SAD LOVE QUOTES: U.S. spies developing system to identify where in the world a photo was taken

Monday, August 1, 2011

U.S. spies developing system to identify where in the world a photo was taken

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By Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 9:31 PM on 1st August 2011

Terrorist: Osama Bin Laden made dozens of videos but evaded capture

U.S. spies are developing technology that would allow computers to pinpoint where in the world a picture was taken.

The system would be used by the military to track down terrorists who are in hiding in remote regions, experts said.

Pictures of the targets would be simply scanned into a computer that would within seconds return an exact match for the terrorist hideout. Troops would then be deployed to the area to capture the target.

The futuristic technology could revolutionise the way that terrorists are targeted by the CIA and other intelligence agencies.

U.s. based Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Agency (IARPA ), which is commissioning the work, said that current technology is not up to the task.

The automatic tracking system will focus on the sort of pictures and tapes that are released by organisations such as Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

Often they are filmed in remote caves or barren hillsides in the depths of the Middle East.

It is believed that soldiers hunting for Osama Bin Laden may have captured him years earlier had such advanced technology been available at the time.

Intelligence analysts currently have to try to find the location where a photograph was taken by painstakingly analysing every detail of the picture.

Traced: Bin Laden was finally found at his hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan, pictured, but it could have been sooner if better technology had been available

They also use satellite imagery, geological and botanical information, and cultural clues.

'Such image/video geolocation is an extremely time-consuming and labour-intensive activity that often meets with limited success,' an IARPA spokesman told the Telegraph.

It is now known exactly how the new technology is hoped to work. However, the computer may cross-reference clues in the picture with a vast database of images until a match is found.

A more advanced method would be to deduce the air pressure from the photograph and link it to a region with similar conditions at the time the photograph was taken.

IARPA admitted that such advanced technology might not be available until 2016.

The company has issued a challenge to companies and academics to build a system that can automate the process.

Remote: Bin Laden and three Al Qaeda members sit among rocks - the kind of features that the automatic computer system would match on a database

'The Finder Program aims to develop technology that, with the aid of an analyst, geolocates an outdoor image or video taken from anywhere on the land surface of the world, via the use of publicly available information,' IARPA said.

The agency said that the technology would have to be capable of pinpointing the location of pictures or videos within one minute, without the use of metadata or tags.

Google has recently introduced a 'reverse search' feature to its image facility which allows users to scour the web to similar pictures to one that they already have.

Such technology could be used to find more pictures of a certain person or building.

But the IARPA said that it would be developing its own system that does not incorporate Google's technology.

'IARPA is not interested in approaches that only integrate current software. New algorithms and methods must be proposed,' it said.