, you will have the chance to hear about many more DOD R&D initiatives from officials across the department. Last year’s edition of the event featured keynote speakers from the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, the Defense Innovation Unit and the Air Force. To learn more and register to attend, click here.
