1.8 Gigapixel ARGUS-IS. World's Highest Resolution Video Surveillance Platform by DARPA.doc

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1.8 Gigapixel ARGUS-IS. World's HighestResolution Video Surveillance Platform by DARPA

February 10th 2013

DARPA and the US Army have taken the wraps off ARGUS-IS, a 1.8-gigapixel videosurveillance platform that can resolve details as small as six inches from an altitude of 20,000feet (6km). ARGUS is by far the highest-resolution surveillance platform in the world, and

probably the highest-resolution camera in the world, period.

ARGUS, which would be attached to some kind of unmanned UAV (such as the Predator) andflown at an altitude of around 20,000 feet, can observe an area of 25 square kilometers(10sqmi) at any one time. If ARGUS was hovering over New York City, it could observe half ofManhattan. Two ARGUS-equipped drones, and the US could keep an eye on the entirety ofManhattan, 24/7.

It is the definition of observe in this case that will blow your mind, though. With an imagingunit that totals 1.8 billion pixels, ARGUS captures video (12 fps) that is detailed enough to pickout birds flying through the sky, or a lost toddler wandering around. These 1.8 gigapixels are

provided via 368 smaller sensors, which DARPA/BAE says are just 5-megapixel smartphonecamera sensors. These 368 sensors are focused on the ground via four image-stabilizedtelescopic lenses.

The end result, as you can see in the (awesome) video above, is a mosaic that can bearbitrarily zoomed. In the video, a BAE engineer zooms in from 17,500 feet to show a manstanding in a parking lot doing some exercises. A white speck is a bird flying around. Youcant quite make out facial features or license plates (phew), but I wonder if that would bepossible if ARGUS was used at a lower altitude (during a riot, say).

ARGUSs insane resolution is only half of the story, though. It isnt all that hard to strap a

bunch of sensors together, after all. The hard bit, according to the Lawrence LivermoreNational Laboratory (LLNL), isthe processing of all that image data. 1.8 billion pixels, at 12fps, generates on the order of 600 gigabits per second. This equates to around 6 petabytes or6,000 terabytes of video data per day. From what we can gather, some of the processing isdone within ARGUS (or the drone that carries it), but most of the processing is done on theground, in near-real-time, using a beefy supercomputer. Were not entirely sure howsuchmassive amounts of data are transmitted wirelessly, unless DARPA is waiting for its 100Gbpswireless techto come to fruition.

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https://str.llnl.gov/AprMay11/vaidya.htmlhttp://www.extremetech.com/computing/143455-darpa-begins-work-on-100gbps-wireless-tech-with-120-mile-rangehttp://www.extremetech.com/computing/143455-darpa-begins-work-on-100gbps-wireless-tech-with-120-mile-rangehttp://www.extremetech.com/computing/143455-darpa-begins-work-on-100gbps-wireless-tech-with-120-mile-rangehttp://www.extremetech.com/computing/143455-darpa-begins-work-on-100gbps-wireless-tech-with-120-mile-rangehttps://str.llnl.gov/AprMay11/vaidya.html


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The software, called Persistics after the concept of persistent ISR intelligence, surveillance,and reconnaissance is tasked with identifying objects on the ground, and then tracking themindefinitely. As you can see in the video, Persistics draws a colored box around humans, cars,and other objects of interest. These objects are then tracked by the software and as you canimagine, tracking thousands of moving objects across a 10-square-mile zone is a fairlyintensive task. The end user can view up to 65 tracking windows at one time.

ARGUS-IS, surveying Quantico, Virginia.

According to the video, which is from the PBS Nova TV show, the ARGUS system in itsentirety produces one million terabytes per day all of which is stored by the Army for futureuse. Were a bit skeptical about PBSs crazy figure (a million terabytes is an exabyte), but intheory most of that data is actually metadata the coordinates and other identifying features ofthe thousands (millions?) of objects being tracked by ARGUS.

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http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Boeing_A160_Hummingbird_VTOL-UAS.jpghttp://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/9a16a33e-462e-4149-a9a8-5f2e11c2c6b6.Full_.jpg


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The original goal was to deploy ARGUS in Afghanistan, but that never came to pass. It isntentirely clear what ARGUSs future is; it was meant to be mounted on Boeings high-altitudeA160 Hummingbird helicopter (pictured above), but the chopper has since been scrapped. IfARGUS is to be deployed, it will most likely be strapped to the underbelly ofa Predator drone .Where it will be used, however, with the war in Afghanistan apparently winding down, isanother question entirely. Its efficacy in a military setting would be unsurpassed, but its easyto imagine how ARGUS could be used here at home in the US, too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QGxNyaXfJsA#

Published on Jan 27, 20131 million terabytes a day saved forever.

The ARGUS array is made up of several cameras and other types of imaging systems. Theoutput of the imaging system is used to create extremely large, 1.8GP high-resolution mosaicimages and video.

The U.S. Army, along with Boeing, has developed and is preparing to deploy a new unmannedaircraft called the "Hummingbird." It's is a VTOL-UAS (vertical take-off and landing unmannedaerial system). Three of them are being deployed to Afghanistan for a full year to survey andspy on Afghanistan from an altitude of 20,000 feet with the ability to scan 25 square miles ofground surface.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surveill...

From Rise of the Drones Meet a new breed of flying robots, from tiny swarming vehicles togiant unmanned planes. Aired January 23, 2013 on PBS

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/military...

Following comment by Jack Graff:

This is what we are up against. Now think about the present occupier-usurper in the WhiteHouse, and his desire to assassinate American citizens on a whim, without judicial oversight,without any form of due process. This sort of technology in the hands of an honestgovernment would make me fearful, but in the hands of a psychopathic narcissistic Marxisttyrant, such as is Barack Hussein Obama? This is terrifying. Freedom-loving Americans needto develop strategies and methods to counter these machines.

Now read:Stop worrying, and embrace RFID

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https://www.extremetech.com/tag/uavshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QGxNyaXfJsA#http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surveillancehttp://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/military/rise-of-the-drones.htmlhttp://www.extremetech.com/electronics/141277-stop-worrying-and-embrace-rfidhttps://www.extremetech.com/tag/uavshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QGxNyaXfJsA#http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surveillancehttp://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/military/rise-of-the-drones.htmlhttp://www.extremetech.com/electronics/141277-stop-worrying-and-embrace-rfid

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1.8 Gigapixel ARGUS-IS. World's Highest Resolution Video Surveillance Platform by DARPA.doc