If there is one thing the United States is increasingly adept at, its finding a way to make international warfare even scarier and unpredictable than it already is by its very definition. According to the Daily Beast, the US military has tested, on a number of occasions, a brain implant that allows a human operator to control, with their own thoughts, up to three unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), simultaneously.
According to the agency which oversaw the computer-simulated tests – the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) – the tests were conducted between June 2016 and January 2017.
The Daily Beast’s account states that the test subject, being partially paralyzed, was able to complete the tests by channelling his thoughts through a medical implant embedded in his skull, which used electroencephalogram (EEG) to interface with a computer simulation of a drone carrying out a mission in the company of two, simulated unmanned support aircraft. The support aircraft were apparently based loosely on fictional aircraft.
And how was this done? Through surgery. That’s right. The volunteer test subject, Mr Nathan Copeland, had to undergo surgery to place electrodes in his brain to successfully complete a neural interface. Through this surgery, Copeland was able to send brain signals to the drones and the drones were able to send signals back to him so that he was able to perceive the environment of the drone. The drone was then itself able to scan its environment, detect an obstacle in its pathway, and send the signal back to the operator with its recommendation.
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