mucher comfortable. >> i'm morgan radford live in new york city. and "techknow" is coming up next. for news updates all throughout the day you can always head over to our website at www.aljazeera.com. >> hello and welcome. i'm phil torres here to talk about innovations that can change lives. we are going to explore the intersection of hardware and humanity and we're doing it in a unique way. a show about science by scientists . lindsay moran, science versus the deaf takings of ptsd. soldiers december pri battle.

kosta grammatis is behind the wheel of the future testing out a driverless car . rachelle oldmixon is an environmental scientists. i'm phil torres, an entomologist. now let's do some science. ♪ >> hey guys welcome to techknow where we bring you life changing innovations in the field of science. i'm phil torres and i'm here with kosta , rachelle and lindsay. >> when we think of camp

lejeune, we deal with soldiers to go into the field. but there's an epidemic with soldiers returning with completely invisible wounds, i'm talking about ptsd. be camp lejeune has innovative ways of technology to combat this problem. the ugliness of war has made an indelible mark on the minds of many americans. and can linger longer after deployment has ended. posttraumatic stress disorder or ptsd was first diagnosed in 1980 but has existed for as long as there has been war. >> clearly it appears the underlying cause of those conditions were the same as the

underlying causes whra what we call posttraumatic stress. we know very little of what is at the cellular level of what's causing them. the only way we can find out those answers is through technology. >> one promising technology deals with the very air that we breathe. dr. l daniel leslie at the naval hospital in camp lejeune, north carolina, is being conducting an experiment where 100% oxygen is delivered to veterans in an effort to heal injury. >> nobody knows the answer yet, one thing we do know is the brain is getting more oxygen, the entire body is getting more oxygen, the ability to being being. >> caused by an explosion where

the resulting concussion causes damage to the brain. the air we breathe contains 21% oxygen. by increasing that amount to 100%, the feel is that a more rapid flow of oxygen to the brain would repair the damage caused by the explosion. >> we know i.t. works on other parts of the body, we know it works ton eyes and a bunch of different things and there are a bunch of approved uses of hyperbaric oxygen. >> what is the relationship between tbi traumatic brain injury and posttraumatic stress disorder? >> being it's a form of concussion in which you actually have loss of consciousness, alteration of consciousness. we vofn often have an overlap.

if you are in war getting blown up, in which you are exposed to horrible things, often. very frequently we get people with both. >> all right dr. leslie say i'm a wounded warrior. walk me through this process. >> we're going oput this on. this whole area around your head is going to be filled with 100% complete oxygen, not complete air, in and out through those tubes. just going osnap it shut -- just going osnap it shut. -- to snap it shut and you are good to go. it is going oself-any inflate and -- to receive-inflate and close. >> the sessioning is created by 40 sessions over a 12 week period. >> i'm a little claustrophobic

but this doesn't feel too bad. why is this so difficult to diagnose and to treat? >> there are unseen injuries, if you will, somebody gets exposed to a blast or a gunshot wound, i mean can you see the effects of that blast or that gunshot wound. if somebody is exposed to psychological trauma, it's all inside. if there's an invisible wound or invisible scar from psychological trauma, the people around you, family, co-workers, shipmates, may not ever know you are sphruferg that wound. >> -- suffering from that wound. >> people say over and over again, i just want my life back. glls i don't like to go to sleep because i know what's waiting for me on the other side when i close my eyes. >> corpsman is one such soldier. he suffered a straw mattic brain

injury on a mission in uganda where a shell exploded nearby. >> i can deal with it now, move through the pain and get treatment for it later. i kind of pushed it off until we got back in the states and after that i went out and found exactly everything that was going on and it was quite a list so -- >> what was going on? >> i had memory problems, short term, long term, anger, irritability. i'd get l really angry and separate myself from everybody. >> were you given a specific diagnosis like tbi or ptsd? >> they gave me those, tbi, ptsd. you see everything happening, it effects everything, your sleep, your family, it effects you as a person. it took about three hearts of really fighting on my part to realize that i'm not going to

get back to full duty and i'm not going to be the way i was before i deployed and before my injury. and that's something that you kind of have to come to grips with yourself. >> i worry about our staff actually because they're very passionate about what they do. the better is not -- the burden is not getting any being less although we are withdrawing from afghanistan on a regular basis and the force out there is getting smaller all the time. the workload isn't any less for our staff than it was a year or two ago, in fact it's continued to grow. >> do you feel like by participating with this research program with the hyperbaric chamber that you might be helping future soldiers suffering from ptsd? >> that was my goal going into the hyperbaric research program. i know there's no magic solution

to the problem but my main focus is that i don't care if it helps me or not, but i'm hoping that this research will help my brothers down the line so that they can have a better shot at living a normal life. >> the military is working on numerous fronts to battle this growing problem. camp lejeune is 2700 miles and world apart from the university of southern california where they're using virtual reality to combat posttraumatic stress disorder. >> it was the worst i'd ever seen, he was covered in flames. >> like the hyperbaric being chamber study, it's creating results. traditional being psychoanalysis helping those dealings with ptsd break through. >> we want to hear what you

think about these stories. join the conversation by following us on twitter and ating aljazeera.com. >> al jazeera america presents extrodanary documentaries. colin comes from a long line of ferrymen. >> you're a riverman from start to finish... >> now he leaves home to see what life is like on the waters of bangladesh. >> it's absolutely filthy... >> he learns how difficult working ther can be. >> how do you say..."get out the way"? >> shoro >> can this brittish man find common ground with his local host? >> "must really take it out of mr. loteef"... >> toughest place to be a ferryman on al jazeera america

>> al jazeera america is a straight-forward news channel.

>> its the most exciting thing to happen to american journalism in decades. >> we believe in digging deep. >> its unbiased, fact-based, in-depth journalism. >> you give them the facts, dispense with the fluff and get straight to the point. >> i'm on the ground every day finding stories that matter to you. >> in new orleans... >> seattle bureau... >> washington... >> detroit... >> chicago... >> nashville... >> los angeles... >> san francisco... >> al jazeera america, take a new look at news. the stream is uniquely interactive television. we depend on you, >> you are one of the voices of this show. >> so join the conversation and make it your own. >> the stream. on al jazeera america and join the conversation online @ajamstream. >> hey guys welcome back totech. i'm here with kosta, rachelle and lindsay. >> the military is dealing with

this epidemic problem of ptsd. both the military and creative researchers at usc are looking for innovative ways of technology to combat this issue. los angeles may seem like an odd place to search for answers to ptsd. but the department of defense is finding encouraging results through partnerships with research institutes like the one at usc. skip riz izzo has experience in systems. >> buttoned down as the military why would they come to you guys for help? >> we're the odd alliance of hollywood, the military and academe ya bu academia. come from an interdisciplinary coming-together of people with different levels of expertise

that can create something where the whe whole is greater than te sum of its parts. what we have seen over the past ten years is that the advances that have mapped in the area of technology have -- happened in the area of technology, making a difference for service members and veterans when they come back, the psychological difficulties. >> the institute for creative technology has created bravemind, a clinical interactive virtual reality tool. subjects are gradually immersed in environments to which they were deployed. from a remote afghan village to an iraqi marketplace, to recreate the situation that brought on a soldier's traumatic stress. the virtual reality is connect wednesday the tried and true

tool called prolonged exposure therapy. >> this i really don't like because i'm claustrophobic and i feel really enclosed here and i don't know what's going to be around any corner so yeah, this is. tapping into my worst fears. i'm going to get out of there. >> this is a generation of soldiers who group playing video games. how does that factor into this as a therapy? >> if you give somebody the option of doing straight talk to a psychologist form of treatment or you tell them hey, we're going to put you in virtual reality and that's going to be part of the treatment, you know digital generation, folks that's and easy choice. we're hoping that's that will break down barriers to care. >> to undergo this therapy the patient has to descent into his -- descend into his or her worst fear. i imagine that would be difficult for not only him but the

clinician or therapies. wha therapist. what is the benefit there? >> put the person in a situation, they feel anxiety, and over times the anxiety naturally dissipates. the person can face, confront not avoid situations, thoughts, feelings that previously they just wanted to keep in a box. >> jonathan warren is a purple heart vet having served two tours in iraq. >> what was your first reaction to revisiting the horror through the therapy? >> i was terrified, really, it was scary to go and confront the thing that i'd been avoiding so much. and in a way that was going to stimulate my vision and my sounds and my feeling. it was full immersion and i just felt so bad that i couldn't keep acting like that.

are i was willing to be miserable and to be sad and experience more pain to get through it and take it to the other side. i'm in iraq, it's an afternoon and i'm on the no-name route. we're driving through city. i see that the women and children are all heading back in the house. point? >> as soon as i turn right we get hit by an ied. at this moment, i woke up and i was just surrounded by flames. i took a deep breath and it singed my lungs. it really rocked my world, it learned how to shut down my emotions. my face was peeling off and my lips were blistering.

that's when i saw scotty getting out of the vehicle. my heart just dropped. with all the folks i served with it was a very, very close bond. scotty was like my little brother. we were real really, really clo. he was doused in diesel fuel and i thought he was dying right there. >> you had no resources at that time? >> i had nothing. i was helpless, nothing i could do. listening to scott in anguish. >> has this virtual reality treatment helped you in terms of coping with the ptsd? >> i knew i wouldn't be magically cured but i could cope. >> what was the horror you couldn't revisit?

>> i was confronted with the question of you know what could you have done differently? do you think you're superman, can you put zeal fuel with some -- diesel fuel with dirt in your hands, i found out i shouldn't be spoid in my own actions and what i did. >> we find helping a patient to confront and process difficult emotional memories rather than avoiding them is the key the getting over.ptsd. >> what a powerful piece. it's so great to see that head-on. >> in the theater of wawr a lot of things -- war a lot of things happen to these guys that they're not going odeal with then. we talked to one veteran who didn't want to seek treatment for his physical or being psychological issues because he

wanted to get out there with his marines. >> they're worried it would be negatively? >> there is a stigma in the military but it's just now that the military is looking at it as an ep dem thaik affects -- epidemic that being affects wounded warriers and has to be dealt with. >> we'll see where it goes. kosta, what do you have next? >> imagine ofuture where you can fall asleep and it drives to you work. it's coming soon and i explored

real reporting that brings you the world. giving you a real global perspective like no other can. real reporting from around the world. this is what we do. al jazeera america.

only on al jazeera america

♪ >> hey guys welcome back to techknow. i'm phil torres and i'm here with kosta , and lindsay. what happened? >> all you have to do is sit in the car and it will drive for us. let's check out where we're going. the road to the driverless car has been a long one. >> we're all set for auto-control. >> this is how general motors envisioned the future in 1957. >> you're on automatic control, hands-off steering. >> that was then, this is now, nissan's race for the first autonomous vehicle is in the hands of an engineer who had me figure out how it works. >> these are your laser

scanners. >> yes. >> and they send out big beams of laser to determine how far the distance is. >> yes. >> and here is a big radar panel that can see 200 meters ahead. and we have one radar panel here and here as well. they determine -- >> 70 meters. >> 70 meters whether object is approaching the car or going away from car and all of these little guys are for parking, sonar, and you have cameras on every side of the car. it is totally a prototype. if i open this up you see -- >> wow! these are kind of secret. don't touch it. >> i won't touch it. we're going to put on -- >> yes. >> hit it! >> autonomous mode activated. >> you have no hands. the camera's reading the speed limit by now. we're going owatch it slow down.

>> yes, yes, that's correct. >> red light, cameras detecting it. car says signal's red. >> the signal is green. >> now it's not a color camera. how did it know? >> position. >> just the position? the system explains what it's doing for the driver not confused ever. how did you know it's going to the left now instead of the right? >> reading the lines. >> it follows the road using the cameras. and what happens if a kid comes out chasing a ball? oh my god, oh my god! >> wow. >> we almost killed that guy! a car, it checks to see if there was anyone behind us, next to us, it makes a decision to swerve. can we park it now? we can do that from the back >> yes. this is my space. >> calling dibs on that spot and

now it's parking. i love watching the steering wheel, just made it simple. what happens if i interrupt it? >> stops, completely stops. >> it will completely stop? >> yes. >> now it will come back to where it started. how many years before it's in all cars? >> 2020, 2020. >> as we reach that date, the biggest being obstacle may not be the technology, how fast ask drivers react when they're thrust back into control of an autonomous car? >> what is the most dangerous time in an autonomous car? >> the moment when the car shifts control from itself to the driver. drivers are totally disoriented and they are being asked to absorb an enormous range of activities, an enormous range of things going on to get what we call situation awareness where there was none.

and that turns out to be an extraordinary challenge. >> i'm going to be placing the eeg electrodes on your head. >> we want to understand what's going on in your brain and your body when you drive. we hook up the driver. we see where their eyes are tracking, we see what their brain is doing, what their heart is doing. >> the simulator is built to help us better understand ways to alert the driver that autonomous mode is being switched. after several minutes of texting while the car is driving, watch what happens when i have to take control. >> disable automation. >> it just asked me to diseabl diseabl -- disable automation. uh oh, i just crashed into about 12 cars, i wasn't paying attention.

you had sense oorgs on my hand to determine what was that? >> that was call autonomic arousal. how alert you are. a good driver is neither too into ited or too accustom. >> are we required to be plugged into the car so it knows what we are doing? >> definitely not. eventually cars will drive themselves. >> making them the designated driver promises to revolutionize how we get around. for steve brown who is completely blind, cars will completely transform their lives. >> auto-driving. >> google gave steve a glimpse of the future inviting him to take the driver's seat in their first autonomous vehicle. >> how did that feel? >> incredibly normal and abnormal at the same time.

>> the car was doing its thing. did you have instinctive responses? >> all the things you normally do in driving just came back. we're at the stop sign. >> even if you can't see? >> even if i can't see. i would suggest going to get a taco because that's what i would normally do. >> do you think you'll be back driving in your lifetime? >> absolutely. >> kosta, i have to ask. how safe is this? >> when you hit for example black ice, race car driver mode kicks in and it's steering for you. so that you'll never lose control. it knows how to handle those sort of situations. and i believe, not only did i feel safe, i any it's going to be safer in general. i know it will. >> really interesting stories, you guys. thank you for sharing them. we will be back next week for

more techknow. dive deep behind these stories and go behind the scenes at aljazeera.com there are >> good afternoon an welcome to al jazeera america i'm morgan radford live in new york city. here are the stories we're covering for you today. the search for a plane that vanished in the middle of the night carrying 239 people. plus warning shots in ukraine talk of diplomatic solutions and economic sanctions. wrapping up the c pac convention conservative leaders give their final remarks.