Computer Vision Algorithms Used to Solve DARPA De-shredding Challenge

Last month, DARPA challenged the world's geeks to solve a seemingly unsolvable riddle: How do you reassemble documents that have been shredded into more than 10,000 tiny pieces? Turns out computer vision technology is the answer.

A small San Francisco-based team, called "All Your Shreds Are Belong to Us," correctly reconstructed each of the five challenge documents and solved their associated puzzles. The team used custom-coded computer-vision algorithms to suggest fragment pairings to human assemblers, who would then verify whether the pieces fit.

It was no small feat: the winning team spent nearly 600 man-hours developing algorithms and piecing together the documents.

And what, you're wondering, was the point? DARPA explained the significance of this achievement on its website:

The Shredder Challenge represents a preliminary investigation into the area of information security to identify and assess potential capabilities that could be used by war fighters operating in war zones to more quickly obtain valuable information from confiscated, shredded documents and gain a quantitative understanding of potential vulnerabilities inherent to the shredding of sensitive U.S. National security documents.

So, shredded documents are no longer secure? Great. I wonder what company will be the first to develop the new in-home document burner?

'Robotic Ostrich' Runs Faster Than Humans

If you have a growing dread of the Singularity, this story isn't going to help.

A group of researchers from MIT, DARPA the U.S. Defense Department and the Florida Institute for Human & Machine Cognition are working on a project called FastRunner: a machine that's designed to run faster than most humans can.

The bipedal bot, designed to move like an ostrich, will be able to quickly traverse even moderately rough terrain to run down its prey. The researchers estimate that FastRunner's top speed will average 27 miles per hour.

And what, you wonder, will this lightning-fast robot be used for? No one is telling yet; but with DARPA involved you can bet it will have a military use.

So far, the researchers have only built one leg of the robot. But they're quickly making progress on the rest of the design.

DARPA's 100 Year Starship Study

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) attempts to "boldly go where no man has gone before." 

The agency has released a request for information to solicit ideas for the 100 Year Starship Study™ program, which aims to develop a viable and sustainable model for persistent, long-term, private-sector interstellar space travel.

DARPA wants to re-engage students, academia, industry, researches and the general public by sparking a sense of wonder and to encourage them to ask "why not?" when it comes to research and development of spaceflight.

For all you sci-fi fans out there, to learn more, visit https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=ad1728884c2dc05a344e330b0bb57557&tab=core&_cview=0.

Future Cameras May Understand What They're Seeing

Cyberdyne Systems...I mean, DARPA seeks to develop machines with visual intelligence,  meaning computers with spatial judgment, that can learn new spatiotemporal concepts directly from visual information, visualize scenes and objects, as well as the actions involving those objects, then process the scenes to solve problems.

The Mind’s Eye program wants to add perceptual and cognitive abilities for recognizing and reasoning about objects in a scenes.

Specifically, the military wants a smart camera with visual intelligence to report on activity in an area of observation. Applications include fixed surveillance systems and camera‐equipped perch‐and‐stare micro air vehicles.

DARPA Begins Proposal Stage for a Road-to-air Vehicle

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is inviting proposals for "a vertical takeoff and landing roadable air vehicle."

The project's goal, named Transformer X (TX), is to demonstrate a four-person flyable/roadable vehicle that provides terrain-independent mobility with a minimum combat range of  250 nm on one  tank of fuel.

Applications include strikes and raids, interventions, interdictions,
insurgency/counterinsurgency, reconnaissance, medical evacuations and logistical supply.