Visual Intelligence for Cameras Is Around the Corner

A governmental agency recently announced that it's currently pursuing the development of a technology that would see video cameras being endowed with visual intelligence. This would allow the control software to process the information it collects in novel ways.

If successful, the new endeavor will see the creation of a computer program that will be able to derive all the useful information from a series of image, process visual cues, provide a context to boost the significance of the date, and also search for specific cues that will allow it to answer user questions.

Experts behind the work say that the new software, called Mind's Eye, could change the way surveillance is currently being done forever. The research is conducted with funds from the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

The decision to construct the new system was taken following a conference held in March 2010. A group of 12 research teams from various universities and institutes was selected to carry out the work on the thinking cameras, a DARPA announcement states.

Naturally, the first use for the new system would be a military one. Army officials want to install the new surveillance systems on ground-surveillance airplanes and air drones, Daily Galaxy reports.

The most important aspect that will set Mind's Eye apart from currently-used systems such as Gorgon Stare and ARGUS-IS is that it will not need humans. This is the whole point of creating artificial visual intelligence.

“Star[ing] at Death TV for hours on end trying to find the single target or see something move [is nothing but] a waste of manpower,” said in a recent statement the vice chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Gen. James Cartwright.

The research groups DARPA finances are expected to make “novel contributions in visual event learning, new spatiotemporal representations, machine-generated envisionment, visual inspection and grounding of visual concepts.”

These improvements will enable surveillance systems to spot “operationally significant activity and report on that activity so warfighters can focus on important events in a timely manner.”

According to the plans the agency detailed recently, the intelligent cameras will first be placed on a land-based scout robot, not on an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).

As soon as the system proves its worth, it will be transferred to other platforms as well. Experts say that it's conceivable the technology could be used for space exploration as well.