Ekso Bionics Holdings Inc (EKSO)

[Rhetorical]

Read this:

Perhaps the ultimate form of wearable armor is the tactical light operator suit, or TALOS. Nicknamed “the Iron Man suit” in reference to the fictional superhero, the aim of TALOS is to make special operators who kick in the door during raids essentially bulletproof. The powered exoskeleton is to be equipped with a communications suite and other enabling technologies.
SOCOM hopes to have a prototype ready by 2018, and officials have said the program is on track.

To push the technology forward, the command is promoting SOFWERX, its new rapid prototyping office. SOFWERX has already been put to use on the TALOS project to develop a base layer.

“Everybody thinks of the Iron Man suit exoskeleton,” said James “Hondo” Geurts, SOCOM’s acquisition executive, at the SOFIC conference. “What most people don’t think about is … what’s between that [metal suit] and human skin?”

Industry partners and different user groups recently teamed up to develop a solution.

“In 60 days we were able to turn full-up designs and prototypes so that we can start figuring out how are we going to solve this for the end suit,” Geurts said.

Wearable technology can help solve situational awareness problems.

Army Gen. Raymond Thomas III, the commander of SOCOM, was inspired by watching the movie “Minority Report” during a deployment to Afghanistan.

“I’m watching Tom Cruise do all his gizmo stuff, understanding everything in the world and I thought, ‘That’s what I want at the touch of a fingertip,’” he said. “I want to be able to bring everything we know … to the appropriate operator level.”

Even better would be a heads-up display system.

At some point “we’re going to interface artificial intelligence with our operators so they are literally hands free,” Thomas said. “At the voice prompt they’re going to be able to say, ‘Siri or Son of Siri or whoever, give me this [situational awareness information].’ And it’s going to drop down to a heads-up display and they’re going to have everything they need because it will all be in some file.”

Down the road, the SOCOM chief wants to integrate voice prompt technology into TALOS, noting that the first iteration of the suit will rely on button-enabled capabilities.

“I’m thinking, ‘OK, I can’t see buttons’” without looking down and taking eyes off the battlefield, he said. “I … want the next best version and so will our operators.”

Thomas’ dream might be on the path to coming true. The Defense Department’s rapid reaction technology office and the Army’s night vision and electronic sensors directorate have collaborated on an emerging capability prototyping project called HD Glass. SOCOM is slated to receive the new heads-up display equipment in September.

“The prevalence of smartphone applications for geolocation and information services has demonstrated how information can be a force multiplier for warfighters,” said an HD Glass project description published by the Defense Department.

But “increased battlefield awareness through smartphones, tablets and laptops comes at a cost of reduced awareness of immediate surroundings,” it said. “Heads-up displays provide an alternative human-technology interface that leverages the full capability of a smartphone, while maintaining ‘eyes out’ tactical awareness.”

Existing heads-up displays designed for aircraft pilots have insufficient field of view and contrast to meet the operational challenges of ground forces, according to the Pentagon’s acquisition office. HD Glass is intended to solve that problem.

http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/archive/2016/august/Pages/WearableTechnologyCouldChangeHowSpecialOperationsForcesFight.aspx


This article is listed as being from August 2016, so I guess TALOS really is from the future.

I'm long EKSO