If you have watched the George Clooney's "Men Who Stare at Goats" (2009) and heard about mind enhancement or mind control projects by the US Military for communications between troops, probably have not heard about a mind control project that has now gotten support from DARPA which is, as they put it, "troop's well-being." Nope, this does not use drugs for for those hoping that they would get a high with it.

Initially supported by the US Army RDECOM, this now has the support of DARPA with their Young Faculty Award Program. This is a project of William Tyler of Tyler Labs and Arizona State University, this is called "Remote Control of Brain Activity Using Ultrasound" as reported by the Armed with Science website. Its premise is that brain stimulation can help in treating neurological problems and injuries. The project proposes the development of helmets that allow "transcranial pulsed ultrasound" sent remotely and thus, will stimulate the circuits of the brain while the soldier is on the field.

(Illustration by Tylerlab, from Armed with Science)

So what applications can be done with this project? Almost like stimpacks for those who play StarCraft (stimpacks are chemical delivery systems to stimulate the Terran Marine to increase their speed and reflexes according to the StarCraft Wiki) , this help stimulate the brains of soldiers, making them alert, protection from brain injuries especially with the shock caused by explosions, cognitive enhancement, and stress or pain relief without the need for a concoction of chemicals physical injected into the troops.

I think that's barely scratching the surface, as understanding the functions of the brain still has a lot of uncharted territories, even with all the advances in neurological sciences. If this project gets successful, then it opens up to new areas that conspiracy theorists would have orgasms just imagining what the military can do to their soldiers. Just imagine "Universal Soldiers".

And speaking of "Universal Soldiers", the  latest installation of the 1992 movie, "Universal Soldier: A New Beginning/Regeneration", the bad guy in the movie uses mind-control to have Dolf Lungren (playing as Andrew Scott) turn against his team and of course, Jean-Claude Van Damme (Luc Deveraux) to battle him. To the consternation of Van Damme fans this was a direct to DVD release. But they can look forward to the fourth installment which is said to be called "Universal Soldier IV" and will be in 3D.