Image Recognition: Military requirements push technology forward

The Strategy Page has an article about how the proliferation of video on the battlefield (e.g. from surveillance cameras and even night vision goggles) is driving technology development. Initially, it was the UK (United Kingdom) that drove image recognition technology with its massive deployment of CCTV in public spaces (e.g. train stations, airports, city centers, and shopping malls). Now, it is the military.

The benefit from computer-assistance in analyzing video comes from the following:

1. Volume (i.e. the sheer number of cameras and, hence, images to be monitored and/or analyzed)
2. Concentration (i.e. the human visual system loses the ability to concentrate effectively on images after about 20 minutes of continuous viewing)
3. Memory (i.e. computers can track and, possibly, predict more things simultaneously than a human can because, generally speaking, computers are not nearly as attention and working-memory limited in the short-term as humans and far outstrip us in their ability to recall video sequences over the long term - they can just play back the video recording off of their hard disks)
   

The article claims that the abilities of computer systems to recognize patterns is rapidly improving and approaching that of humans - that is no small feat as humans are simply amazing in their ability to perform real-time pattern analysis.

One intriguing point made in the article is that the current conflicts are generating a lot of real-world recordings of "bad behavior" that can be used to train and test new pattern analysis and prediction algorithms - training data like this is like gold to us signal processing types!

Enjoy!

Miscellaneous - List of links for audio geeks

Too much work PLUS too few mentally productive hours EQUALS a list of links without any in-depth analysis. Sorry about that, but I hope to return to blogging more seriously soon. Until then, enjoy these:

Stereo from a single box (Blumlein was an audio genius. If you are an audiophile, I suggest you read a biography on him sometime.)

How the iPhone blew up the wireless industry

Acoustic superlens could mean finer ultrasound scans

Ultra-thin digital voice recorder

Noise reduction technology for cell/mobile phones (Note that the sales spiel uses words like "crystal" and "pristine" but you can clearly hear artifacting at low levels. Not trying to be overly critical, but couldn't they have let the results speak for themselves without the spin?)

Human Auditory System: Apple patent application for hearing protection

The iPodObserver, among others, is reporting on an Apple (US consumer electronics and computer company) patent application on a way to automatically protect a listener's hearing based not only on a maximum level constraint but also adding the total listening time variable.  To put it another way, the longer one listens to elevated sound levels, the quieter they need to be as the time progresses to avoid hearing damage.  I haven't read the patent application yet, so I am uncertain as to exactly what the novel aspect of the invention is, but taken by itself, I see it as a good move an industry leader to make their product safer.

Military: Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD)

The Strategy Page has been on a roll lately with interesting audio and video articles. This week they discuss the Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD), which allows long range broadcast of intelligible speech (up to 300 meters or yards).

The device was originally developed for the US Navy for spoken communications at sea (to warn off vessels approaching without permission), but has also found use as a less-than-lethal weapon in Iraq.  It also is being used for what may be impromptu PSYOPS, referring to the "Voice of God" field applications mentioned in the Strategy Page article.  The device has been around for several years, so news articles on it are easy to find - I think I have blogged on it at least once.  For an overview, you can refer to the Wikipedia entry.  From published information, it appears to be a high-volume loudspeaker array, i.e. a collection of speakers driven in-phase with each other, thereby creating a directional beam pattern.

Equipment: In defense of audiophiles

Slate Magazine has an article by Fred Kaplin on why high-end audio equipment is indeed worth the money if one is interested in experiencing the nuances of well performed and recorded music. 

N.B. I normally would not link to something that was not G-rated, but in this case there is one occurrence of sexually-oriented language that I found in bad taste.  After some consideration, I decided to post this after all with this warning to those of sensitive natures.

Photography: Cleaning digital camera sensors

For the amateur and professional photographers out there interested in cleaning their digital camera sensors, I highly recommend checking out episode 90 of the Shutters Inc podcast by Shelton Muller and Bruce Williams (who also does the excellent Sine Language and Building the Pod podcasts).  Mr. Williams reports on his own DIY (Do It Yourself) experience cleaning his camera.  During all this, he mentions a very informative website, which I will give the link to - Cleaning Digital Cameras.  There is some follow up information on cleaning in episode 91 also.

Photography: What can you do with a 1.4 BILLION pixel camera?

Hunt for killer asteroids, that is what!  It is going to be part of the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) in Maui, Hawaii, USA.  By the way, it took sixty digital image sensor chips to construct the imager.  A news article can be found at New Scientist.

Equipment: Deadly Silence

Advantages and disadvantages of noise canceling headsets on the battlefield.

(Source: StrategyPage.com)

Audio: Compare Headphone Measurements

The Headroom website allows you to build a customized graph comparing their measurements from testing many different headphones, including popular and professional over-the-ear, on-the-ear, in-the-ear (earbuds), and noise canceling models. This is a great tool for anyone serious about audio. I highly recommend it.