Wizblog

The Wow Factor

Belmont Club has a fascinating post on American military technologies, including Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) and advanced sensors and recognition software. I remain easily amazed by this kind of technology, but the "Wow" factor in this stuff is off the charts. From an article excerpt, linked by Wretchard, this example:

Intrigued by the possible applications to UAV surveillance video, the UAVB conducted a test last year at Eglin using streaming video from a Pointer UAV. A captain's face was entered into the computer as a search item, and the UAV was launched. "It starts beeping on this clump of trees," Cook said. "And they had to drive the UAV about another two miles before they could get close enough [to see] there was a vehicle underneath the trees." The captain whose face had been loaded into the computer was sitting in his truck eating lunch. "It found his face through the trees, through the windscreen, in the shadows of the trees, and we went, 'Wow, we need to explore this,'" Cook said.