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Science Technology

Building Tomorrow's Soldier Today 230

FleaPlus writes "Wired reports on a glove developed by Stanford researchers Dennis Grahn and Craig Heller which combines a cooling system with a vacuum in order to chill blood vessels and drastically reduce fatigue. Besides the obvious military and athletics applications, the technology is also potentially useful for firefighters, stroke victims, and people with multiple sclerosis. The Wired article also describes a number of other human enhancement projects intended to advance battlefield technology. Examples include military exoskeletons, projects designed to increase cognition or decrease the need for sleep, and studies that may one day allow single soldiers to operate multiple aerial drones. Many of these were opposed by the President's Council on Bioethics."
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Building Tomorrow's Soldier Today

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  • Solider? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) on Friday March 16, 2007 @12:00PM (#18376005)
    Building Tomorrow's Solider Today

    Yes, let's build it, so I can see what it looks like.
    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by bommai ( 889284 )
      May be tomorrow solider can be soldered if broken.
      • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

        by Red Flayer ( 890720 )
        No, solider implies that it cannot be soldered. It is solider than solid.

        On a state-of-matter scale of 1 to 10 (1 being gaseous, 10 being completely solid) this one goes up to 11.
    • Re:Solider? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Larus ( 983617 ) on Friday March 16, 2007 @12:24PM (#18376405)
      Science and technology aside, this will sooner or later find commercial markets.

      And why not? Human beings have made themselves to be more unhuman in every passing year. We have professional athletes whose exercise programs would be considered abnormal and pointless, (not including shaving eyebrows to achieve an iota of improvement in swim speed.) We have anti-aging pharmaceutical food and beverage offerings that cater to the Baby Boomers who felt entitled to look like 40-yos instead of 60. We have daily caffeine to boost our brains in the morning, no-dose to boost productivity in the evenings, Prozac to lift us when we're low, and even psychadelic drugs to boost creativity when we're dull. We design ergonomic chairs and keyboards while we sit in front of computers and in our cars for longer hours. We alter hormones and apply suntan lotions. We use AC's and heaters so that our habitats can include the most uncomfortable places on Earth. We give our children Baby Einstein so that they will be superkids and outcompete others when they grow up.

      I'm not saying it's pointless for soldiers on the frontline to receive these booster-packs. They have a job to accomplish, and so do we. Maybe we're all trying to become Homo sapiens cyberneticus too. Maybe our environment self-selects.
      • by Kelbear ( 870538 )
        I for one welcome our new(?)... fellow men.
      • We have professional athletes whose exercise programs would be considered abnormal and pointless, (not including shaving eyebrows to achieve an iota of improvement in swim speed.)

        First off, I don't know of anyone that shaves their eyebrows for swimming. Moreso, shaving isn't necessarily for cutting drag, but to feel faster. Trust me, you feel much sleeker and faster in the water when you shave for a big meet. It's like how baseball players will put a donut on their bat while they're on deck. Confidence and
      • Started with fire. (Score:3, Insightful)

        by iceperson ( 582205 )
        been going downhill ever since...
  • But what will we do with the overtrained soldiers [wikipedia.org] after the war is over?
    • by GundamFan ( 848341 ) on Friday March 16, 2007 @12:24PM (#18376417)
      This is an excellent example of why we as a society need fiction (especially science fiction).

      We have to explore or ethics as a culture very carefully before making leaps such as these, and fiction lets us do that.

      Now to get more people to read worthwhile books...
      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by TubeSteak ( 669689 )

        This is an excellent example of why we as a society need fiction (especially science fiction).

        We have to explore or ethics as a culture very carefully before making leaps such as these, and fiction lets us do that.

        I don't see what fiction has anything to do with the matter.

        It was a forseeable consequence that soldiers dealing with combat violence would eventually become conditioned to using an armed response as their only response. The problem is nobody in the military was willing to study it and throw mone

        • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

          by couchslug ( 175151 )
          "Mostly because what's happened at Walter Reed isn't fiction."

          Neither was the poor treatment of Nam vets (like that chronicled in Ron Kovic's autobiography).

          Those lessons are conveniently forgotten every few years by an Army establishment that considers grunts expendable, and lacks the balls to confront their incompetent civilian leadership when funding is inadequate. Deity forbid they'd actually do an old-fashioned walk-through inspection!

          Google "David Hackworth" for the last senior officer we had with a b
      • This is an excellent example of why we as a society need fiction (especially science fiction).

        This is an excellent example of why we need HISTORY!

        I mean, common people, +5 informative?

        Surely someone realizes that fiction authors are no more magically ethical than any other human being. What precisely qualifies their vision of the future as a valuable morale compass? Let's take our lessons from the way things have actually happened in the past, rather than just taking our favorite authors version of the futu
        • by GundamFan ( 848341 ) on Friday March 16, 2007 @04:19PM (#18379855)
          What fiction lets us do is take these lessons out of the controversial context of history. Sometimes allegory is a useful tool to explore the ramifications of certain hypothetical or historical events or to ask ourselves "what if".

          While it is true that fiction is simply someone else's perspective on history (in a way all human thought is just a perspective on history) being able to understand another persons perspective (or that there are other perspectives) is a very important skill that many people lack. Fiction is a way to see the world through someone else's eyes.

          I admit there is a massive amount of crap out there in the category of fiction but to throw the good out with the bad is just foolish.

          I don't have the presumption to think that I have an unbiased or complete view of human history but no one does. The best I can do is to try to share the experiences of others who have bee3n kind enough to write it all down
    • at McDonald's or join a monastery.
      • Both those places require less agression and concentration, not more...but I suppose you didn't even RTFA OR my link before you posted this.
        • Q: What part about the Subject didn't you read?

          A: Training.

          I suppose you didn't even
          Stop being an ass blister. Your vocabulary is like to a schoolgirl bully. The character is common in classic American movies about adolescence: tall, red hair, pigtails, freckled, tomboyish, loudmouthed, aggressive, usually with a drunk for a father, and always chasing down the main character (often a boy just a year or so younger) with snotty remarks.
          • Mere training, after dosing wth drugs to highten agression and intelligence, as well as experimental implants, will allow a soldier to work in a McDonald's without killing customers? :-)

            As for the rest- just more assumption of facts not in evidence.
  • by roman_mir ( 125474 ) on Friday March 16, 2007 @12:03PM (#18376057) Homepage Journal
    Soliders are what we all need, not the emptiers or the hollowers, but the soliders, they shall be hard and dimensional, dependible and reliable, continuous and complete rather than divided, broken, incomplete, hollow, interrupted, intermittent, tenuous, untrustworthy, vulnerable, fluid, gaseous, unsubstantial, liquid, soft or vaporous.

    While we are at it, let's build a better responsible useful /. editor and an intelligent moderator.
  • by Billosaur ( 927319 ) * <wgrother.optonline@net> on Friday March 16, 2007 @12:10PM (#18376181) Journal

    Terminators.

  • like the Terminator... _astala vista baby
  • by cliffski ( 65094 ) on Friday March 16, 2007 @12:18PM (#18376313) Homepage
    That money would be better spent on teaching soldiers some arabic. Seriously.
    Modern war isnt about tanks and pitch battles between rival fleets of helicopter gunships. Modern warfare is fought in a city, in amongst a civilian population, who may or may not be hostile to US troops.
    teaching some basic arabic for beginners to soldiers so they can understand what the locals are saying is going to save more lives, and lead to a better outcome, than any l33t new nano-engineered hi tech gubbins that will most likely fail the moment it gets exposed to heat and sand.
    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      Someone mod this up, please.

      The problem, if there is one, is not that soldiers aren't physically up to the demands that will be made of them. The problem is with the politicians who send them unprepared on ill-advised and ill-defined (but profitable, for them) missions, often for dubious reasons that are unrelated to our national security.

      If that could actually happen, I mean.
      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by timeOday ( 582209 )
        Let's not go over-generalizing from Iraq and re-build our military around occupation and nation building. It's a pointless and unjustified mission. The solution is not to do that in the first place.

        The idea of a smaller, hi-tech military is a very good one - for national defense, e.g. repelling an armed invasion of us or an ally. "But that kind of military is irrelevant for combatting terrorism!!" That's right, basically. The idea of stemming terrorism through massive invasions is fundamentally inval

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by ArcherB ( 796902 ) *
      That money would be better spent on teaching soldiers some arabic. Seriously.
      Modern war isnt about tanks and pitch battles between rival fleets of helicopter gunships. Modern warfare is fought in a city, in amongst a civilian population, who may or may not be hostile to US troops.
      teaching some basic arabic for beginners to soldiers so they can understand what the locals are saying is going to save more lives, and lead to a better outcome, than any l33t new nano-engineered hi tech gubbins that will most like
      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by fredrated ( 639554 )
        "But as it stands, the public didn't expect casualty rates to rise after heavy combat operations ceased."

        Did "Mission Accomplished" have anything to do with that?
      • by amper ( 33785 ) * on Friday March 16, 2007 @01:47PM (#18377775) Journal
        As an aside, I've come across your posts many times now, and I've been wondering why you chose your sig. I'm willing to concede that Kerry may have actually said such a thing. I'm also willing to bet that as a highly decorated veteran officer who actually served in Vietnam, that John Kerry knows quite a bit more about warfighting than George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, or you and I.

        Is your sig an attempt to mock John Kerry, or President Bush?

        I happen to agree with Kerry's quote. We *do* need more troops in Iraq, if we have any intention of actually accomplishing anything positive there. Unfortunately, not only is this a rather unpopular stance, it's also true that a "surge" of only 21,000 or so more troops isn't going to do the job. What we need is to go back to the original recommendations of people like Gen. Eric Shinseki, and send an additional 500,000 or more troops. Not that this will ensure success, but it's the only chance we have to make this all work out, unless we're going to take the standpoint that the situation is unsalvageable, and try to work it out by paying reparations.

        We may have had no moral authority to invade Iraq, but we sure as Hell have a moral responsibility now to clean up after our mistake, no matter the cost to the United States of America. The only real question is, do we even have the ability to do it anymore?
        • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

          by ArcherB ( 796902 ) *
          As an aside, I've come across your posts many times now, and I've been wondering why you chose your sig.

          I'm glad someone finally asked! The point of the sig was to show that Democrats oppose whatever the President does, even if it something they have been screaming about for years. At the time I created that Sig, Kerry and everyone else on the left side of the aisle were screaming about Bush's plan for a troop surge in Iraq and Afghanistan, calling it a bad idea and coming up with plans to prevent it. Un
      • by Guuge ( 719028 )
        What our soldiers really need are special goggles that tint everything to look a bit rosier than they really are.
      • If we had taken huge numbers of casualties overthrowing Iraq, the press would be marveled at how well we are doing in the urban areas. But as it stands, the public didn't expect casualty rates to rise after heavy combat operations ceased. The press has only fueled this perception by following the "if it bleeds, it leads" philosophy and completely ignoring any successes in Iraq or Afghanistan.

        All of your facts are right, but I disagree with you analysis.

        The trendlines alone in urban areas are news worthy, th

    • by Animats ( 122034 ) on Friday March 16, 2007 @12:41PM (#18376721) Homepage

      True. That may be solving the wrong problem.

      The problem they're working on with this isn't one the US has. The "superhuman abilities" thing is useful when assaulting hard, heavily defended, hard to access targets. But the US military is very good at assaulting hard targets.

      What the US military is lousy at is fighting guerrilla and insurgent movements. Those are about intelligence, not firepower. The opposition tries to avoid offering any hard targets. They don't fight pitched battles. It's classic Maoist doctrine: "The enemy advances, we retreat; the enemy camps, we harass; the enemy tires, we attack; the enemy retreats, we pursue." The US couldn't deal with that in Vietnam, and it can't deal with it in Iraq.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by amper ( 33785 ) *
        No, it's not the US military that's lousy at that kind of warfare. It's the civilian US politicians and bureaucrats that are lousy at it. The US military has known how to fight that kind of war all the way back to the Revolution and before.
    • Er... (Score:4, Informative)

      by vivin ( 671928 ) <vivin.paliath@NoSPaM.gmail.com> on Friday March 16, 2007 @01:02PM (#18377069) Homepage Journal
      I say this as a soldier. I also say this as one who went there and came back.

      Not everyone is cut out to learn Arabic (which is why "Assalam alaikum", essentially "How are you doing?" in Arabic, turns into "Licka-me-salami". Admittedly, juvenile soldier humour) That's why we have translators and language specialists in the Army. The Army does have people who are skilled in Arabic, though not enough.

      They do teach us basic Arabic phrases before we head out there. In fact, we carry a "language card" with us that has some common phrases.

      To be brutally honest, it's not Arabic that will save us when we are there. It's Tactics and Procedures and it's technology. This is what we spent the bulk of our time on before we headed out there. In addition to some basic language and culture classes, to better understand the Iraqis. Who's going to survive longer in a firefight? A soldier who is well-trained on his weapon and whatever gadget he carries? Or a Soldier yelling out "Assalam Alaikum!" while bullets fly around him? Who's going to survive an IED? A soldier who has been trained how to react to such an event, or one who knows really good Arabic?

      I honestly hate hearing these armchairs strategists who have absolutely no idea of the ground reality over there.

      Do you honestly think that the Army doesn't field test any of these good gadgets? Do you think soldiers just blindly take their gadgets out to the field? If we have a gadget that's a piece of shit, we don't use it. We also have this thing called PMCS (Preventive Maintenance Checks and Services) where we check every piece of equipment before we head out and after we come back to base, for malfunctions and potential malfunctions. Your average Army Gadget is not like your pretty little iPod or Motorola Razr. It's pretty hardy and can take a pounding. Our GPS units are called PLGRS (Pluggers) and you beat the shit out of those and they still work. We have night-vision scopes and goggles that work extremely well in the heat and the sand.

      The chilled glove sounds like a really cool idea, and even better if they can extend it to a body suit. Temperatures are insane over there. It's easily 100 to 110+ outside and when you have your body armour and other gear on, your temperature is probably 5-10 degrees more than that.

      Modern warfare relies on better equipped soldiers in addition to language skills or cultural knowledge or whatever. So please, before you knock on these new ideas, consider what soldiers actually think.
      • I honestly hate hearing these armchairs strategists who have absolutely no idea of the ground reality over there.

        Yeah, I guess it would suck. So tell us: is fatigue a significant problem in Iraq ?

        Do you think soldiers just blindly take their gadgets out to the field? If we have a gadget that's a piece of shit, we don't use it.

        In my experience "piece of shit" is pretty much the definition of army equipment. Of course that was Finnish army, so YMMV.

        Modern warfare relies on better equipped soldiers

      • To be brutally honest, it's not Arabic that will save us when we are there. It's Tactics and Procedures and it's technology. This is what we spent the bulk of our time on before we headed out there. In addition to some basic language and culture classes, to better understand the Iraqis. Who's going to survive longer in a firefight? A soldier who is well-trained on his weapon and whatever gadget he carries? Or a Soldier yelling out "Assalam Alaikum!" while bullets fly around him? Who's going to survive an IE

    • by mike2R ( 721965 )

      Modern war isnt about tanks and pitch battles between rival fleets of helicopter gunships. Modern warfare is fought in a city, in amongst a civilian population, who may or may not be hostile to US troops.

      Maybe not, but these are long-range plans. Are you really certain that the next few decades won't see the US needing to fight a high-intensity war?

      The US military does seem to be paying the price in Iraq for focusing almost exclusively on fighting large-scale battles for the last fifty years (non-US and n

  • This sounds completely awesome, but probably won't be put into anyone outside of special forces/SEALS. It would be awesome if ANY military did this to anyone, but the old saying goes:

    "Overspecialize and you breed in weakness."

    Whatever decent advancement is made, nothing can compare to raw experience. Some helpful things like the cooling blood would be nice or an enhanced exoskeleton, but outside of the specialized units these wouldn't be practical or cost effective.
    • Whatever decent advancement is made, nothing can compare to raw experience. Some helpful things like the cooling blood would be nice or an enhanced exoskeleton, but outside of the specialized units these wouldn't be practical or cost effective.

      20 years ago, people would have said the same thing about body armour. it's nonsense. these glove-contraptions seem relatively simple, and should be much cheaper than all the kevlar we've been tossing at our soldiers. not to mention the fact that the US mil has b

  • Why do research on piloting a squadron of aerial drones? Haven't these people ever played an RTS? It's easy to control a squadron of units -you just offload the tactical decisions to the units themselves and deliver only high level, strategic commands. You can even leave the option of controlling individual units open.
    • Why do research on piloting a squadron of aerial drones? Haven't these people ever played an RTS? It's easy to control a squadron of units -you just offload the tactical decisions to the units themselves and deliver only high level, strategic commands.

      Have YOU ever played a RTS? Those aircraft are firing every which way, missing all kinds of shots and throwing crap everywhere. They also have a tendency to make unnecessary turns when they could just be turning towards something and delivering the coup de gr

    • Haven't these people ever played an RTS? It's easy to control a squadron of units -you just offload the tactical decisions to the units themselves and deliver only high level, strategic commands.

      The problem is that, unlike an RTS game, actual drones (the type someone in the field might need to directly operate or rely upon, say for surveilance in a tactical setting) in actual combat-ish or other sensitive roles are working with a range of variables that wildly outnumbers the things that can happen in a g
  • The Glove (Score:3, Interesting)

    by daigu ( 111684 ) on Friday March 16, 2007 @12:26PM (#18376431) Journal

    Even they were astounded at how well it seemed to work. Vinh Cao, their squat, barrel-chested lab technician, used to do almost 100 pull-ups every time he worked out. Then one day he cooled himself off between sets with an early prototype. The next round of pull-ups -- his 11th -- was as strong as his first. Within six weeks, Cao was doing 180 pull-ups a session. Six weeks after that, he went from 180 to more than 600...In trying to figure out why the Glove worked so well, its inventors ended up challenging conventional scientific wisdom on fatigue. Muscles don't wear out because they use up stored sugars, the researchers said. Instead, muscles tire because they get too hot, and sweating is just a backup cooling system for the lattices of blood vessels in the hands and feet. The Glove, in other words, overclocks the heat exchange system. "It's like giving a Honda the radiator of a Mack truck," Heller says. After four months of using it himself, Heller did 1,000 push-ups on his 60th birthday in April 2003.

    Any suggestions on how to test this using common household items? Would a simple cooler of ice work?

    • I don't think what you said would work at all. Putting your hand in a cooler of ice would actually cause your hand to shut down the radiator feature. From the article:

      Grahn watched sled dogs through an infrared camera--and saw snouts and ears lit up like headlamps, indicating that the dogs were shedding excess body heat. But the cameras showed no heat loss through the dogs' feet. Snow under their paws prevented those radiators from opening. Heller and Grahn have found in the lab that the temperature under w
    • Given the alleged effectiveness of the Glove, it seems like it could be more of a solution to the war on obesity than the war in Iraq. Strap it on and you could be able to run for long times without getting tired.
    • About 20 years ago, during one of my summer stints at Washington Park Zoo in Portland, OR, we were told by our supervisors to wash our wrists in cold water to stave off the effects of heat exhaustion (yes, it did get hot and dry in Oregon). I can attest to its effectiveness, having been relegated to trash pick-up and trash liner replacement duty (it was a rotational assignment) several times during the summer. It definitely has an envigorating effect...try it between workout sets.
  • by Lurker2288 ( 995635 ) on Friday March 16, 2007 @12:27PM (#18376469)
    So, this is a glove that reduces hand fatigue, huh? Yeah, so, uh, have they tested it to see the effects of getting baby oil or hand lotion on it? And are the palms abrasive at all? I mean, just out of curiosity. Because I like science, and stuff.
    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      Actually, it reduces muscle fatigue by 'supercharging' the body's coolant system, also know as blood. You can do the same effect with much less efficiency by running cold water over the hands. We have been playing with the concept at work. I went from 15 pushups in 10 pushup sets to 55 pushups in 10 pushup sets with 2 minutes of hand cooling between sets. Yes, I am out of shape.

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by Reziac ( 43301 ) *
        Same thing as dumping cold water over your head, or wearing a wet T-shirt while doing hard work in a hot climate. Gives the body a bigger radiator system, cools you down, keeps you from wearing out so fast.

    • All seriousness aside...

      I heard of this some time ago, in the context of increasing stamina of athletes (and it wasn't a glove then, but a mini-chamber). But it occurred to me -- as someone who has trouble losing fat -- that this energy-remover might be worn for extended periods to remove a lot of calories from one's core, thus prompting the body to produce more heat, thus using more energy reserves, which is to say, fat.

      Sell this on the open market as "the fat-burning pod" or something at $125 a pop and w
  • by xxxJonBoyxxx ( 565205 ) on Friday March 16, 2007 @12:29PM (#18376509)
    Is this a regular crappy Wired article or a user-generated crappy Wired article? I'm just dying to know...
  • too much sleep? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by rasputin465 ( 1032646 ) on Friday March 16, 2007 @12:29PM (#18376515)
    projects designed to increase cognition or decrease the need for sleep

    Yeah, it's called 'meth', and Nazi soldiers used it while conducting Blitzkrieg. Not a new development.
  • by amper ( 33785 ) * on Friday March 16, 2007 @12:32PM (#18376553) Journal
    Why is it that it never seems to occur to the people in a position to actually do anything about that what we need is not more high technology for our soldiers, but more good, old-fashioned, well-trained human brain power and muscle power on the ground? Don't get me wrong, there is a place for technology on the battlefield, but it's the people that make it all work.

    • Why is it that it never seems to occur to the people in a position to actually do anything about that what we need is not more high technology for our soldiers, but more good, old-fashioned, well-trained human brain power and muscle power on the ground?

      Why is it that it doesn't occur to you that if we make successful use of higher technology, an individual soldier can accomplish more, and thus we can hire less stupid people into the military because we have less of a need for warm bodies?

      The military has

      • by amper ( 33785 ) *
        Why doesn't it occur to *you* that the military has been forced to bottom feed because those of us who are better educated have no desire to get our asses shot off fighting an unjustified and pointless war of aggerssion that is, in any case, poorly supported by the leadership in Washington?

        • Why doesn't it occur to *you* that the military has been forced to bottom feed because those of us who are better educated have no desire to get our asses shot off fighting an unjustified and pointless war of aggerssion that is, in any case, poorly supported by the leadership in Washington?

          It's not news. But at the same time, there are plenty of intelligent hawks. Intelligence != Wisdom, and no, I didn't learn that from dungeons and dragons :P

          The military has to bottom feed because their current strategy

        • Why doesn't it occur to you that intelligence and education may be two separate things?

          Oh yeah, I know why: because while being educated, you lack intelligence.
    • If you'd read the article, you'd have found out that they've figured out where most of what
      we call muscle fatigue comes from. It's because the muscles overheat more than anything else.
      I'd buy this.

      Better training won't do you a lick of good if you're fatigued.
      Better training won't do you a lick of good if your body is overheated.

      You need both things, really. Now, it remains to be seen if they're doing the training
      as good as they ought to (I'm of mixed opinions- some things they could be doing better,
      other
  • This bears all the hallmarks of strong backing by the US president. Dubious ethics and even more dubious english!
  • In addition to explaining how to make something from nothing [slashdot.org], Stephen Hawking is also quite the expert on future military technologies [theonion.com].
  • Not so sure (Score:5, Informative)

    by HangingChad ( 677530 ) on Friday March 16, 2007 @01:05PM (#18377135) Homepage

    Besides the obvious military and athletics applications, the technology is also potentially useful for firefighters, stroke victims, and people with multiple sclerosis.

    As a volunteer firefighter I have my doubts. Generally the ability to sense heat is a good thing fighting a fire. I remember the days before nomex hoods were common. Our ears functioned as heat detectors. People would think we were listening at the door but we were actually checking to see if it was hot. Now with nomex hoods you have to take your glove off or pull your jacket sleeve up to figure out if the room is hot or feel a door. I can tell you firefighters hate checking for hot doors with their hands. We have thermal cameras but not enough for every entry team. Besides, that's just one more piece of crap we have to carry. Not to mention we also have to carry it back out, sometimes also toting some fat ass (it's always the fat, ugly ones passing out, never thin, attractive people). We carry enough crap now.

    Now wildland firefighters or approach teams, who spend longer amounts of time in hot areas, might find it useful...if they feel like packing it around, but not us truckies. Put the wet stuff on the hot stuff and go home.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by drinkypoo ( 153816 )

      As a volunteer firefighter I have my doubts. Generally the ability to sense heat is a good thing fighting a fire.

      The device doesn't prevent you from sensing heat. It cools your insides before it cools your outsides, because it works by cooling the blood that flows through your hand.

      With that said, it's probably not going to be much use in a fire. It's going to be something that, for the forseeable future, has to be carried around by a vehicle (or the military's exoskeleton) because heat pumps require sig

    • If you're short on thermal cameras, cant you just stick a cheap digital thermometer against the door instead of touching it with your hand?
      • You're not far off. I'm getting one of those infrared thermometers with the laser sight for each of the entry teams. They're not that accurate over about +500 F, but if it's hotter than that you don't want to touch it anyway.

        Besides, lasers in a smoky building are cool looking. :)

  • in the paper magazine, actually, and i was really impressed that the glove application works in opposite too. at the end of the article, it describes how they put the reporter in a pool of ice cubes, and waited until his thoughts were sluggish and he started seeing things as if through a tunnel (hypothermia setting in) and then they put a WARMING version of the glove on his hands and his mental faculties perked right back up

    pretty amazing: the human body and modern processors have the same problem and same
    • waited until his thoughts were sluggish and he started seeing things as if through a tunnel (hypothermia setting in)

      Man, they must be confident in their stuff. When I worked with industrial robots we never let non-engineers within the safety fence during demos. One mistake could kill you with those things. Letting a reporter get to the edge of hypothermia... well, what if the Glove breaks just then?

  • a number of other human enhancement projects intended to advance battlefield technology

    You mean like Jake 2.0?

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