Defense Technology International - September 2007 - (Page 61) Read Hockmuth’s posts on DTI’s weblog, Ares, updated daily: aresblog.net GERMAN FEDERAL POLICE Blank Stares Germany’s federal criminal police office has declared facial recognition technology a dud at picking terrorists out of a crowd. This, after an ongoing experiment monitoring 23,000 daily commuters at a railway station in Mainz was canceled because it accurately identified wanted travelers only 60% of the time. Federal data protection commissioner Peter Schaar says false positives can lead to the arrest of innocent people, who must defend themselves and face continuous second-guessing by law enforcement. Schaar says biometric visual-image search systems—in which photos of random people are snapped as they go about their business and then compared with images in a database of criminals—should not be deployed until 3D facial recognition is available. The problem is that 3D facial recognition is still an immature technology. I CLEMSON UNIVERSITY 1 Biochip Soldier Researchers at Clemson University’s Center for Bioelectronics, Biosensors and Biochips won a $1.6-million contract from the U.S. Defense Dept. to develop a biochip that can be implanted in wounded soldiers to track vital signs on the battlefield. Center director Anthony Guiseppi-Elie tells DTI that despite privacy concerns, the chips are not designed for the general soldier population. The chips would be most useful for trauma victims of roadside bombs who may be bleeding to death. The chips measure lactate and glucose levels, letting doctors know how much oxygen is in the tissue, which could mean the difference between life and death. Medics would inject the chips into wounded soldiers and gather data almost instantly. The technology won’t be available anytime soon, as it will take five years to begin human trials. Guiseppi-Elie says the challenges are battery life due to the lack of “small-footprint, low-power microprocessors” and the development of encapsulating bioactive, biomimetic polymers that keep the body from rejecting the chips. I 2 OVER THE EDGE Crystal Ball Darpa wants a battlefield computer that lets commanders see how certain tactics will turn out. “Proactive analysis will help predict which futures are more likely before they occur,” Darpa states in a solicitation for the “Deep Green” program. “Sketchto-Plan” and related “Sketch-to-Decide” are key parts of the “commander’s associate” component of Deep Green, which automatically converts hand-drawn plans into a course of action and then integrates feedback from other brigade elements. The other components are “Blitzkrieg,” which is designed to be fast and produce a broad set of outcomes, and “Crystal Ball,” which receives these results from the commander’s associate and recommends action. Darpa notes a list of technological hurdles including developing machines that understand plans expressed through speech and sketches, full automation and speed. Darpa says the military’s mantra of “observe, orient, decide, act” is no longer viable in modern warfare, where these tasks must be conducted almost simultaneously. I www.aviationweek.com/dti SEPTEMBER 2007 DEFENSE TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL 61 3 DEFENSE ADVANCED RESEARCH PROJECTS AGENCY http://aresblog.net http://www.aviationweek.com/dti
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