Comprehensive monitoring first and then better merging with equipment
Patrick Tucker at Defense One indicates that the Air Force, Marine Corps, Navy, and their special operations forces are also funding research to collect biophysical data from soldiers, sailors, Marines, and pilots. The goal is to improve troops' performance by understanding what's happening inside their bodies, down to how their experiences affect them on a genetic level.
Over the past two years, the military bought more than $2 million worth of FitBits and other biomedical tracking devices. Consumer devices aren't good enough for the military's biotracking ambitions. They are creating a new class of wearables, based on new research into embedding electronic components into fabric.
Army research will first
- improve the breadth and precision and scale of monitoring and measurement
- determine how to improve interface and connection to equipment (like tanks, planes, ships and exoskeletons)
- find other ways to augment and improve the people and their gear
