Military Wearable-Tech: The Iron Man Becomes Real…

Science fiction has always been a source of inspiration not only for the Hollywood filmmakers, but also for the real scientists and engineers. The robots, lasers, lab-grown organs and many more inventions and technologies that have come to the real world were initially just visionary ideas of the futurists.

As the technology continues to advance with an amazing speed, human imagination is proving to be the only limit. Not surprisingly, today the technicians find inspiration for tech innovations even in comic's heroes and toys, such as the Marvel’s Iron Man. Many of those incredible technologies shown in the Iron Man movies are not a fantasy anymore; they are becoming reality.

At the beginning of this year the U.S. army announced that the Iron Man-like suits could be ready for testing and supplied for the U.S. special operations forces this summer. The super-tech clothing called the Tactical Assault Light OperatorSuit (TALOS) was engineered by the scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). 

TALOS is a high-tech suit of armor which is designed to give Superman abilities and greater ballistic protection to soldiers. The suit is combined with smart wearable devices that promote soldier’s efficiency and protection: wearable computers with cameras that have software analyzing tactical environments, displaying personalized information and tasks. The clothing includes smart sensors that measure and transmit physiological parameters, such as, blood pressure, body temperature, and automatically adjusts the temperature inside the suit accordingly. The suits also include emergency medical functions which: monitoring oxygen systems and other vitals, wound status, then the suit compensates to enhance performance. Finally, combat suit can be loaded up with advanced weapons to provide that extra edge.

The battlesuit may be also equipped with a powered exoskeleton. The exoskeleton is a wearable bullet-proof robot, sensing where a soldier intends to go, and then accelerating that movement using its titanium frame working on batteries. It facilitates running longer, jumping higher, carrying weight and even lifting objects that a man would not normally be able to lift. The exoskeleton allows the soldiers to do more, longer, and harder, without getting as tired.

The U.S. is certainly not the only country working on the warrior of the future: similar projects are actively being developed by other countries (ProjectWundurra in Australia; the Israeli Integrated Advanced Soldier (IAS); the UK Future Infantry Soldier Technology).

As we can project, the supersoldiers will arrive soon and TALOS seems to be only the beginning. The new solutions for the military industry keep rapidly evolving. The engineers are working on technologies of mental interaction with devices. This will allow the future soldier to have mental control over the wearable combat devices through a direct link to the brain, hands-free. In addition, the researchers are exploring the use of sensors to tap the soldiers’ brain power to monitor and to improve their performance. Actually, this implies establishment of control over soldier’s mind.

So far, the brain control remains a framework concept, but we have seen how incredibly fast the technological advancements turns the ideas into reality. For sure, in case it is executed, it will change the shape of the future army and dictate our world will be shaped.