[Scarlett.]

[img=600x700]http://img238.imageshack.us/img238/2277/usarmypoweredarmor.jpg[/img]

Powered exoskeleton's been in development for years at DARPA, there are numerous working prototype lasers for various military uses (mostly defensive, like a tank-mounted RPG zapper or a plane-mounted ICBM zapper that recently got axed.) Plasma is totally implausible until fusion power has been achieved, since plasma is integral to that. And fusion is now seen by most physicists as a pipe-dream and waste of effort.



A special-ops soldier carries a slew of gadgets into battle. There's the GPS unit to pinpoint his squad's location, and a laptop for pulling up blueprints of terrorist compounds or infrared readings of buildings scoped out by robotic surveillance drones. With a radio and its five-pound battery, it's too much gear. But in a couple years, troops could lighten their load with a rugged, flexible, wrist-mounted display that's in development by the U.S. Army and HP Labs.

The solar-powered, bendable computer screen will allow for instant data and radio transmission, all in a half-pound unit, says David Morton, the program manager for flexible electronics at the Army Research Laboratory. The display's thin layer of transistors sends electric signals to an e-ink screen, which converts those signals into grayscale images, similar to the way the Amazon Kindle does. Unlike the Kindle, the two-by-three-inch display can bend to fit around the user's wrist because HP stamps the electronics and optical components onto pliable plastic. The process eliminates the need for the fragile glass backing used in the Kindle and other displays, says Carl Taussig, the director of information surfaces at HP. "You can strike these things with a mallet, and they just keep on working."

While the Army works on a color screen, troops will test the black-and-white device and provide feedback for the final version, which should be ready for military use by 2011.

O_O

[xDramatick]

Originally posted by Chewy
"You can strike these things with a mallet, and they just keep on working."

I bet the arm that it's attached to won't be though.

[Lauren]

it's like something out of metal gear solid.

[arista]

Chewy the costs are so much,
mind you a Fim Studio will buy any bits.

Flying Bomber Drones are being mass built
for more Evil Yank Wars.

[arista]

Originally posted by Lauren
it's like something out of metal gear solid.

Yes Dear
it is very much so.