Digital Frankenstein: Building the Perfect Human Simulation For Military

BioMojo image

ARLINGTON, Virginia — The key to building a digital human isn’t necessarily in its parts, but in a place to piece them together, and one North Carolina-based biomedical company has created a framework that can receive data from both open-source and proprietary technologies to create a real-time, multi-parameterized human digital twin.

BioMojo’s human digital twin platform features real-time representations incorporating physical, cognitive, emotional and behavioral data to create a holistic view of an individual’s current and predictive state, Jerry Heneghan, the company’s chief design officer, said in an interview.

He likened the technology to the Star Trek holodeck, where “basically you start dialing up the person.” Sex, ethnicity, clothing, equipment — “and this all doesn’t just look good or realistic. It has properties in terms of the weight, the flexibility, what that does to the motion and the flexibility of the character that you’re depicting.”

Technologies like body scanning, facial motion capture, crash systems in high-end cars and the technology used by professional sports teams to improve performance and reduce injury can all inject data into what Heneghan called a central data hub.

For the military, that could mean a detailed simulation for testing new wearable equipment such as body armor or new training systems for injury prevention.

“Say I want to have a female soldier who’s 27 years old, 5 foot 8 [inches tall], and she has a certain weight and a certain body mass index,” Heneghan said, piling on additional hypotheticals like dehydration, a 55-pound rucksack and running up a 30 percent grade in 98-degree heat.

“And now you’re going to put a very brand-new type of body armor on her. What is that going to do physiologically, in terms of performance, comfort, and where might there be some problems in terms of performance?” he said.

BioMojo is currently working to deliver a version of the technology to the Navy. Heneghan said the project is nearing the end of phase 2 and “will aid in the development of some new life-saving equipment for soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines.” ND

Topics: Training and Simulation