Spy Agencies Seeking Leap-Ahead Surveillance Technologies
By Vivienne Machi
The Intelligence Advanced Research Project Activity is looking to develop several surveillance technologies that can help federal agencies prevent terrorist and, in some cases, cyber attacks, its director said Sept. 1.
"This is a record-setting year in terms of … the number of new programs," said Jason Matheny at a National Defense Industrial Association executive breakfast in Washington, D.C. The intelligence community's counterpart to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has three times as many programs in development in 2016 than it did in 2015, he said.
IARPA serves 17 government agencies, from the military, to intelligence services including the National Reconnaissance Office and the Treasury and Energy Departments. About 70 percent of its projects transition into government operations, Matheny said.
The office will soon receive solicitations for several programs including DIVA, which aims to detect activity in video surveillance in real time, such as a person abandoning an object, two people exchanging an object, or a person carrying a firearm.
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