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Boeing wins $11 million UUV refurbishment and testing contract
Industry heavyweight will give the AN/BLQ-11 Long-term Mine Reconnaissance System a thorough going-over; system capable of twelve hours of autonomous reconnaissance before docking itself through the torpedo tube; testing to begin at Puget Sound and Bahamas
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Sony acquires IPIX's intellectual property for $3.6 million
Bankruptcy proceedings offer a ripe opportunity for Sony just as it launches its own video analytics suite; IPIX’s gigapixel camera a tasty morsel; Steve Hunt provides an analysis of Sony’s future success and IPIX’s past failures
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NICE Systems selected for D.C. airport surveillance overhaul
Israeli company recently won contracts to protect Beijing Olympics, Eiffel Tower, and New York City public transit; Reagan National Airport gets a makeover; video surveillance market marches on
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Scotland confronts of a plague of CCTV vandalism
Authorities consider installing cameras to watch the cameras; seven have been destroyed in recent years, some by arson; cost and feasability of plan remain uncertain
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Russian UAV industry lags behind
Country has not a single native model in series production; government buracracy a major hurdle, but so too is a seeming lack of interest from both scientists and generals; government announces its first purchase from a Russian firm
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Northrop and EADS received $559 German UAV contract
EuroHawk GmbH strikes a major deal in the European UAV market after years of effort; German Ministry of Defence impressed with EADS signals intelligence capability; delivery scheduled for 2010
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Magal wins a $6 million contract to secure Israeli army bases
Deal follows recent successes with U.S. water authorities, banks concerned about underground tunnelling, and a Scottish hospital; company will install perimeter detection and command and control systems
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U.K. researchers aid MAV development by solving "bumble-bee paradox"
Due to their small size, micro air vehicles struggle to attain sufficient lift; Bath University scientists discover a seventy-year old secret as to how bees manage to get off the ground; flexible insect-like wings might help MAVs realize full potential
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RE2 wins small business grant to develop agile UGVs
Robotics company known for its SHERPA platform will create a speedy unmanned ground vehicle with a manipulator arm; military has long desired a combination of swiftness and technical prowess; Foster-Miller and Exponent lend a hand
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DoD looks to balloons and UAVs to solve satellite weaknesses
Navy plans a 2009 roll-out for the $7 billion Mobile User Objective System satellite brigade, but DoD lacks funding for the receivers; Global Hawk and Combat Skycat seem promising, but short-term, alternatives
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London Olympics to sport photometric stereo facial recognition technology
Intriguing approach uses a single camera and multiple sequential flashes to develop a “facial skin signature”; software uses slightly differing shadows to generate a 3D image of higher quality than conventional facial recognition systems; skin color and tone can both be identified
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Boeing to integrate ShotSpotter into ScanEagle UAV
Air Force contract shows how two seemingly-unrelated technologies can find a happy marriage in homeland security; planners will conduct a four month test of the ShotSpotter’s ability to locate sniper fire; system could be in Iraq soon afterwards
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British researchers marry lip-reading to video analytics
Government hopes that software will enable them to solve crimes based on conversations gleaned from CCTV; tracking the head and lip remain a challenge, but progress is being made; Asian and African languages present difficulties
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NYC to allow citizens to upload photos during 911 and 311 calls
Breakthrough concept relies on established technology to help diffuse information; photos of suspicious individuals can be quickly uploaded to dispatch authorities; citizens protect infrastructure by keeping their eyes (and apertures) open
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More headlines
The long view
Using Drone Swarms to Fight Forest Fires
Forest fires are becoming increasingly catastrophic across the world, accelerated by climate change. Researchers are using multiple swarms of drones to tackle natural disasters like forest fires.
Testing Cutting-Edge Counter-Drone Technology
Drones have many positive applications, bad actors can use them for nefarious purposes. Two recent field demonstrations brought government, academia, and industry together to evaluate innovative counter-unmanned aircraft systems.