海角大神

Before they take a perfect or near-perfect shot, expert sharpshooters make fine adjustments, 聽often without realizing it. Their breathing slows. So does their heart rate.

They enter 鈥渁 very focused, calm, engaged state 鈥� almost at will,鈥� says Amy Kruse, chief technology officer at Cubic Global Defense, which designs combat-training systems.

The question for military researchers is whether novices can tap into this mental 鈥渮one鈥� before hitting the firing range, dramatically accelerating their learning curve. That premise is part of an ongoing effort by the United States military to create its own brand of 鈥渟uper soldiers鈥� who can shoot better, make life-or-death decisions more quickly and accurately, and even recover more effectively 鈥� even joyfully 鈥� from wounds of war.

To do all of this, the Pentagon is delving into the nexus of biology and technology, experimenting with skin tattoos and wearable devices the size of a small bandage.

Monitoring fatigue

While soldiers in an all-volunteer force tend to start their military careers with a fair amount of motivation, they hit plenty of roadblocks along the way.

In basic training, for example, heat exhaustion remains a mighty feller of recruits. Wearable devices can help pick up markers in sweat and monitor recruits, letting instructors know when they could, say, use some Gatorade.

Wearable devices are also being used to sense fatigue in highly-trained Special Operations Forces, who tend to be loath to admit when they are bone-tired.

鈥淵ou鈥檙e putting a team of six people together. Is this person ready to go, or not?鈥� asks Rajesh Naik, chief scientist at the 711th Human Performance Wing at the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. 鈥淢aybe [an operator] just got back from another mission. They鈥檒l never say, 鈥楴o, we鈥檙e not ready to go.鈥� 鈥�

Such devices, he adds, could help commanders make decisions about who to send on a mission, and who to keep back.

Since being a 鈥渟uper soldier鈥� requires a high level of alertness, Defense officials also want wearable devices that can also help better tailor training exercises. This is perhaps most important when it comes to helping them make split-second decisions about using deadly force.

What do soldiers see?

While at the Pentagon鈥檚 futuristic Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Dr. Kruse and her team were able to to show that there are considerable differences between novices and experts when it comes to accurately gauging whether someone is a threat.

Now at Cubic, Kruse can monitor how trainees breathe, where their eyes are looking, how they point their weapons, and what position they are in as they go through a video course.

鈥淲e can actually say 鈥� 鈥楧ude, you weren鈥檛 even looking at the right spot. The guy was yelling, and you were looking at his face, not his hands.鈥� 鈥� Kruse says.

Researchers say they can also tell whether trainees are actually taking in what they鈥檙e seeing. 鈥淵ou can say, 鈥楽weetheart, I looked at your brain activity, and you didn鈥檛 absorb any of that,鈥� 鈥澛燢ruse says

It is helpful that people are more open to this sort of feedback than they might have been in the past, she adds.

鈥淚 think in general the whole population is more comfortable with data about themselves. Ten years ago, if you told someone you wanted to measure performance, they worried, 鈥榊ou鈥檙e just going to tell me I鈥檓 not fit for duty, or I can鈥檛 fly,鈥� 鈥� Kruse says.

鈥淭oday, we鈥檙e looking at it from a very positive perspective. We train our bodies, and I think people are coming around to the idea that there鈥檚 a corollary in that cognitive 鈥� and even emotional 鈥� domain.鈥�

Sometimes that feedback can show, too, that soldiers are overly and unhelpfully alert. After a year-long tour-of-duty, for example, 鈥淵ou鈥檝e been overtrained to survive,鈥� Kruse says. 鈥淵ou just spent your tour looking for threats everywhere. But now you鈥檙e back in your hometown.鈥�

Joy and recovery

Other researchers are taking on questions that seldom crop up in the soldier lexicon, including whether recovery from injuries can be enjoyable, or even beautiful.

"Patients are just given these bleak, second-rate experiences all the time,鈥� says John Krakauer, director of the Brain, Learning, Animation, and Movement (BLAM) Lab at Johns Hopkins University. 鈥淏ut why not have a wonderful time?鈥�

So Krakauer鈥檚 team designed a video game that turns physical therapy into a game and transforms patients into dolphins. They spend two hours a day using a robotic exoskeleton attached to their arm or leg to move dolphin fins on-screen.

The key is making movement fun, even when it鈥檚 difficult, and the feedback has been overwhelming. "One of the things that took me by surprise as a clinician is how joyous and tearful and thankful patients were to be given this kind of experience,鈥� Dr. Krakauer says.

Krakauer has begun to explore the connections between a physical therapist teaching an injured patient to move and a coach teaching an athlete to be a really good mover.

In sports, 鈥渨e know that there鈥檚 something about being beautiful and immersive that is important, that has a whole tradition,鈥� he says. In physical training, military or otherwise, 鈥渟omething, somewhere is going untapped.鈥�