Northrop-led team developing binoculars for military that taps into

Daily Record, The (Baltimore), Jun 16, 2008 by Ben Mook

A team of researchers led by Northrop Grumman Corp. has received federal funding to construct a space-age set of binoculars that would tap into a soldier's brainwaves to pick out possible threats from as far away as six miles.

Northrop's team of researchers was one of two teams to receive money from the Department of Defense to explore the technology necessary to create "intelligent" binoculars that would far surpass anything available to infantry soldiers.

An initiative of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, the Cognitive Technology Threat Warning, as the project is officially known, would combine existing technologies to tap the brain's inherent ability to spot patterns, movement and objects in the eye's field of view, and then mimic visual processing to detect possible threats like enemies approaching the position.

"Mainly what we're trying to do is develop a system that will give us a high level of detection with extremely low levels of false alarms," DARPA spokeswoman Jan Walker said.

Other requirements for the contract include the capability to see objects from a half-mile to more than six miles away in a 120- degree field of view. Standard binoculars can view objects only up to a little more than a half-mile away. The device would also have to weigh less than five pounds and be able to stand up to use in the field.

The Northrop Grumman team, run out of the company's Electronics Sector in Linthicum, includes Sensics Inc., a Baltimore-based maker of panoramic head-mounted displays, along with Georgetown University, Georgia Tech and L-3 Communications Infrared Products. The 12-month, $6.7 million, Phase I contract would create a preliminary design for what it is calling the HORNET system, Human- aided Optical Recognition/Notification of Elusive Threats.

DARPA is anticipating it could take up to three years to reach the prototype stage and five years to produce a workable unit.

The HORNET system would use a custom helmet equipped with wide- angle binoculars capable of producing high-resolution images and electro-encephalogram (EEG) electrodes placed on the scalp to record electrical brain activity. Using algorithms, the device would sense the brain picking up possible targets and raise an alert before the soldier's brain even began processing the information at the conscious level.

Team member Paul Hasler, an associate professor in the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, described the technology as an example of neuromorphic engineering, using hardware and software approaches to emulate human intelligence.

"The idea of this project is to build a visual device that is attentive, that can do the kind of low-level visual processing that your eyes do naturally," Hasler said in a statement e-mailed from his office. "You would see a certain picture in your field of view, but the device would actually be looking over a much wider space -- and if it found something interesting it would present you with that picture as well."

If the idea sounds like something out of a science fiction movie, it is. In literature prepared by DARPA to explain to potential bidders what they were envisioning, the agency suggested they "think [of] Luke Skywalker's Binoculars," a reference to the binoculars the "Star Wars" character Luke Skywalker used to scan the desert for his missing robots.

Dr. Robert Shin, assistant professor of neurology and ophthalmology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, said the idea of tapping the brain's visual processing centers made sense. He said the brain is constantly processing images, movement and patterns in a person's field of view. Given the amount of information that is collected, Shin said most gets filtered out to prevent information overload.

"There is a level where the brain can identify things before it ever makes it to the conscious level," Shin said. "Your brain says, 'It may be something,' but it might not realize that it is something that should rise to the conscious level."

Some of the advances that will be essential to making the HORNET project successful are those that have occurred in the field of optics. Sensics will be key to finding the right ultra-wide field of view display for the project.

"You need to present the soldier with many images and then use the person's brain to figure out what is of interest," said Sensics CEO Yuval Boger. "We are in a position to provide Northrop Grumman with a uniquely customized product with a high field-of-view that is also high resolution."

As the project moves forward, many of those involved in the project anticipate the resulting technology will have widespread potential outside of military applications. Dennis McBride, president of the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, said the technology that springs from the HORNET project could easily make the jump to civilian use.

"If Northrop Grumman pulls this off, they will have a magic formula here," McBride said. "Everyone is going to have one of these someday, and it will be affordable, everyman technology."