Thinking Cap

The U.S. Army has awarded $4 million to a team of researchers at UC Irvine, Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of Maryland to develop a piece of headgear that could translate thoughts into electronic transmissions for voiceless communication between soldiers on the battlefield. The trick is in creating software capable of isolating those brain waves that indicate a soldier is thinking actual words. At first, those words would be translated via a computer-generated voice, but the hope is to perfect the technology to recreate a person's actual voice from his thoughts. If it works at all, this thought phone won't see any real use for ten to twenty years, so don't start saving your pennies yet. I'm looking forward to this technology hitting the commercial market, so I won't have to clandestinely text message my bookie during business meetings and will instead be able to send him my thoughts on how to financially ruin me. More details here.