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| Science & Technology |
| New Intelligence Tool defeats IEDs |
| 2007-06-23 |
| Constant Hawk Delivers June 22, 2007: Last Summer, intelligence analysts in Iraq got a new tool called Constant Hawk. It's an image analysis system that's basically just another pattern analysis system. However, it's been a very successful system. Recently, the army named Constant Hawk one of the top ten inventions for last year. The army does this to give some of the more obscure, yet very valuable, developments some well deserved recognition. Pattern analysis is one of the fundamental tools Operations Research (OR) practitioners have been using since World War II (when the newly developed field of OR got its first big workout). Pattern analysis is widely used on Wall Street, by engineers, law enforcement, marketing specialists, and now, the military. Constant Hawk uses a special video camera system to observe a locality and find useful patterns of behavior. Some of the Constant Hawk systems are mounted on light aircraft, others are mounted on ground structures. Special software compares photos from different times. When changes are noted, they are checked more closely, which has resulted in the early detection of thousands of roadside bombs and terrorist ambushes. This has largely eliminated roadside bomb attacks on supply convoys, which travel the same routes all the time. But those routes are also watched by Constant Hawk. No matter what the enemy does, the Hawk will notice. Constant Hawk, like most geek stuff, does not get a lot of media attention. Mainly it's the math, and TV audiences that get uneasy watching a geek trying to explain this stuff in something resembling English. But it works, and the troops want more of it. The troops like tools of this sort mainly because the systems retain photos of areas they have patrolled, and allows them to retrieve photos of a particular place on a particular day. Often, the troops returning from, or going out on a patrol, can use the pattern analysis skills we all have, to spot something suspicious, or potentially so. |
| Posted by:Unaper Glomock1969 |
| #11 I call BS on this and your other pronouncement today re: IED detection. So, you maintain that drones with ground penetrating radar, combined with day/night surveillance and autonomously guided vehicles to sweep for or elicit premature detonation of IEDs are not of use? While my catalogue of useful technologies is not comprehensive by any means, it is also in no way irrelevant. I don't know if you're familiar with "top down" or "bottom up" machine intelligence, but it's the input of boots-on-the-ground people that is helping to advance battlefield detection and analysis methodologies. This in no way demeans the work of laboratory based research, but the contributions of our fighting people will probably bear the most fruit. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-06-23 23:58 |
| #10 None of this is rocket science. Only if your familiarity with pattern recognition is confined to classroom exercises. I call BS on this and your other pronouncement today re: IED detection. As it happens, I know a number of people working on both of these issues. Military and civilians, with PhDs from places like Stanford in disciplines like applied math, computer science, physics and electrical engineering. They've been working long days, weeks and months on these issues. They've made some progress, more remains to be achieved. None of it came easily. You would look less like a pompous fool if you confined your remarks to subjects you can speak with real knowledge about. |
| Posted by: lotp 2007-06-23 23:11 |
| #9 AT9310 - that assumes geosynchronous orbit over the spot.... |
| Posted by: Frank G 2007-06-23 23:02 |
| #8 Pattern analysis is one of the fundamental tools Operations Research (OR) practitioners have been using since World War II (when the newly developed field of OR got its first big workout). Pattern analysis is widely used on Wall Street, by engineers, law enforcement, marketing specialists, and now, the military. All of this boils down to one of the most fundamental and important aspects of human consciousness. It's called "pattern recognition" and this has been the crux of advances made in most AI (artificial intelligence) or "Expert Systems" for the last few decades. Huge strides in machine memory have made possible higher resolution frame storage and retention of pre-programmed comparison templates. None of this is rocket science. It is the result of applied machine intelligence combined with the input of seasoned personnel who have actually experienced real time execution of these procedures. As Rob Crawford observes, "wouldn't disturbed soil have a different IR profile". While dependent upon advances in detector technology, it is these sort of simple measurements that can reveal a host of useful observations. I refer you to my comments in the, "The Looming Crisis" thread. Astride technological advances, ground penetrating radar is becoming far more economical. There is no reason why such detection systems can't be lofted on drones to prowl roads used by our troops in hostile territory. With UAV technology undergoing a similar cost-performance decline, 24/7 surveillance should cease to be a challenge as well. DARPA's competition to devise wholely automated driverless surface vehicles could yield unmanned minesweeping "decoys" to draw IED attacks as well. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-06-23 22:46 |
| #7 When they can put this technology on a satelite and use it much like a video recorder in a store, then one would be able to get the longitude and latitude of a spot where an incident occured, roll the "tape" back to maybe 48 hours, and not only see who planted the IED, but follow the people to and from the scene to their abodes, no matter how far away from the scene the people approached or retreated from. |
| Posted by: Anguling Turkeyneck9310 2007-06-23 22:11 |
| #6 Doesn't matter. I'll just find another way for us to lose. |
| Posted by: Sen Harry Reid (D-himmi) 2007-06-23 21:02 |
| #5 High tech is great stuff. If we could keep track of people moving at night from high up, then we would know where they go and where they come from. After removing the night shift at the fig factory, the rest would be insurgents positioning themselves for action. No doubt this or something like it is done in both Iraq and Afghanistan. |
| Posted by: wxjames 2007-06-23 19:30 |
| #4 Hmmm... wouldn't disturbed soil have a different IR profile than undisturbed? I wonder if there's some other, detectable differences -- maybe something to do with water content, maybe detectable with special radar... |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2007-06-23 19:03 |
| #3 There are other OR applications going on, re: IEDs and related issues. A couple come from where I work. |
| Posted by: lotp 2007-06-23 17:23 |
| #2 Funny thing is, some of the analysis done for ASW works for this sort of thing. I'm not going to say the whats and wherefores since I don't know the boundaries on whats talk about and whats not, but the cold war is still paying dividends in some places, where people are smart enough to go outside the box (and bypass the brass). |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2007-06-23 17:07 |
| #1 diffs are always useful. In time In space In dimensions Tracking deltas is good too. In time In space In n-space |
| Posted by: 3dc 2007-06-23 16:54 |