--- title: "DARPA Seeks to Protect Virtual Reality Against “Cognitive Attacks”" description: "Offensive Manuevers The Department of Defense's research and development agency is looking for technology that will protect against \"cognitive attacks\" that could, in theory, disable soldiers wearing virtual or mixed reality devices. As plugged by The Register, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has announced an initiative to \"build tactical mixed reality systems that […]" date: "2023-10-13" modified: "2023-10-13" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/darpa-vr-cognitive-attacks" categories: - "DARPA" - "Future Society" - "Military" - "Science & Energy" - "Virtual Reality" tags: - "defense" - "hololens" - "military" - "the digest" --- # DARPA Seeks to Protect Virtual Reality Against “Cognitive Attacks” ![The DOD is looking for tech that will protect against "cognitive attacks" that could disable soldiers wearing virtual reality devices.]() *Soldier in full body armor and VR equiped helmet on a battlefield of a ruined city.Illustration of how will look battlefields and soldiers in the near future. \Image: Maciej Frolow/Getty Images\* ## Offensive Maneuvers The Department of Defense's research and development agency is looking for technology that will protect against "cognitive attacks" that could — in theory — disable soldiers wearing virtual or mixed reality devices. As [spotted by *The Register*](), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has [announced an initiative]() to "build tactical mixed reality systems that protect against cognitive attack." As documents attached to the program page explained, using extremely military-ish jargon: *Such attacks can include information flooding to increase equipment latency and induce physical illness, planting real-world objects to overwhelm displays, subverting a personal area network to sow confusion, injecting virtual data to distract personnel, using objects to overwhelm a user with confusing false alarms, assessing user status through an eye tracker, and other potential attacks*. Though it's not explicitly described as such, *The Register* pointed out that "physical illness" could be a reference to nausea, which would turn the mixed reality (MR) headsets into "vomit extractors." Needless to say, ew. ## Vom-Inducing These hypothetical hackers might have a head start. Last year, [*Bloomberg* reported]() that the MR/VR HoloLens headsets Microsoft had been building for the military since 2021 were apparently crappy in more ways than one — including, per documents the website obtained on the Army's test runs with the goggles, that they caused "mission-affecting physical impairments" including nausea, headaches, and eyestrain. Unsurprisingly, soldiers said in leaked internal reports that they [hated the headsets](), and in January of this year, the [Army ordered Microsoft to redesign the goggles](). When it came to paying for that redesign, however, [Congress majorly put the squeeze on]() and allocated only $40 million to the order instead of the $400 million the Army wanted. Just last month, the Army announced that its custom HoloLens goggles don't make soldiers need to barf any longer, which certainly sounds like a step in the right direction — but it's still wild that the [deal worth nearly $22 billion taxpayer dollars]() resulted in such bad devices in the first place. Between the possibility for cognitive attacks from the outside and the goggles' formerly nausea-inducing nature, it's a wonder why Congress didn't completely kibosh the entire project — except, maybe, [to save face](). **More on defense tech:** [*The US Military Is Planning to Secretly Launch Something From Cape Canaveral* ]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()