Active Denial System

[Taem]

I worked in the lab of a bio-engineering professor who had a few really cooky contracts from the Department of Defense (and know several individuals who still work for him).

His first contract was to develop a chip that could be implanted in the brain of a human that would allow said individual to... *drum roll*... remotely control an army of robots. Note that the ability to control large numbers of robots (100+) was specifically stated in the initial design doc. Weird stuff. They never got past the first stage of trying to get a rat to control the movement of a single robot before the funding got cut. Interesting enough, the PhD/grad students working on the project said the toughest aspect was just trying to get the rat to care about moving a robot around doing mundane tasks in the first place. lol:blush:

Of course he immediately got a second DoD contract because the Navy wanted to be able to remotely control sharks for some reason. Literally they wanted to be able to place some implants in a living shark, seal it up and then swim the shark around like a video game via a joystick. Seriously. That project was still going last I heard.

The DoD was throwing tens of millions of dollars at this guy and his rampant imagination.

I don't think DARPA failed at all: link

If you thought "Robocop" was a little far-fetched, think again. Cyborgs — especially cyborg insects — are making the spy technology scene.

The newest recruits in the War on Terror are high-tech "flies on the wall." Scientists in the U.S. are fitting insects — and rats, moths, pigeons, bulls and even sharks — with special implants so they can be remote-controlled and deployed for surveillance.

The creatures are installed with special electrodes, batteries and even video cameras. The goal is to create the ultimate cyborgs to serve the U.S. as undetectable super spies.

• Scientist: Military Working on Cyborg Spy Moths

So how will cyborg rats be critical to national security?

They will be incredibly useful in search-and-rescue missions. Because they can identify specific scents, such as those of humans or explosives, cyborg rats are expected to be used to find people trapped under rubble or to sniff out bombs.

Cyborg rescue rats will be equipped with mini-backpacks to transmit to mission control messages such as "mission accomplished" or "target located." The most advanced generation will carry "rat cams" to give the cyborg commander a "rat's-eye view." They also will be trained to board a "ratmobile," so they easily can be transported to the site of their mission.

Israel has picked up this American program to use cyborg rats in its search-and-rescue missions.

Taking "Jaws" to an entirely new level, the small, spiny dogfish shark was successfully turned into a cyborg in a project conducted by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA. (They're the folks who brought us the real-life R2D2.) To steer the cyborg, a brain implant directs the shark to turn left or right by tricking it to follow phantom odors.

The U.S. was left behind last year when a Chinese team successfully transferred cyborg technology to birds. Pigeons’ brains were implanted with electrodes that allowed the Chinese team to command them via wireless signals from a laptop. They created the ultimate cyborg "spy in the sky."

Scientists plug into and hijack these living animals’ sensory abilities because they are vastly superior to the majority of artificial sensors available on the market. The cyborgs’ intense sense of smell, for example, allows them to detect the faintest trace of chemicals — a skill very useful in counter-terrorism.

Rats, pigeons and sharks are big enough to carry miniature video cameras, computers and the batteries to power them.

But they are all too large, and not to mention too unpopular, to blend into the background and conduct stealth operations. So to produce the Jason Bourne of cyborg spies, DARPA’s latest cutting-edge project focuses instead on developing cyborg insects whose flight agility is unmatched.



• Spy Flies All the Buzz at Washington, N.Y. Political Events

The Hybrid Insect Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems project, or HI-MEMS, is miniaturizing the technology to fit within the body of an insect.

DARPA has been inserting tiny brain probes into insects such as moths and beetles while they are still in the pupa stage, so the implants are naturally incorporated into their bodies as they grow. The implants, wired into the cyborg insects' nerves, allow operators to control their movement remotely and send back information to a central computer.

Almost indistinguishable from the average insect, these cyborg spies will provide our military and counter-terrorism specialists with a huge surveillance advantage.

The U.S. military could deploy the cyborgs in hostage situations or even send them into enemy barracks. The goal is to engineer insects that can fly up to 300 feet away, land within 15 feet of their target and stay in a particular place until they are commanded to leave.

DARPA-funded research teams are prohibited from speaking about their work, but check out this sneak peek of a cyborg tobacco hawkmoth taking orders from its operator.

•Click here to see a video of the hawkmoth in action.

So next time you think that is just a pesky ordinary moth munching on your favorite sweater, think again. It could be a cyborg spy.

And once enemy nations and terrorists catch up to American cyborg technology, our soldiers and law enforcement may need to think about adding flyswatters and bug spray to their arsenals.

Looks like we are really entering the world of the "invisible war."

Although I like this one better personally: link

LONDON — A camera that can see through people's clothing at distances of up to 80 feet has been developed to help detect weapons, drugs and explosives.

The camera could be deployed in railway stations, shopping centers and other public spaces.

Although it can see objects under clothes, its designers say the images do not show anatomical details. However, it is likely to increase fears that Britain has become a surveillance society.

• Click here for FOXNews.com's Patents and Innovation Center.

The new technology, known as the T5000 system, has attracted interest from police forces, train companies and airport operators as well as government agencies.

It has been developed by ThruVision, an Oxfordshire-based company spun out from the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, one of the British government's leading physics research centers.

It was designed for use in spacecraft and astronomy but researchers soon realized that cameras capable of seeing through clouds of cosmic dust could also see through clothing.

This week the camera will be displayed at the Home Office scientific development branch's annual exhibition, Britain's premier showcase for security equipment, to be held on an RAF airbase in Buckinghamshire.

ThruVision already offers a smaller system designed for office foyers that can scan through clothing at a range of 30 to 40 feet.

This has been used at the Canary Wharf complex in east London, which is home to several global banks and is regarded as a target for terrorists. The Dubai Mercantile Exchange has a similar installation.

The system can be linked to a computer so that it can automatically scan anyone passing and alert its human operator to anything suspicious.

Clive Beattie, ThruVision's chief executive, said: "Acts of terrorism have shaken the world in recent years and security precautions have been tightened globally. The T5000 dramatically extends the range over which we can scan people."

Bill Foster, the president of Thermal Matrix, an American defense contractor specializing in imaging systems for the U.S. military, is one customer. He said: "This could be deployed at major sporting events, concerts and rail stations as well as for military use."

The technology works by detecting and measuring terahertz waves, or T-waves for short. These are a form of electromagnetic radiation, emitted by all people and objects that lie between the infrared and microwave parts of the spectrum.

The waves from any given material also carry a distinctive signature, offering the potential to distinguish Semtex plastic explosive from modeling clay and cocaine from sugar.

You have got to love that name, the T5000; where's Skynet in all of this? Maybe it's name has been disguised as DARPA all along :ph34r:.