With smart devices getting more and more immersed in our daily lives, techies have already started speculating about a future where we may even get smart devices implanted into our brain. While this sounds like a far-off sci-fi fantasy, communication device implants are nothing new. The military has been experimenting with a communication device fitted onto soldiers’ teeth, dubbed the “Molar Mic.” Along with high-tech weapons and impressive robots, this may be one of the coolest gadgets the military is currently working on.
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Designed by Sonitus Technologies, the Molar Mic — officially known as the ATAC system — is essentially a small microphone clipped to the wearer’s back teeth, allowing for two-way communication without the need for any handheld devices or headsets, which can face interference in high altitudes, water, and other harsh conditions. “The ability to communicate by radio is crucial for our mission,” Said to stop (PJ) from the Air National Guard 131st Rescue Squadron stationed in California. “It enables us to execute in extreme conditions and save lives. But despite having amazing technology, communication still commonly breaks down because of the extreme environments where we operate.”
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In 2018, Sonitus Technologies was awarded a multi-million dollar, multi-year contract with the U.S. Department of Defense with the purpose of completing the development of the Molar Mic for U.S. Air Force personnel. In the future, the Molar Mic may also be used by other branches of the U.S. military in hopes of improving two-way communication and safety during operations.
How the Molar Mic works in action
The Molar Mic isn’t as simple as a microphone jammed between your teeth. The wearer actually hears incoming communication through their cranial bones, which transmit the sound to their auditory nerve. This may sound a bit far-fetched, but it’s actually a technology that’s already in use — there are plenty of brands offering “bone conducting” headphones, which transmit vibrations in your temples to keep your ears unblocked. However, the Molar Mic is a bit more complex, with users also wearing a connected transmitter loop around their neck. This uses a near-field magnetic induction to connect to communication devices and allow for encrypted back-and-forth conversations.
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According to Sonitus CEO Peter Hadrovic, it can take a little bit for the wearer to get used to this new type of communication. “Essentially, what you are doing is receiving the same type of auditory information that you receive from your ear, except that you are using a new auditory pathway — through your tooth, through your cranial bones — to that auditory nerve. You can hear through your head as if you were hearing through your ear,” he explained. “Over the period of three weeks, your brain adapts and it enhances your ability to process the audio [but even] out of the gate, you can understand it.”
The future of Molar Mics in the military
Right now, Molar Mics are being tested in the field, although they haven’t been used during active missions just yet. The PJ from the Air National Guard’s 131st Rescue Squadron in California tested the device during Hurricane Harvey, seeing how the devices would work with high winds, extremely loud environments, and pouring rain. According to Hadrovic, the devices held up even when members of the PJ were “standing in neck-deep water” while lifting a civilian onto a helicopter overhead.
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While this already sounds quite promising, Sonitus is apparently looking to do more than just communication with the Molar Mics. Other functions may soon be added to the devices, like implementing ways to track a soldier’s location or vitals. Equipping soldiers with sensors that track their biophysical signals is an ongoing mission the army has been exploring behind the scenes, with the U.S. military hoping to study stress and fatigue — and how to avoid it.
“Once you’ve made something digital, the information can be interspersed…We have a tremendous wealth of opportunities to communicate out of the person and back to the person, information that can be either collected from them and processed offline and given back in a nice feedback loop,” Harvey said. “What we’ve done is invested in the platform that will support these future elements.”
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