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Fallen soldier remembered for Halo ownage
U.S. Army Pfc. Nicholas Madaras was killed last week in Baqubah, Iraq when a roadside bomb detonated while he stood outside his Humvee. Madaras was only 19.In a series of remembrances published by The Advocate, Pfc. William Tyrrell reflected on Madaras' Halo skills: "I used to always love to play Halo, the video game, with him because he was the best and he always beat me. And I would tell him that one day I would beat him and he would just laugh and say, 'OK.'"Madaras was looking forward to pursuing a career in the medical field after his tour of duty, which was scheduled to end October 21. A public memorial service at Our Lady of Fatima in Wilton, CT is being planned for the coming days.
JAGOG's combat scenario simulator
It seems that a bit of tension, or at least miscommunication, is quite common between pilots in the Air Force and Army soldiers holding it down on the western front. As we can all imagine, if communication during a live combat situation is anything less than flawless, things could turn ugly fairly quick. The Joint Air-Ground Operations Group, better known in military circles as JAGOG, is an outfit that addresses both Army ground patrols and Air Force squads to sync up communication patterns that tend to falter under the pressures of combat. It instructs ground units how to best communicate their current position and status, as well as giving them more effective ways to integrate airborne friendlies into their operations. On the flip side, Air Force units are taught how to best interpret ground commands so they can zero in on the targets at hand, basically ensuring a "Who's on first?" debacle doesn't give the enemy an edge. The newest tool at JAGOG's disposal is a 360-degree dome-shaped simulator, which drops students into a virtual "Iraq-esque scenario" featuring lightning-quick moving targets that leave you little choice but to give accurate and precise instructions to the trigger-happy pilots overhead if you want to evade serious injury. The student is tasked with spotting the target and guiding a fighter pilot in to eradicate the threat, thus putting a sense of urgency on getting this communication gig down that textbooks just don't deliver. Currently the simulator is stationed at the Air Force lab in Mesa, Arizona, but should be making the rounds to other facilities soon -- we figure if the military really needs a new way to recruit these days, a 30 second clip of this in action might help get things moving, or at least do a better job of getting the message across.
The Brain Port, neural tongue interface of the future
Seems like every distant vision of the future has man jacking into his gear via some crazy head gear or a plug on the back of the neck or head. We just take it for granted that yeah, that's the fastest way to get to the brain: through the stem or straight into the cortex. Well, think again, because the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition's 30-year neural interface project is yielding fruit -- the kind you can taste. Their Brain Port machine / sensory interface uses 144 microelectrodes to transmit information through sensitive nerve fibers in your lingua, enabling devices to supplement your own sensory perception. The system, which is getting shown off to Navy and Marine Corps divers next month will supposedly have sonar integration for sub-aqueous orientation, but has already apparently given some landlubber blind people the ability to catch balls, "notice" others walking in front of them, and find doors. With IR, radar, sonar, and other forms of detection, the researchers believe this device will obsolete night vision -- even our own eyes -- sooner than later.
Virtual battlefields train soldiers for real wars
We've heard recently how games are good for you; here's another side of the story, which could unfortunately become fuel for the anti-game brigade's fires. The history of games and the military is a fairly long one, with recent titles like America's Army and A.W.E. bringing the two together.This Washington Post article examines the use of gaming in the American military, from mission co-ordination to marksmanship training. It also looks at soldiers who play games--from those who relax off-duty with first-person shooters, to a sergeant, home from the war, who won't play the violent titles he formerly enjoyed.Allowing soldiers to familiarise themselves with combat situations before experiencing them in real life seems to have its bonuses, best summarised by Marine Col Gary W. Anderson: "Today's soldiers, having grown up with first-person shooter games long before they joined the military, are the new Spartans."[via /.]
