The Pentagon ’s excited - science subdivision wants robotic demise - from - above , on need . And the key to getting it done just might be holograms .
Let me explain . Right now , authorizing and targeting air strikes is a unconscious process that ’s sometimes bureaucratic , and sometimes dangerous as hell . Bureaucratic as in theStanley McChrystal phase of the Afghanistan warfare , when it took a gaggle oflawyers , intelligence information analysts , air comptroller , and commandersat multiple layers to put brand on butt .
The resultant role was fewer civilian casualties – but more U.S. troops , locked in firefights without air support . Dangerous as hell as in the Libya state of war , where NATO jets are accidentally offing Libyan rebels with such alarming regularity that the opposition forces are nowpainting their vehicle ’ roofs pink , to distinguish them from Gadhafi ’s ride .
Darpa believes there might be a exclusive technological repair to both problems : Give a single guy on the earth a direct data tie-in to the trailer ( or manned plane ) circle above . That would eliminate the multilayered , bureaucratic approach , in which selective information is often passed through IM windows and static - ride radiocommunication connections . That same lone “ Joint Terminal Attack Controller , ” or JTAC , might be miserable - profile enough to slip into a billet like Libya without causing too much of an international ruckus .
The program to make this all happen is called Persistent Close Air Support , or PCAS . And the goal is to give that accountant the ability to “ request and control well-nigh - instant airborne firing sustenance . ”
Darpa and the Air Force Research Lab of late handed out large contracts to the usual suspects – Northrop GrummanandRaytheon – for the next phase of the PCAS project .
But the war machine also give amillion bucks to the relatively tiny Vuzix Corp.of Rochester , New York . Which is a small odd , at first rosiness , because Vuzix is aneyewear companionship , specializing in augmented reality specs .
But a piddling augment realness may be just what a JTAC needs , in parliamentary procedure to call in those airstrikes on his own . Rather than staring down at a bunch of single-valued function and computer screens – and calling up intelligence analyst at main office for more info – it ’d be honest ( and faster , and less prostrate to error ) if he could get all of that data right on his augment reality goggles . Oh , and if there was an integrated head - tracker , so the committed computer could fundamentally see what the JTAC sees .
“ It is all about pelt along up the CAS [ penny-pinching air support ] mission and eliminating friendly flak issues that can occur if the exploiter on the priming may not have the whole picture of what is around them , ” Vuzix executive Stephen Glaser secernate Danger Room .
“ The head word tracker know where the user is looking , so the information the user is go out change as he moves or plow his fountainhead . Theoretically you could seem up in the sky and a little light-green trilateral would appear telling you , you have an F-16 30 miles out at 21,000 feet . It could also tell you what eccentric of ordnance the woodworking plane was carrying , so you could make a quick decision if that plane would be appropriate for the mission . ”
Some of this can be done today with airplane pilot ’ heads - up displays . But those expect so much baron and spark , a JTAC would require to lug around an extra 8 pounds of shelling to make it work . ( And it still would n’t sour in direct sunlight . ) That ’s where the holograph come in .
Vuzix ’s frame-up practice a more - or - less traditional microdisplay , then mates that up to a flat while of glass call anoptical waveguide . The light from the show travels down the glass and bounces around inside the deoxyephedrine parallel flat . Those balance beam are directed to holographic film , which bounces the image to the eye .
If the design put to work , the system will be diminutive – just 3 millimetre thick . And when the exhibit is off , it ’ll be altogether see - through . Glaser notes : “ This will ultimately countenance us to plan the presentation right into a twosome of sunglasses , so no one will make out you are even wearing a display . ” Which could make the goggles good for civilian , as well as troops called into a robotic , lethal hail .
exposure : U.S. Air Force . Illustration : Vuzix .
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