• RAID surveillance system deployed along border

    Aerostats differ from blimps in that blimps are powered, while aerostats are anchored to the ground through a cranked tether that also supplies electrical power

  • Aerostats used along India-Pakistan border and in other hotspots

    Unpowered blimps have been used for two decades now; the one aerostat Kuwait owned alerted its leadership to the Iraqi tanks rolling toward the border in 1990; India, Pakistan buy them to bolster their border security

  • Growing problem: Private security companies pose risk to privacy

    Government mandates in the U.K. now require more and more businesses to collect more and more information about individuals who use these businesses’ services; private contractors are hired to handled the collection and handling of the personal information collected; these contractors are not bound by the tight rules governing the government handling of such information (not that the U.K. government is doing a very good job following these rules)

  • Unstructured data search: Attensity Corp. forms Attensity Group

    What with the mountains of information the Internet age allows, there is a need to search these vast haystacks for the few important needles; this is what unstructured data searches do; a leading player, Attensity Corporation, joins with Empolis GmbH and Living-e AG to form Attensity Group

  • General Atomics shows latest entry in Predator UAV series

    With a 41-foot long fuselage and 66-foot wingspan, the Predator C Avenger is capable of flying at over 400 KTAS and can operate up to 60,000 feet

  • Pocket-size choppers for soldiers, first responders

    Norwegian company successfully tests a tiny helicopter — it is just over 10 cm long and weighs 0.5 grams; it will be used to look inside a building, over a hill or crest, or down a tunnel

  • DARPA seeks deep-learning AI to cope with flood of information

    The growing use of UAVs to loiter over enemy territory and send images and streaming videos back to HQ has created a glut of information; DARPA seeks a better, deeper, and more layered artificial intelligence to help the intelligence community cope with the avalanche of information coming in

  • U.S. tests large flying wing-type UAV in Afghanistan

    Hazy photographs emerged of a large flying-wing UAV — or, rather, UCAV (unmanned combat air vehicle) —on a runway in a military base in Afghanistan; the shape and assumed capabilities indicate growing role of unmanned system in attack missions

  • Watching the watchers: new solution monitors CCTV operators

    People watching CCTV images back in the control rooms often have too many screens to monitor at once, and as a result may miss the criminal or antisocial activities they are there to spot; a new solution monitor the monitors

  • Russia places orders for more than 50 Israeli UAVs

    As was the case with the United States in the 1970s and 1980s, Russia has been slow to warm up to UAVs; the August 2008 Russia-Georgia war changed minds in Russia

  • CCTV doorbell could deter, catch crooks

    New CCTV-equipped doorbell takes pictures of people ringing your doorbell, and stores picture for future use

  • Area image sensor market will experience healthy growth

    Charge-coupled device (CCD) image sensors will remain about flat through 2013, but sales of complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) sensors will increase significantly; CMOS will make up 62 percent of security camera image sensors by 2013

  • Dennis Blair ousts ONI Inspector General

    Last November, the Inspector General (IG) at the U.S. Office of National Intelligence issued a report in which he highlighted ongoing problems inside ONI and the intelligence community, including poor communication, turf battles, incompatible computer systems, and mission confusion; last Friday, Dennis Blair, director of ONI, fired the IG

  • California politician wants to censor online maps

    The twin developments of improved satellite imagery and the availability of such images on Google Maps lead many to worry that among the main beneficiaries of these developments are terrorists; in California a law is being debated which would blur features of sensitive buildings and sites

  • Privacy advocates: fusion centers threat to civil liberties

    U.S. intelligence fusion centers — in which federal, state, and local authorities collaborate in collecting, analyzing, vetting, and disseminating intelligence to first responders on the ground in an effort to disrupt terrorist or criminal activity — have grown dramatically since 9/11: DHS now recognizes 70 such centers, and they engage 800,000 state and local law enforcement officers; privacy advocates worry