@Log1c: Sounds good to me, too. Someday, perhaps.

ezman

@nutbastard: The most recent winner convinced 3 of 12 judges and won $2500 for it.

Given, I totally agree, text is by far and away simpler than body language.

Log1c

"quantum ghost imaging"?
wow...

I can make up stuff that sounds impressive, yet means absolutely nothing as well!

"non-lethal replicable surface-to-air oscillations"

That would be the waves of sound resulting from me pulling things out of my ass.

tehdahl

"to see if they're good enough to convince humans that they're actually human,"

that would be a turing test, and so far no one has come close - even with simple text communications.

nutbastard

It always fascinates me how technology designed to kill people can end up having such a positive effect on civilian life.

although something that erases bad memories is a little messed up. Regardless of what memories it is used to erase.

Ibelieveinsandwitches

@Curves:

I'm sorry my mind is in the gutter right now.

you meant they wouldn't fire at them with their guns of course.

Ibelieveinsandwitches

@Trance-Addict: Why can't we already do this with stealth aircraft?

"Yeah, we've got 4 MILLION B-2 bombers and they're EVERYWHERE! You just can't see 'em"

dc-united

"I want quantum ghost image lazer string theory torpedo soldiers with holo-imaging nuclear reactor hearts and mind-control beam eyes!" Says Dr. John Parmentola, drooling

Segador

@Curves:
So if we enlist only naked playboy models, we will no longer have casualties!

jdbaile3

Project hot women onto the battlefield to confuse the enemy. Who is going to shoot a a naked playboy model?

Curves

Well, with embryonic stem cell research now being legal here in Michigan, that whole growing back limbs thing may actually happen even sooner.

rimshot515

@jdbaile3: I was thinking more Bagdhad Zerg Rush

AmishJohn

I knew my girlfriend in World of Warcraft was too good to be true!

Odd_Thomas

military grade Leeroy Jenkins?

jdbaile3

I can see this as an American exit strategy for Iraq. Replace the soldiers with holograms and hope the Iraqis dont notice!

Trance-Addict

I want his job. Just make up shit that sounds awesome all day and make someone else do it.

Log1c

Hmmm....
So it "traces" photons?
Ray Tracing 2.0!
Har-har-har. . .couldn't resist.
Still though...if it can generate life-like holograms, this tech has all sorts of "sexy" written all over it, from the Video Game industry, to prototyping (remember that scene in Iron Man?)
WANT!

Anubis LG

@Log1c: The winner was called elbot [www.smh.com.au] You can find it here [www.elbot.com] Try talking to it for more than a minute and wonder how dumb the judges could possibly be. nutbastard's right, unless the government has super-secret computer technology, passing the Turing test is still science fiction.

Hamsfork

" Devices that will translate one solider's thoughts into electrical signals that can be beamed to other soliders, to help in stealth operations."

- BrainPal?

"A project to erase bad memories, which will be critical in helping soldiers with psychological damage."

-Doll House?

Sounds like someone has been browsing the io9 posts.

CmdrHunt

@Ibelieveinsandwitches: I read about this somewhere else. A protein was used in mice to make them forget things [www.sciencenews.org] I have a feeling that human memories are much more complicated and difficult to erase completely. I'm guessing we'd probably be able to erase the emotional impact of a memory without losing the memory entirely. So even though government mind-erasing technology sounds threatening it's probably a lot less scary than it sounds.

Hamsfork

@Curves:
You took the words out of my mouth!.... Project hot naked girls and Jihad is finished. They can't look at them...

BTW, technology transfer to the porno industry would make the US Army rich with licenses and royalties!

aec007

stuff like this makes me want to pay my taxes twice. the tech the US military prototypes is fantastic.

spider2544

"like having a tracing tool … that goes over the image and that's connected to another one on a piece of paper that exactly imitates what it is that you are tracing with the other pen"

Like a fax machine?

I could see using the holographic soldiers to make it look like there were thousands attacking, when there really was only 50. The enemy would either run away, or waste time and ammo firing at the holograms, reducing casualties among the real soldiers.

Comrade GadgetPlay

Just placing a little emphasis on... "A project to erase bad memories, which will be critical in helping soldiers with psychological damage."

Sure. Yep. That's what they'll use it for. Rly.

avconsumer2

So the US Army is going to take over the farming operations in WoW from the Chinese?

FrancesTheMute

@Curves:
Sorry, I missed what you said I was checking out some chick :-)

jdbaile3

He just tried to explain entanglement to the layperson and FAILED.

Ellomdian

@Hamsfork: Yup, I know. (robot junkie)

I posed a similar question to my freshman EE class and quite a few students thought a computer was human.

Log1c

@aec007: According to Jihad they cant look at naked women, but they are men first, and men can NOT look away. Hetero men are hard wired to look at women, they simply cant help themselves. (I am sure there is scientific evidence to back this up.) Thats why so many men drive off the side of the road when looking at lady joggers....they want to keep their eyes on the road, they simply cant, nature wont let them.

Youre all just victims of nature.

Curves

@Hamsfork:

yeah ive messed around with elbot, sure it's functional but not remotely human. i've heard the german version is more advanced, but still, when i insist that my name is john, after previously telling elbot my name is jack, it shouldn't argue with me.

nutbastard

@Ibelieveinsandwitches: I have been around Giz long enough that I should have caugh that, Yes, I meant guns and bullets.

Curves

@jdbaile3: No, more like, LLLLEEEEERRRROOOOOOYYYYY JJJeennnnkkkk, you get the point :)

Earthslide

Sorry, World of Warcraft doesn't allow Bots...

Nikkoli

@dc-united: How do you know we don't? =)

dabub

I wonder if there's a ridiculously awesome lab somewhere full of holographic AI people and amputees with tiny, partially regrown limbs.

RacecarBoobTat

@Comrade GadgetPlay: It's like the laser that digitizes Jeff Bridges!

RacecarBoobTat

@Curves: Who says they're hetero? If I remember correctly, there was quite a bit of child-raping buttsecks in Kite Runner.

RacecarBoobTat

Dear U.S. Army,

Stop killing people.

Love,
Humanity

bysty

@bysty: P.S. Thanks for not listening to bysty.

Regards,

Jews liberated from concentration camps

hexydes

@bysty:

Dear Humanity,

Stop needing to be killed.

Thanks,
The US Army

junyo

@Log1c: Seriously? Maybe I spent too much time with Smarterchild back in the day or I have an awesome robot sense, but I was able to tell it was not a real person pretty quickly. It kind of makes me sad though, it doesn't seem like AI has come that far since ELIZA. It's still just a pre-made list of responses. When there's procedurally generated conversation or something like that, I'll be impressed.

Hamsfork

@Odd_Thomas: Haha

saycarramrod

@spider2544: why dont we wait until they are in actual prototype stage and out of the "i like lsd very very much" phase.

jrghoull

@Log1c: to take it a step farther, how about just watching kick ass sci fi movies all day and having a secretary there to jot down every badass gizmo thats shown, talked about, or even made a brief implication towards.

light sabers here we come!

jrghoull

Whoever in charge of "creating" these listed ideas like "A project to erase bad memories, which will be critical in helping soldiers with psychological damage." and "Devices that will translate one solider's thoughts into electrical signals that can be beamed to other soliders, to help in stealth operations." must have played Metal Gear Solid 4.

Delvar15

So are these mercs, Legioneres, or real U.S Army personnel? But, has anybody ever seen Nikon's Cool Pix stylus, on Gizmodo's add? It would be great if it had a GSM sim card installed into it, and that was a wearable bluetooth headset piece, with a pico projector, and have a laser pointer built into it too, ya know, plus add a vga lens and maybe a Lara Croft styled monocule etc...! But, have the vga lens be larger than 3 mp at least, kind of like a Cyborg approach, but that could film more than 300 frames per second and have it be a FLIR lens maybe that would also be neet, ie- Tech Gear's kind of design too. Well, Bless, those soldeirs above in the photo with the U.S. Coalition, and I look forward to more X-files tech stuff, especially some self assembling nanoparticle lenses, or something that can morphe like Mystic in X-Men, who had morphing DNA or something as a mutan etc...lol, but that would be cool if someone could self replicate as themself like that guy in X-Men 3, who did the bank job, but who could also morphe in form too; or have adaptive camoflage built into their dna too, like the predator suit etc....But, charge themselves and quantum leap through time and space that could charge your dna's particles and molecules to transport and jump through this dimension or through "String Theory" too, ya know, and levetate things with your mind like the video game "Phys-Ops", but have this down pat to the nano scale etc..

StealthNinja

god knows the second this becomes public it'll be used for spam. eugh.
but it does sound amazing. and hooray for us army trolling WoW.

kzooguy

The blue laser thing that overlaid over the soldier looks a bit like the overlay in MGS Online.

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@Curves: a naked hustler model

phool

So, W.O.W is affectively going to be Skynet, and now we're giving it an actuall body...Are we gonna name it HAL and have it ask us if we "w-a-n-t t-o p-l-a-y a g-a-m-e"
(and yes i know HAL was the computers name from 2001 S.O)

Symbient

A project to erase bad memories
That's been available from [www.lacunainc.com] since 2004!

+ Watch video

One of the best movies ever made.

skierpage

@bysty:

Dear U. S. Army,

Thank you for continuing to kill those that need it.

Thank you,

Humanity

Comrade GadgetPlay, Fellow Traveler

@Comrade GadgetPlay, Fellow Traveler: Dear U.S. Navy, Marines, and Air Force.

Sorry the US Army gets all the glory. Thanks for doing the dirty work.

Regards,
Everyone

ViperBorg

@Curves: And that's why my auto insurance is so damn high.

ViperBorg

@Hamsfork: lol, I just tried that elbot link and asked it "what's the sound of one hand clapping?" It said something about arithmetic so I typed in 5+5. It said "I have computed that before. The answer is: 11!" Hmm something tells me even elementary level AI is far off.

usul356

No, they are pairing photons from the same light source... Pipe the alpha set of photons through different sets of fiber-optic cable and shine them on the soldier. Then the beta-set of photons, still paired to the alpha set, will 'bounce' off a non-existant object and look like the soldier even though he's really being illuminated by the alpha-set of photons.

NeomaHapkido

THE ARTICLE IS MISLEADING. The hologram is NOT created using Quantum Ghost Imaging techniques. It will NOT be like Star Wars or Star Trek's holodeck. It's still your usual project-to-screen technique. Granted, the innovation here is its photorealistic-ness. Sorry to disappoint everyone. Mid-air 3D hologram (and not contained inside a box, and without using screens) is still years away (yes, I'm aware of Helios display. But that's not 3D. Plus it's lame because it uses water vapor to create a screen). The Quantum Ghost Imaging technique is used for another purpose. It uses Quantum Entanglement to capture "photos", so to speak, without capturing photons reflected from the target object. It's like you point your camera at A, but you get photos of B, which is located elsewhere.

WalterGautschi