VIRAT on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
The Video and Image Retrieval and Analysis Tool (VIRAT) program is a 
*Single person: Digging, loitering, picking up, throwing, exploding/burning, carrying, shooting, launching, walking, limping, running, kicking, smoking, gesturing
*Person-to-person: Following, meeting, gathering, moving as a group, dispersing, shaking hands, kissing, exchanging objects, kicking, carrying an object together
*Person-to-vehicle: Driving, getting-in (out), loading (unloading), opening (closing) trunk, crawling under car, breaking window, shooting/launching, exploding/burning, dropping off, picking up
*Person-to-facility: Entering (exiting), standing, waiting at checkpoint, evading checkpoint, climbing atop, passing through gate, dropping off
*Vehicle: Accelerating (decelerating), turning, stopping, overtaking/passing, exploding/burning, discharging, shooting, moving together, forming into convoys, maintaining distance
*Other: VIP activities (convoy, parade, receiving line, troop formation, speaking to crowds), riding/leading animal, bicycling
There are already highly developed object detection systems (e.g. programs that can determine whether an object in video footage is a "car" or a "person wearing a backpack"). VIRAT will utilize what is currently available for object detection. It is not within the scope of VIRAT to fund research in object detection, unless it is somehow related to identifying certain types of activities, like those mentioned above.
The DARPA program manager for the VIRAT project is Dr. Mita Desai.
DARPA solicitations
FBO contracting awards and solicitations
Surveillance Computer vision software
The Video and Image Retrieval and Analysis Tool (VIRAT) program is a video surveillance
Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of closed-circuit television cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television in that the signal ...
project funded by the Information Processing Technology Office
The Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO), originally "Command and Control Research",Lyon, Matthew; Hafner, Katie (1999-08-19). ''Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins Of The Internet'' (p. 39). Simon & Schuster. Kindle Edition. was par ...
of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. Originally known as the Adva ...
(DARPA).
The purpose of the program was to create a database that could store large quantities of video, and make it easily searchable by intelligence agents to find "video content of interest" (e.g. "find all of the footage where three or more people are standing together in a group") -- this is known as " content-based searching".
The other primary purpose was to create software that could provide "alerts" to intelligence operatives during live operations (e.g. "a person just entered the building").
The focus of VIRAT is primarily on footage from UAVs such as the MQ-1 Predator
The General Atomics MQ-1 Predator (often referred to as the Predator drone) is an American remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) built by General Atomics that was used primarily by the United States Air Force (USAF) and Central Intelligence Agency ...
. As of the writing of the project solicitation in March 2008, most analysis of drone footage is done in a very labor-intensive manner by humans, who have to do manual "fast-forwarding" searches through video, or perform search queries of metadata
Metadata (or metainformation) is "data that provides information about other data", but not the content of the data itself, such as the text of a message or the image itself. There are many distinct types of metadata, including:
* Descriptive ...
or annotations added to videos earlier. The goal of VIRAT is to change all of this and have a large portion of the burden taken off of humans, and automating the analysis of surveillance video.
VIRAT will focus heavily on developing means to be able to search through databases containing thousands of hours of video, looking for footage where certain types of activities took place, such as:
*Single person: Digging, loitering, picking up, throwing, exploding/burning, carrying, shooting, launching, walking, limping, running, kicking, smoking, gesturing
*Person-to-person: Following, meeting, gathering, moving as a group, dispersing, shaking hands, kissing, exchanging objects, kicking, carrying an object together
*Person-to-vehicle: Driving, getting-in (out), loading (unloading), opening (closing) trunk, crawling under car, breaking window, shooting/launching, exploding/burning, dropping off, picking up
*Person-to-facility: Entering (exiting), standing, waiting at checkpoint, evading checkpoint, climbing atop, passing through gate, dropping off
*Vehicle: Accelerating (decelerating), turning, stopping, overtaking/passing, exploding/burning, discharging, shooting, moving together, forming into convoys, maintaining distance
*Other: VIP activities (convoy, parade, receiving line, troop formation, speaking to crowds), riding/leading animal, bicycling
There are already highly developed object detection systems (e.g. programs that can determine whether an object in video footage is a "car" or a "person wearing a backpack"). VIRAT will utilize what is currently available for object detection. It is not within the scope of VIRAT to fund research in object detection, unless it is somehow related to identifying certain types of activities, like those mentioned above.
The DARPA program manager for the VIRAT project is Dr. Mita Desai.
See also
*Biometrics
Biometrics are body measurements and calculations related to human characteristics and features. Biometric authentication (or realistic authentication) is used in computer science as a form of identification and access control. It is also used t ...
* Human identification at a distance
The Information Awareness Office (IAO) was established by the United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in January 2002 to bring together several DARPA projects focused on applying surveillance and information technology ...
* Information Processing Technology Office
The Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO), originally "Command and Control Research",Lyon, Matthew; Hafner, Katie (1999-08-19). ''Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins Of The Internet'' (p. 39). Simon & Schuster. Kindle Edition. was par ...
* MALINTENT
* Cameras
A camera is an instrument used to capture and store images and videos, either digitally via an electronic image sensor, or chemically via a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. As a pivotal technology in the fields of photograp ...
References
{{reflistExternal links
DARPA solicitations
FBO contracting awards and solicitations
Surveillance Computer vision software