U.S. Air Force's Technology Horizons highlights service's futuristic plans

brainwave sensors and begin to localize and identify reactions you have, even below the level at which you could put them into words,” Dahm said.

Dahm explained the brain is presented with cues as the video images plays. “Some of those cues will be strong enough for you to say, ‘stop, I saw something there,’ but many other cues may be so low that they evoke only an intuitive response without rising to the level of conscious reaction,” he said.

Brainwave sensors can potentially detect these, in effect providing Airmen with enhanced intuitive capabilities reminiscent of Spiderman.

These human performance technologies can create a dynamic in which the machine and the analyst are almost inseparable. “We are beginning to be able to couple humans and machines in ways that were unthinkable 10 years ago,” Dahm said.

He admits that the concept of an Airman literally becoming part of the computing environment is “bizarre, but technologically credible.”

As missions become increasingly faster and more complex, Air Force researchers will need to consider and implement these advancing technologies where they make sense, he said.

Dahm cited another example in which the same skull caps can measure brainwaves and determine if, by nature, Airmen are trainable to be effective in certain roles or careers.

“Many of these technologies are focused on gaining capability increases even with a smaller force size, Dahm said. “We will have a much stronger focus on advancing and applying technologies that can make our Airmen even more effective than they are today.”

Lyle writes that as the Air Force’s in-house research arm, AFRL researchers will be at the forefront of translating the Technology Horizons’ vision into reality.

Some of the research will be contracted out to companies ranging from big aerospace to small innovative firms, Dahm said.

Air Force officials also will partner with the other services, DARPA, NASA, other agencies, and even international partners aligned with U.S. Air Force interests, he added.

In this revolutionary age of social media and online gaming, Dahm contends the Airmen of today are primed for these very technologies designed to maintain the service’s superiority in 2020, 2030, and beyond. “If this had come out of the blue 50 years ago, even if the technology were ready, the workforce — the Airmen — would not have been ready,” Dahm said. “Today, both the technology and our Airmen are ready. Technology Horizons is going to enable changes that literally reshape the Air Force.”