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UAV updateLaser-powered, ground-charged UAV stays aloft for hours
A UAV is only as good as its power source: if the drone cannot stay over target for long periods of time and must return to base to refuel, this not only adds to the costs of operating the drone but it also degrade its intelligence gathering capabilities; Seattle-based company demonstrates that it can use a laser beam to charge the UAV's photovoltaic cells, generating enough power to keep the drone in the air for hours; the company has bigger plans for extending flight duration of military craft -- and much more: in the longer term, it envisions lasers powering remote ground-based sensors, delivering power to forward military bases, or supplying emergency power during disasters
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Biometrics -- facial recognitionIdentifying faces in a crowd in real-time
U.K. company develops a face recognition technology that can recognize individual faces in a crowd -- and do so in seconds, even when they are moving, at a wide angle, or in poor light; the system captures and analyzes images and compares them to a database, and alerts security personnel if a match is made
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Law-enforcement technologyTracking technology may make incarceration a thing of the past
The United States is facing a prison problem: there are many people in prisons -- more than two million, a population the size of Houston; here is an idea: how about releasing most of them so they can lead productive lives -- but make them wear something like the ExacuTrack from Anderson, Indiana-based BI Incorporated: the combination ankle bracelet and GPS transponder keeps real-time tabs on those who wear the gear, making sure they do what they are supposed to do and stay away from places where the state does not want them
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DARPA seeking ideas for insider threat detection
The recent WikiLeaks exposure was a big embarrassment for the U.S. Department of Defense, supposedly one of the more secure organizations in the United States; in response, DFARPA is soliciting ideas for a surveillance system which will "greatly increase the accuracy, rate and speed with which insider threats are detected and impede the ability of adversaries to operate undetected within government and military interest networks"
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DARPA awards additional $11 million for video search technology
As a result of advancements in intelligence gathering technologies (think UAVs), the U.S. military and intelligence community have been accumulating video archives over the past decade which make YouTube look puny; it is not only the number of pictures, but their quality: mere HD movies and TV are small and tightly compressed compared to the high resolution, full-motion imagery which pours in like an avalanche from every Predator or Reaper drone -- and dozens of these surveillance drones are airborne above southwest Asia every minute of every day; DARPA is looking for an effective, automated video search technology
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Border securitySix UAVs to patrol border from California to Texas
DHS secretary Janet Napolitano said that by the beginning of next year, the number of UAVs operating along the U.S.-Mexico border would be up to six, providing "critical aerial surveillance assistance"; previously, drones were not approved by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for use in a stretch of west Texas
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Search and rescueShape-shifting UAV for maritime search and rescue missions
Use of morphing flight surfaces has enabled the development of a shape-shifting UAV that can operate in extreme weather conditions; cutting-edge avionics ensure a smooth flight for extended rescue and surveillance missions, while reducing risks to material and crews
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Mexico: descent into chaosMexico deploys Israeli UAVs in war on drug cartels
Since December 2006, nearly 30,000 Mexicans have been killed in that country's increasingly vicious drug war; the relentless flow of guns from the United States into Mexico has significantly strengthened the drug cartels, allowing them not only to withstand the efforts by the Mexican authorities to impose law and order, but in many cases to take the operational initiative, making large swaths of the country ungovernable; the Mexican government, for its part, is bolstering its own capabilities: last year it has secretly purchased surveillance UAVs from Israel to perform monitoring tasks in border areas and near strategic installations in the country
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Border securityBorder Patrol to buy two new UAV for U.S.-Mexico border
Just-passed border bill includes $32 million to buy two new Predator B turboprop UAV aircraft from General Atomics, as well as fund operating control stations for them; retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Michael Kostelnik, the assistant Customs and Border Protection commissioner for the Office of Air and Marine, told a House subcommittee that twenty-four UAVs would eventually be needed to cover the entire northern and southern borders and U.S. coastlines
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Pervasive surveillanceMinority Report comes to Leon, Mexico
Leon, Mexico, a city of one million, has began implementing an iris scan biometric system from New York-based Global Rainmakers; the system, rolled out across the city; anyone taking money out of an ATM, paying for items in a store, or simply catching a bus will have their eyes scanned by hi-tech sensors; criminals will automatically be enrolled, their irises scanned once convicted; law-abiding citizens will have the option to opt-in; the company's CEO believes people will choose to opt-in: "When you get masses of people opting-in, opting out does not help. Opting out actually puts more of a flag on you than just being part of the system. We believe everyone will opt-in"
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The Philadelphia storyCase against teachers using Web cams to monitor students' bedrooms, laptops dropped
Federal investigations into whether a Pennsylvania school district used school-issue laptops to take pictures of students -- and of what they were doing in their bed rooms and online -- did not yield enough evidence to file charges; Lower Merion School District monitored more than 40 students who were issued laptop computers; the monitoring generated 30,881 Webcam photographs of students, and 27,761 screenshots of Web sites they visited
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In the trenchesU.S. swarm satellites will scatter to avoid space-war strikes
Many aspects of active space warfare -- including attack on another nation's spacecraft -- is strictly forbidden by international law and treaty, but the United States intends to be ready for it anyway; new "fractionated" swarm satellites will see groups of small wirelessly linked modules in orbit replacing today's large spacecraft; the swarm will be able to scatter to avoid enemy attacks and then reform into operational clusters
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Eyes in the skyHigh-altitude surveillance UAV completes maiden voyage
The first flight of a stratospheric unmanned aircraft -- the Global Observer -- designed to provide uninterrupted surveillance over any point on the globe was completed successfully; the company's CEO says that in the 20th century, conventional airplanes opened the lower atmosphere to practical use and satellites did the same for space -- "Global Observer soon will establish the stratosphere as a valuable and practical area of operation"
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Secure communicationIndian government: Google, Skype will follow BlackBerry in being forced to open networks
The Indian government, in a meeting last month with representatives of network operators and Internet service providers, said that after RIM was forced to open BlackBerry-based communication to government eavesdropping, Google and Skype would be asked to do the same -- or face bans on some of their services in India; It is unlikely that the Indian government is interested in Google's search business, but about twenty million Indians are active on Google's social networking service, Orkut, which encourages them to communicate with each other over Google Talk
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Secure communicationConflict between governments' need to know and secure comms intensifies
The tensions between the desire of government authorities to use every tool available to them to detect and prevent crime -- and acts of terrorism, on the one hand, and technologies which offer privacy to businesses and individuals, on the other hand, is not new; the skirmishes between BlackBerry -- and, soon, Google and Skype -- and the governments of India, Saudi Arabia, and UAE are but the latest round in this decades-old conflict
More Headlines
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Draper Laboratory, along with other companies, are working together to implement the program which will better detect irregular physiological and behavioral biometrics an individual being screened. The technology will focus on behaviors such as an individual’s heart rate, blink rate, and even fidgeting. This technology will allow officials, especialy at airports determine which individuals would be warrant a secondary screening.
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The Long View
Top 10 smart surveillance systems from Israel
Video surveillance systems have become an important tool in enabling authorities to trace criminals and terrorists; Israel is one of the leading players in the field of intelligent surveillance; here is a list of the Top 10 video security technologies from Israel; these companies offer solutions that range from "seeing" through walls to reducing twenty-four hours of video to a few (indexed) minutes to detecting subtle changes in the landscape to offering high-resolution under-water images, and much more
DARPA seeks deep-learning AI to cope with flood of information
The growing use of UAVs to loiter over enemy territory and send images and streaming videos back to HQ has created a glut of information; DARPA seeks a better, deeper, and more layered artificial intelligence to help the intelligence community cope with the avalanche of information coming in
TrendGlobal UAV sales boom, but South Africa's UAV sector flounders
South Africa was among the world's leaders in designing and manufacturing UAVs; UAVs are the most dynamic segment growth sector in the global aerospace industry; South Africa could have benefited from the growing interest in UAVs, lack of investment in R&D and in finished products may cause South Africa to abdicate the UAV lead it once held
Spyware big seller in China
The Chinese government no longer has a monopoly over domestic spying; sales of James Bond-like hidden surveillance tools such as cameras disguised as pens or buttons to companies and individuals soar
As I Was Saying // Ben FrankelNew U.S. strategy begins to take shape in Pakistan
The U.S. military and elements in the Pakistani national security establishments collaborate much more closely than in the past; the strategy of General David Patreus and the new Obama administration is to recognize that Pakistan is a fractured, divided country, and to work with those elements closer to us
New technology would limit invasion of privacy posed by CCTVs
CCTVs proliferate to every corner, and worries grow about eroding privacy; a scientist offers a solution: face-blurring technology which would prevent the distribution on one's image captured on CCTV without the authorization of those who sign up for the service
TrendIndia to see a large, broad growth in expenditures on domestic security
A series of terrorist attacks, culminating in the coordinated attack in Mumbai last month, convinced both government and industry in India that more security -- much more security -- is required to cope with mounting threats to domestic peace; business opportunities abound for companies in IT security, biometric, surveillance, detection, situational awareness, and more
