US Army Developing Drones That Can Recognize Your Face From a Distance - Polidicks

[QUOTE]It’s not enough for the U.S. military to be able to monitor you from afar. The U.S. Army wants its drones to know you through and through, reports Danger Room, and it is imbuing them with the ability to recognize you in a crowd and even to know what you are thinking and feeling. Like a best friend that at any moment might vaporize you with a hellfire missile. Of a handful of contracts just handed out by the Army, two are notable for their unique ISR capabilities. One would arm drones with facial recognition software that can remember faces so targets can’t disappear into crowds. The other sounds far more unsettling: a human behavior engine capable of stacking informant info against intelligence data against other evidence to predict a person’s intent. That’s right: the act of determining whether you are friend or foe could be turned over to the machines. That’s a bit disquieting whether you are an insurgent warfighter or not. But back to the overarching topic at hand: The U.S. military is pulling in more ISR data than it knows what to do with these days, a lot of it useless noise that’s inconsequential to ongoing operations. And, as DR notes, the strategy in Afghanistan has changed from one of winning hearts and minds through nation building projects to targeting specific bad guys. The hard part is keeping up with the bad guys, and that’s where Progeny Systems Corporation’s “Long Range, Non-cooperative, Biometric Tagging, Tracking and Location” system comes into play. The facial recognition layer of its technology is pretty standard: take some 2-D pictures of a target’s face, use them to build a 3-D model, and then use that 3-D model to recognize the face later. But that’s not necessarily easy. It’s difficult enough for computers to pull off biometric facial recognition when the subject is stationary and looking straight at the camera. Toss in the many variables inherent in aerial ISR--a moving target who may be in profile or looking downward, a moving drone, low resolution cameras, etc.--and it’s a major challenge. Progeny’s system, if it works the way the company and the Army envision it, needs just 50 pixels between the target’s eyes in a 2-D image to build the 3-D model. “Any pose, any expression, any face,” the company’s lead biometric researcher tells Danger Room. From that model stored in Progeny’s database, the system could identify the target from an even lower resolution image or video. The closer the drone is to the subject, the better all of this works. But progeny also layers in a second kind of recognition that can work at more than 750 feet. This “soft biometric” system basically takes in a bunch of non-facial but otherwise outwardly relevant data--skin color, height and build, age, gender--to build a larger kind of model for its vision algorithms to work with. If a body is moving through the crowd, Progeny claims that a drone circling high overhead can keep track of him or her simply using this larger, whole-body identification system. But what good is tracking if you don’t know who your enemies are? Another contract handed out to Charles River Analytics seeks to develop a human behavior engine known as Adversary Behavior Acquisition, Collection, Understanding, and Summarization (ABACUS). It mashes up all kinds of behavioral data into a system that churns out an assessment of adversarial intent, determining if a subject has enough built up resentment toward the U.S. and its aims to be a potential threat. So pretty soon the drones may know who you are, where you’re going, and what you’re planning to do when you get there. [img]http://www.popsci.com/files/imagecache/article_image_large/articles/Progeny_2.jpeg[/img] [/QUOTE] Source: [url]http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-09/army-wants-drones-can-recognize-your-face-and-read-your-mind[/url]

Glad to see the $1,000,000,000,000 being put to use.

Why would it cost a trillion?

or what if it recognizes that you aren't who they want to kill and you LIVE

[QUOTE=W0w00t;32545239]or what if it recognizes that you aren't who they want to kill and you LIVE[/QUOTE] This. I prefer NOT to die for being mistaken by a terrorist.

Big brother knows best

[QUOTE=W0w00t;32545239]or what if it recognizes that you aren't who they want to kill and you LIVE[/QUOTE] why would the army be using drones to kill people in the u.s.?

[QUOTE=Amaurus;32545209]Why would it cost a trillion?[/QUOTE] I said that because that is our national defense budget sum.

[QUOTE=purvisdavid1;32546506]I said that because that is our national defense budget sum.[/QUOTE] He was implying that this specific project would cost 1 trillion, not the US military budget. He is a silly man, and so is the US' military budget. But this is kinda cool I guess.

[QUOTE=ZombieDawgs;32546525]He was implying that this specific project would cost 1 trillion, not the US military budget. He is a silly man, and so is the US' military budget. But this is kinda cool I guess.[/QUOTE] Still could be devoting money to better things.

[QUOTE=purvisdavid1;32546546]Still could be devoting money to better things.[/QUOTE] Lets take the US military budget, and PUSH it somewhere else. Patrick Star - Problem solver of all years.

Oh no, there go my human rights, Orwellian, we're doomed! What a load of shite. This is one of those jobs that a robot could do a damn sight better than a human, if a human could even do it. A target never vanishing into a crowd? Awesome. Imagine this integrated into the police force, eyewitnesses would never convict the wrong person. It's a great step towards proper androids too. A humanoid android wouldn't need to pinpoint a tracker device or your phone, it could just look for you, and it would do wonders for societal integration if it can actually tell people apart without fail. Fantastic stuff, can't wait to see more.

[QUOTE=BeardyDuck;32546482]why would the army be using drones to kill people in the u.s.?[/QUOTE] FBI and police departments will get this to use on the American public, probably in order to track paroled child molesters. Who would speak up against keeping track of those guys? Then, once they have them in use it would be child's play to use those drones for other things. For instance, drones would constantly be flying over cities, recording everything in view. Then any cop or FBI agent can review those recordings and by using a picture filter out that one person's activities the entire day. A cop could do a search on his wife and find out how many guys she banging, that dirty whore.

[QUOTE=cecilbdemodded;32546860]FBI and police departments will get this to use on the American public, probably in order to track paroled child molesters. Who would speak up against keeping track of those guys?[/QUOTE] I would, parole is not probation.

[QUOTE=Megafanx13;32547037]I would, parole is not probation.[/QUOTE] Why would that matter? They (or anyone else) should have no expectation of privacy in public.

[QUOTE=ExplodingGuy;32547123]Why would that matter? They (or anyone else) should have no expectation of privacy in public.[/QUOTE] Right, but I mean if they're at their house or in their backyard, I'd say it's fair to expect some privacy.

[QUOTE=Megafanx13;32547197]Right, but I mean if they're at their house or in their backyard, I'd say it's fair to expect some privacy.[/QUOTE]We'll, I highly doubt they're going to have UAVs hovering inside people's houses.

and how is this needed.

[QUOTE=ExplodingGuy;32547243]We'll, I highly doubt they're going to have UAVs hovering inside people's houses.[/QUOTE] Not inside, but above.

[QUOTE=MightyMax;32547265]and how is this needed.[/QUOTE] For the dictatorship we'll have in the somewhat distant future.

London metros already have cameras that can easily identify idle packages being left by people, with facial recognition in such mobile cameras this could easily help law enforcement track down runaways or people with warrants out for them.

[QUOTE=ExplodingGuy;32547123]Why would that matter? They (or anyone else) should have no expectation of privacy in public.[/QUOTE] It's not about having privacy in public. If I drive to the local liquor store and buy a 12'er, yeah I know people are watching me. It's about being recorded from the moment you walk out your door, and having those recordings being used for who knows what by who knows who. It's about being treated like a criminal that needs to be spied on when you haven't done anything.

Drones already automatically track targets they are told to. This is just a system that makes it a little more intelligent and work inside crowds. The threat system is likely so a drone operator can better inform ground units that someone in their vicinity looks suspicious. These are military UAV's. They aren't even being used here. Bunch of sensationalist bullshit.

[QUOTE=GunFox;32548599]Drones already automatically track targets they are told to. This is just a system that makes it a little more intelligent and work inside crowds. The threat system is likely so a drone operator can better inform ground units that someone in their vicinity looks suspicious. These are military UAV's. They aren't even being used here. Bunch of sensationalist bullshit.[/QUOTE] You know how UAVs aren't always accurate and kill civilians? This could prevent that. For fuck's sake people, the police forces aren't even using military UAVS that are currently being made.

[QUOTE=QwertySecond;32546606]Oh no, there go my human rights, Orwellian, we're doomed! What a load of shite. This is one of those jobs that a robot could do a damn sight better than a human, if a human could even do it. A target never vanishing into a crowd? Awesome. Imagine this integrated into the police force, eyewitnesses would never convict the wrong person. It's a great step towards proper androids too. A humanoid android wouldn't need to pinpoint a tracker device or your phone, it could just look for you, and it would do wonders for societal integration if it can actually tell people apart without fail. Fantastic stuff, can't wait to see more.[/QUOTE] We JUST learned in school - that you give up some rights to be protected. Locke.

Can it at least distinguish between cameras and light arms?

[QUOTE=Awesomecaek;32550109]Can it at least distinguish between cameras and light arms?[/QUOTE] Are you talking bout this? [video=youtube;5rXPrfnU3G0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rXPrfnU3G0[/video] I think with this there are bigger and better things to solve.

can it distinguish my ass from a distance?

It begins! [img]http://images.wikia.com/half-life/en/images/4/4a/Scanner_light2.jpg[/img]

[QUOTE=Awesomecaek;32550109]Can it at least distinguish between cameras and light arms?[/QUOTE] Iirc that was a helicopter gunners fault. Probably itching to get some kills under his belt.