Great week at the Next Generation ISR Symposium

Recently I've had the opportunity to speak at different conferences. It's always an honor to even be considered, but this conference was definitely one that was very special. The collection of intelligence from airborne platforms is my true passion. Whether it's the sensors, the aircraft, the transport communications or the analytical software: I'm a die hard. Getting an opportunity to have a voice as members of the government and industry consider what their next moves are is really an honor for me. I also love learning about new challenges, ideas and de-bunking a few common misconceptions. 

When you're passionate about something you have to remind yourself that others aren't as interested in the details as you are, so this week I had the chance to give a briefing on some of those details. Having had the opportunity to serve in the military as a member of a special operations unit you learn that details are the key to success. You also learn that you have to count on those around you to concentrate on the details they are responsible for and give you the information you need to make a decision. With that experience in mind I had the opportunity this week to tailor my briefing to cover some of those "details" that really only someone who is really passionate about can provide. My briefing, "Video Analytics from ISR Platforms," which is available on my profile page, covered two really important topics, why automated analysis is a long way away, and what changes we can make right now with little to no investment to get significantly more out of what we are already paying for.  

First I discussed why automated video analysis, what I call "the holy grail" of video analysis, is a long way off. It usually goes over like a lead balloon when I tell people this because we want to believe that we are just one or two steps away, but the truth is the video we are producing just isn't of high enough quality for us to get the data the algorithms need to complete their processing. I also discussed how color is critical to the algorithms being written today, most of which come from commercial industry, and since we spend the overwhelming majority of our time using gray-scaled infrared we essentially ruin the process before it even gets started. As I mentioned, its a disappointing reality, but when we can understand the "why" we can get two key results. In the short team we can stop wasting our time on things that just aren't realistic, and in the long term we can adjust our strategies to help achieve our objectives. Automated video analysis isn't impossible, it's just not easy, which we must accept. 

Second I got a chance to discuss some things we can do right now to improve our video quality and analytical capabilities because even if automation isn't a short term reality, many other capabilities are. Many of these capabilities are things that sensor operators, communications specialists and analysts have all asked for in one way or another over the last several years, but in our "silos-of-excellence" no one has ever connected the dots to make them happen. By simply adjusting the settings on our current encoding (read "compression") systems we can increase the quality of the video almost immediately. If we customize those setting for the different types of scenes we look at, that capability goes even farther. Finally, when we are really ready, we can develop systems that are actually tailored for the mission (go figure) instead of tailoring our missions to the systems we are provided. I covered what that process would look like and how to add a few "easy buttons" when we get there. 

In the end it was great to get some thought provoking feedback and provide those "details" I am so passionate about to the folks building the next generations systems (industry) and the customer on the other side of the equation (the government) who has to make due with what they have now and plan for the future. I am truly blessed to be a member of this industry, I hope I can continue to listen, learn and contribute to it's future. We certainly don't have all of our current problems solved nor do we know exactly what the future holds but I am truly optimistic and excited for what comes next. 

-Michael