DARPA contract shines light on real-time video spying initiatives

Only the ignorant and the uninformed would assume that DARPA has never, ever dabbled in any kind of surveillance that wasn't questionable on some level, but a recent contract awarded to Kitware gives us a better idea of just how deep the rabbit hole has gotten. The $6.7 million deal seeks to create a system whereby DARPA can "monitor live video feeds and search large volumes of archived video data for activities of interest," with the point being to match up similar events from past and present in order to prevent an attack, foreshadow a certain event or discover some sort of terrorist trademark. As of now, we're simply informed of the video spying in areas of Iraq and Afghanistan, but given that the capabilities are already here, it could be enacted wherever the government could place a camera-toting manned or unmanned aerial vehicle. Look up and give the friendly skies a wave, won't you? Just don't do anything "suspicious."

[Via Slashdot, image courtesy of PointNiner]

[A @ Oct 21st 2008 9:08AM]

Whoa. Like The Minority Report?

[aardWolf @ Oct 21st 2008 9:18AM]

This gives all new light to the story about 'spy pigeons' in Iraq...
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jTEw64Ffr8aSSFUlDA_RAEI8D6DA

[gad get @ Oct 21st 2008 9:23AM]

Don't do anything suspicious, like waving to the sky.

[Jon Acheson @ Oct 21st 2008 9:39AM]

Was that drone made by Wayne Enterprises, by any chance?

[John P @ Oct 21st 2008 9:44AM]

"You're all doomed." - Killface

[vennessa @ Oct 21st 2008 12:34PM]

I think this is just ridiculous!! What happened to our freedom? we don't have any anymore. Now there are cameras everywhere and they are even tapping our phones. How does that make this country the land of the free?? I really don't think this is a good idea, it gives too many people the capability to invade others privacy.

[Wwhat @ Oct 21st 2008 12:43PM]

'Anything that invades is good' -Whitehouse spokesperson

(all statements in this post are fictional, any resemblance to reality is purely coincidental)

[Wwhat @ Oct 21st 2008 12:40PM]

DARPA doesn't do any such things, DARPA is the army's research encouragement program, they get the naive (or money-hungry) but technical capable students to design, think up and make stuff and then the army uses what they have learned to make things that kill or do other unwholesome things to people, but then it's no longer DARPA at that point.
There is no DARPA that does the using, that's other departments, if a DARPA funded project for instance invents a way to listen in on millions of americans then the army intelligence and the NSA will be the ones doing the actual snooping, not DARPA.
Unless I'm very much misinformed.

[Polymath @ Oct 21st 2008 3:36PM]

For every evolution there is a counter evolution, tactics change and technology adapts to that change. There are ways to detect and defeat cameras and drones. Also, unless you are an international terrorist, do you really think that you are important enough for the government to waste tax dollars just so they can watch you pick your nose in traffic? Another point, its is easier for the government to gather information on you by studying your search habits on the internet than by devoting resources to UAV's which require by law for there to be a pilot and observer sitting at the console to operate the aircraft. This has more value overseas where UAV's can be flown with fewer restrictions and where live data is more critical to troops on the ground who have to navigate crowded unfamiliar hostel urban environments.

[BJ is Gooder @ Oct 21st 2008 4:29PM]

"crowded unfamiliar hostel urban environments" -

You sound like a Call of Duty commercial! "Our UAV is ONLINE!"