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"The answer to the problem of information overload on the Net is reputations… engineer a system called a reputation server."
- Neal Stephenson
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| Hands Free Helmet | ||
| The helmet of a powered suit has controls activated by head movements. |
The powered suit or exoskeleton was controlled entirely by careful feedback to your usual muscle movements. So, how could you manipulate the suit controls?
| Since your head is the one part of your body not involved in the pressure receptors controlling the suit's muscles, you use your head -- your jaw muscles, your chin, your neck -- to switch things for you and thereby leave your hands free to fight. A chin plate handles all visual displays the way the jaw switch handles the audios. All displays are thrown on a mirror in front of your forehead from where the work is actually going on above and back of your head. All this helmet gear makes you look like a hydrocephalic gorilla but, with luck, the enemy won't live long enough to be offended by your appearance, and it is a very convenient arrangement; you can flip through your several types of radar displays quicker than you can change channels to avoid a commercial -- catch a range & bearing, locate your boss, check your flank men, whatever. |
| Technovelgy from Starship Troopers,
by Robert Heinlein. Published by G.P. Putnam's Sons in 1959 Additional resources -
|
The first head-up displays (HUDs) were created during WWII. An early example of what would now be termed a head-up display was the Projector System of the British AI Mk VIII air interception radar fitted to some de Havilland Mosquito night fighters, where the radar display was projected onto the aircraft's windscreen along with the artificial horizon, allowing the pilots to perform interceptions without taking their eyes from the windscreen.
Compare to the more modern sfnal ideas like the overlay specs from Charles Stross' 2007 novel Halting State and the smart contact lenses from Fast Times at Fairmont High by Vernor Vinge (2001), and somewhat earlier, the DreamTime contacts from Niven and Barnes' 1992 novel The California Voodoo Game.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Starship Troopers
More Ideas
and Technology by Robert Heinlein
Tech news articles related to Starship Troopers
Tech news articles related to works by Robert Heinlein
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news articles:
- Preorder Recon Jet - It's Heavy Duty Glass
- Navdy HeadUp Display (HUD) For Your Car
- Squad X Core Technologies For Infantry
| Can A Swarm Of Deadly Drones Take Out An Aircraft Carrier? |
| Has Turkey Been Stealing Rain From Iran? |
| We Need To Build Anti-Drone Systems For Civilian Spaces |
| Bullet Steers Itself! The Advanced Low-Cost Munitions Ordnance ALaMO |
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I'm hoping that this procedure becomes a normal part of medical practice!
'... nothing was perfected until M. Pantalon announced the completion of his automatic valet.'
'...its streets were of remarkable width, with few or no buildings so high as mosques, churches, State-offices, or palaces in Tellurian cities.'
'...it was all composed of tiny, identical cubes, carefully laid to form a tilelike surface.'
'He carried on his person a triggering mechanism sensitive to his heartbeat.'
'...Anything was possible in my imaginary environment.'
'Somewhere in space, a chrome and blue automobile raced the green light of Earth.'
'That explains how it was so easy for me to remain motionless in midair...'
