DARPA Developing Video Parser 29
coondoggie writes with an article in Networkworld about a disconcerting DARPA project. From the article: "If a picture is worth a thousand words, the scientists at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency would like to make that about a billion with a new software intelligent program. DARPA this month said it will detail a new system it would like to see built known as the Visual Media Reasoning (PDF) program. The main idea is to develop an advanced software program that can 'turn 'dumb' unstructured, ad hoc photos and video into true visual intelligence.'"
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The NSA already has an A.I. that can do this. Why is the taxpayer paying twice?
The amount of financial fraud is mind blowing.
And in other news, the NSA has discovered A.I.
Use biological *informed* systems. (Score:5, Interesting)
Why not design a connectomics informed system [utah.edu] that mimics the neural retina and visual system? Something that takes the results of research like this and uses true biologically informed computing to do what neural systems are good at and silicon based systems are not so good at? After all, what they are looking at is a system that works like a retina works (more like a video camera and not a still camera), so why not go to the biology which is really good at comparing like streams of information and making like or not like decisions.
More traditional background on retinal design and research can be found here [utah.edu].
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Why not design a connectomics informed system that mimics the neural retina and visual system? Something that takes the results of research like this and uses true biologically informed computing to do what neural systems are good at and silicon based systems are not so good at? After all, what they are looking at is a system that works like a retina works (more like a video camera and not a still camera)
The eyes do not "see" in the sense of processing information. They turn light into nerve impulses. Ho-Hum. We've got that, in fact this isn't about that at all. They are dealing with already captured data anyway.
so why not go to the biology which is really good at comparing like streams of information and making like or not like decisions.
Yeah, biology is really good at making decisions. Shame that not a single person on earth has a system that can replicate it. Nothing even close. Biology is fantastic, but it falls over flat when we try to replicate it on a computer. This is due in large part because a brain tends to have more "pow
Re:Use biological *informed* systems. (Score:4, Interesting)
The eyes do not "see" in the sense of processing information. They turn light into nerve impulses. Ho-Hum. We've got that, in fact this isn't about that at all. They are dealing with already captured data anyway.
Actually they do process information. The neural retina is like a miniature parallel supercomputer at the back of your eye that does initial signal processing from the photoreceptors through the over 50 kinds (200 in other invertebrates) of neurons.
Nothing in biology can be applied to this problem directly, only perhaps simple ideas applied rigorously. Stop spouting your favorite rubbish.
No offense friend, but I can't figure out if this is a troll or that you are simply uninformed here. Biological neural systems are *very* good at discriminating differences in data streams. Nested neural systems then further refine those abstractions and you get more advanced logic. The problem in the past has been discerning what those connectivities are as most current models of neural connectivity grossly underpredict the biological reality of neural circuit complexity.
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When it gets down to it I don't think that we have the processing power or knowledge to emulate the biological processes and even if we could we would then have to understand their output.
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We certainly have not in the even very recent past, because we did not understand how biological systems were actually constructed/wired. This project is an attempt to solve that problem and one of the potential outcomes is a general purpose knowledge of connectivity that can be applied to computational problems.
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Perhaps I treated you unfairly then. I'm going to give your links a good read. Seemed, at first rub, like more of the same old. Now not so much.
I don't mind being wrong, after all. Means I get to learn something new.
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Yeah, biology is really good at making decisions. Shame that not a single person on earth has a system that can replicate it.
Give me one month with Jewel Staite, and I guarantee I'll replicate biology...
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Parse this! (Score:3)
Turn dumb, unstructured, ad hoc photos into video intelligence.
Cool, if it works, it could compress YouTube into about 60 seconds.
Will it ... (Score:2)
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I'm colored white! Oh no!
More irony (Score:3)
Contrast: ""VMR will be an enhanced capability to generate the intelligence required for successful counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism operations" the agency said."
With: http://www.pdfernhout.net/recognizing-irony-is-a-key-to-transcending-militarism.html [pdfernhout.net] ... There is a fundamental mismatch between 21st century reality and 20th century security thinking. Those "security" agencies are using those tools of abundance, cooperation, and sharing mainly from a mindset of scarcity, competition, and secrecy. Given the power of 21st century technology as an amplifier (including as weapons of mass destruction), a scarcity-based approach to using such technology ultimately is just making us all insecure. Such powerful technologies of abundance, designed, organized, and used from a mindset of scarcity could well ironically doom us all whether through military robots, nukes, plagues, propaganda, or whatever else... Or alternatively, as Bucky Fuller and others have suggested, we could use such technologies to build a world that is abundant and secure for all."
"Likewise, even United States three-letter agencies like the NSA and the CIA, as well as their foreign counterparts, are becoming ironic institutions in many ways. Despite probably having more computing power per square foot than any other place in the world, they seem not to have thought much about the implications of all that computer power and organized information to transform the world into a place of abundance for all.
That said, it seems like a cool project technically, with multiple uses in civilian applications.
Finally a topic where the goatse link is on topic (Score:2)
Finally a topic where the goatse link [slashdot.org] is on topic.
Really? (Score:3)
"If a picture is worth a thousand words, the scientists at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency would like to make that about a billion with a new software intelligent program."
I hope the software intelligent program better language parses.
Ambitious (Score:1)
Whatever advances come out of the project might also be applied to doing broad semantic studies of how people use video sharing platforms like YouTube. That would be good for better HCI and, of course, getting more relevant content. Exciting and scary stuff.
Did I just flash? (Score:1)
Maybe now I will get an Intersect in MY head!
Intelligence Gathering, Circa 700BC ? (Score:2)
Couldn't the members of the NSA evaluate a working version of the Sorting Hat used commonly at Hogwarts? I know it sounds goofy, but why not take this concept to the engineers in the BACK OF THE ROOM, the ones that are muttering, "What would it take to make a Sorting Hat?"