Inventing Iron Man (11 page)

Figure 3.7. Electrode arrays implanted in the brain using the “Brain-Gate” system. Courtesy Paul Wicks.

Let's return for a minute to Iron Man's telepresence armor. Recall that the telepresence unit responds to control from the user. The main outline of how this is supposed to work is shown in the “Stark Enterprises Technical Database” and the “communication network schematic” in the 2008
War Machine
graphic novel series. The graphic novel depicts a flow chart linking the robotic remote controlled armor and the headset that Tony wore in “This Year's Model” in Iron Man #190. The caption for it reads: “The diagram below represents the basic operation of information transfer between the User Interface Headset and the NTU-150. Because the actual process incorporates many hundreds of individual system checks, security interlock codes and neurological failsafe routines, the chart has been simplified to display only the primary system events.” So, now you know why it is such a streamlined schematic! There are indeed some great similarities between how the Iron Man NTU-150 system and a basic brain-machine interface works. Essentially both involve extracting information about movement from brain activity, which is then processed into a command to control a device. By far the most complex behavior demonstrated to date has been monkeys learning to feed themselves oranges using a robotic arm controlled by brain activity. Human studies have not reached this level of sophistication, even with
brain electrode systems. So, we are a good way off from being able to remotely control a robotic suit of armor with brain-derived signals!

Another interesting tweak for the Iron Man system that is not yet practicable in real life is the information flow shown in the communication schematic, which refers to information coming back from the device (“from NTU-150”). This kind of “closed loop” (where sensation feeds back into the system) would be an absolute requirement for telepresence armor and similar devices to work in practice but is considerably far away from being implemented.

However, some recent work in a related area may one day pave the way for this kind of system. Deep brain stimulation is a technique that involves implanting electrodes into the base of the brain, usually into parts of the basal ganglia and into parts that are important for controlling movement. These areas of the brain are the main ones affected by the progressive neurological disorder of Parkinson's disease. To help with the difficulties in producing movement and the tremors that are very common in this condition, many treatments are used, including taking certain drugs that affect dopamine systems. Current research into deep brain stimulation changes the activity in this part of the brain, and it can be really helpful in improving movement. The procedure involves setting the stimulator externally and then observing the effect on the user. Any changes in the stimulation have to be set externally in what is known as “open loop” control. A better and more adaptable system would be to have closed loop control, which is essentially the way the Iron Man NTU-150 is likely meant to work. And up until very recently no deep brain stimulator included this concept. The Medtronic Neuromodulation Technology Research division has developed a preliminary system that can extract information on brain activity that can then be used to change the settings of the stimulator. Rather coolly, Stanslaski and colleagues reported that this sensing system is rather BASIC. As in Brain Activity Sensing Interfacing Computer. While this is still a long way from the NTU-150 telepresence armor, it is actually a direct step along a path that is heading in that direction.

Related to these steps is the concept of an optical neuroprosthesis. Illustrated in
figure 3.8
is a summary of different approaches to supplementing vision in visually impaired people. These images come from the work of Eduardo Fernandez and colleagues and represent a fascinating parallel of work others have done with cochlear implants to restore hearing. At the top of the figure, three different “approaches” are outlined. Normally, visual information flows from the retina via ganglion cells into the optic nerve and eventually to visual cortex in the occipital lobe. Panel A shows the idea of using a neuroprosthetic eye to connect with neurons (ganglion cells) in the retina. Panel B uses the approach of directly activating the optic nerve (which contains the output from ganglion cells), and panel C shows the concept of connecting directly to visual cortex. This idea is highlighted in the bottom panel where the most “high-tech” approach (at least in appearance) is shown. In this case a camera in the lens of the glasses takes visual information and, after processing, feeds directly into the visual cortex by way of the cortical implant shown at the back of the head. This would be like taking the visor information from Iron Man and feeding it directly into Tony Stark's brain. Or, as an example from
Star Trek: The Next Generation
, of using Geordi's visor to send visual information to his brain. This is staggering stuff and exploration in this field continues at a rapid pace.

Figure 3.8. Visual neuroprosthetic interfaces. Panels A–C show different approaches and locations for “tapping” in to the flow of information in the visual system. The bottom image shows an approach that uses video camera inputs from glasses, which then activate the visual cortex of the brain. Courtesy Fernandez et al. (2005).

I have been dwelling on this system and example in Iron Man for so long because it gets to the heart of whether Tony could really become Iron Man: the robotic control of the suit. Instead of a remote-controlled suit of armor, Tony would have to use a brain-machine interface to control the suit. But how difficult would that suit be to control? And would your body like it? We are going to answer those questions in the next chapter.

“He Lives! He Walks! He Conquers!”

Just developing and learning how to use the Iron Man suit would take up the first five years of a journey to invent an Iron Man. The technology to develop an armor system with articulated armor currently exists. Tony Stark—or anyone else who wants to follow in his footsteps—would need about two years to adapt such technology to create the full body armor that we see with Iron Man. An additional four years would likely be required to strengthen and lighten the suit and then incorporate it all into a fully mobile passive system. Such a system would make it move like a high-tech suit of armor reminiscent of medieval knights but with much more freedom of movement.

To provide the “extras” that Iron Man needs for his life of crime fighting would require motorizing and energizing the armor. A prototype with these features would take another four years. Even when this improved armor was complete, its user would encounter a major problem: the current standard for this kind of approach in industry is to use hydraulic actuators (think forklift), which are extremely heavy. So Tony would still have to focus on making the armor even lighter and the motors much smaller and efficient for the future.

A key focus for Tony in the next ten years of developing his suit would be to miniaturize the motors that control the movements of the fully powered armor. This would include getting away from hydraulics. Although research ideas are currently under way for this type of refinement in real life, progress is slow and the technology does not yet exist. Tony would have to invent the new type of motor himself, which would likely take five to seven years of work. A stumbling block for full implementation of this improved suit here is the need to power the armor for independent movement (that is, while away from a fixed
power source), which would require development of new power cell technology. It would also include the harvesting of energy from the movements themselves, and it's uncertain how long that would take.

Tony would have to incorporate into the armor a movement-triggered control of the motors at this stage. That is, triggering motor control in the exoskeleton by small movements made by the user. This currently exists for the extremities—hands, feet—and simple movements—grasping, walking—but would need to be fully integrated into a whole body armor system. This would take an additional two to three years. After completing all of this, Tony's biggest challenges still await him.

                   Will time tarnish the Golden Avenger?

HOW MUCH CAN IRON MAN'S MIND MANAGE?

My armor has seven advanced genocide mechanics troops tracked and targeted. It's relaying suit performance data back to Pepper on the helicarrier. It's keeping an eye on a communications satellite over Madrid that's either being hacked or starting to fail. It's relaying a PowerPoint presentation from a Stark U.K. R&D presentation. And apparently Josh Beckett is eight innings into a no-hitter … Not to jinx anything.

—Tony reflecting on all the info the suit provides, from “The Five Nightmares,
Part 2
: Murder Inc.” (Invincible Iron Man #2, 2008)

Outside, a 400 mph slipstream of freezing air is roaring past me at a sound level of 104 decibels. Inside, a 9,000 song playlist that's heavily skewed to '80s metal is roaring at only a few decibels less. On my back, a superconducting capacitor ring is spinning, charged with enough electricity to power a decade-long concert by every band on that playlist at once.

—Tony Stark, from “Hypervelocity: Part 5” (Iron Man, 2007)

You are making dinner and just added pasta to boiling water. You have a cup of hot tea in one hand. Then the phone rings so you run over to grab it. At the same time your dog starts barking to be let in. Or out. Or maybe she isn't sure. But you let her out while answering the phone. Just in time you glance over at the stove to see the water foaming up and about to boil over. You wedge the phone under your chin so you can fling the door open (or closed) with the hand not holding the mug and run over to the stove. On the way you don't notice the dog's squeaky toy, trip over it, stumble, spill your tea all over the work you left on the table and arrive at the stove just after the water has boiled over leaving a nice white scum that you will have to clean up later. You just did a lot of multitasking. And it didn't all work out.

Most of the time, it is fairly simple to perform a wide range of movements or tasks. We seem to sometimes perform even more specialized skills like driving with little obvious attention. In our society, we now do a great deal of multitasking, and juggling many tasks all at once is commonplace. However, when we have to do different things simultaneously and as the need for skill and complexity increases, tasks become more difficult. The scenario we just opened with is a good example. You can probably call this the “walking and chewing gum at the same time” problem. Imagine walking across a room (or, if you are able, you can actually do it). Now get a glass and fill it right to the brim with water. Hold that glass in your hand and then try to walk across the room again, all the while focusing on not spilling a drop of water. Probably when you did it that way, you either walked slower or walked at the same pace but spilled a fair bit of water. This outcome represents the effect of “cognitive load,” which means that we can only put attention on so many things at once. The more we add to what we are doing, the greater is the degradation of performance of each thing that we attempt to do.