augmented cognition

Today, a handful of soldiers with advanced gear can see a few digital maps, through helmet-mounted monocles. Some pilots can get data about their world, on heads-up displays. But one day, troops could see an info-"augmented" reality all around them, with contact lenses that provide "first-person shooter-type video game" environments to those that wear them. At least, that's the idea behind the latest project from DARPA, the Pentagon's blue sky science and technology division.

"Augmented Cognition," the Darpa program to build computer interfaces that adapt to their users' brains, has officially run its course. But efforts to build mind-reading PCs continue throughout the military establishment.