The Daily Star's FREE newsletter is spectacular! Sign up today for the best stories straight to your inbox Sign up today! Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Amazing new ‘psychic powers’ are being readied for America’s next generation of combat troops.

AI-based analytical tools will tell troops in real time about the emotional state of people they encounter in combat zones – giving valuable insight into how much they can be trusted.

The superhuman abilities were shown off by U.S. Special Operations Command as part of a series of demonstrations of future battlefield tech.

Elite special forces troops will get help to deal with potentially hostile civilians

(Image: Getty Images)

Developed by prototyping and innovation partnership SOFTWERX, the revolutionary “physiological analysis tool” will help troops understand, in real time, how civilians in combat zones currently feel about US military operations.

(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

SOFWERX chief technology officer Brian Andrews explains “We pulled together quite a few sensors. Through radars, through video, you can tell heart-rate variability.

“You can get temperature from [the civilian’s] body. You can do voice analysis…all these sources of information combine to give a picture of how the person feels about the information that military personnel are giving them.”

Special Operations Command “pulled [the system] together in about a week but we were fairly successful,” Andrews said.

“We put a test guy up there …asked him some questions that made him fairly uncomfortable.

“Now, getting ‘intent’ is hard; but we could tell: ‘Hey, this person is nervous when you ask this question. Their countenance changed.’ Micro-expressions is another way to look at this.”

(Image: Getty Images)

The system could be invaluable when operating in areas where, for example, ISIS are moving among the community undercover.

Other developments included new battledress that provides real-item feedback to base commanders on the physical condition of troops: “It can even tell if you get shot,” Andrews said. “It will send to the medic what your vital signs are, respiratory rate, pulse rate…”

There are also plans to develop control systems for drones so that a single soldier can command fleets of semi-autonomous decides with a tiny gesture.

The drones will pick up on the microscopic amounts of electricity generated by the human nervous system: “When I flick my finger, it picks up the nerve impulse from the magnetic field,” Andrews said.