The Camera's (Human) Eye

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has kicked off a research project to develop systems imbued with something that only exists in the animal kingdom: visual intelligence. The name of the project? The Mind's Eye.

Humans, DARPA says, can perform a range of visual tasks with ease, such as discerning the difference between objects and the scenes around them, well as the fine movements of the objects. Humans also possess a powerful ability to manipulate mentally imagined scenes to solve problems.

DARPA said it wants to develop a smart camera that possess the same abilities, which it figures would fit well on a range of surveillance gadgets, and wants to install the gizmo on a portable unmanned ground vehicle.

The Army plans to field portable, unmanned ground vehicles to all its infantry brigades as part of its modernization plans, but today soldiers operate them with controllers much like those used for Xbox video games.

Anyone with experience in cognitive systems, machine vision and related fields interested in visual intelligence development should show up at 1 pm on April 20 for the Mind's Eye industry day at the Washington Marriott in Washington.

You must register online by April 16.