Cheap Visual Bioinfo Sensor
Couple cool uses for this. Biodefense platforms for a community. Flip side, spying on workerbees for a corporation.
So far, graduate student Ming-Zher Poh has demonstrated that the system can indeed extract accurate pulse measurements from ordinary low-resolution webcam imagery. Now he’s working on extending the capabilities so it can measure respiration and blood-oxygen levels. He hopes eventually to be able to monitor blood pressure as well.
Automatically Detecting Disruptive Technology
Earlier this year, the agency solicited proposals for a system that would evaluate and rank the value of expert opinion based on niche, learning style, prior performance and “other attributes predictive of accuracy.”
The end-product that Iarpa’s after would start by poring over sets of loosely related documents, like studies, patents and government reports, on topics as specific as facial recognition or as broad as artificial intelligence. Algorithms would then weigh factors like key words, publication dates and locations, pin down trends over time, and come up with a series of statements and rankings to provide “compelling evidence” that a given innovation or idea will either emerge or fizzle.
Read More http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/10/u-s-spies-want-algorithms-to-spot-hot-trends/#ixzz118bkUDT5
Blurring the HUMINT/Translation Line
Eventually, strategy just devolves into managing hiring locals to achieve an endless stream of objectives with semi-controlled levels of violence. (Open source counterinsurgency.)
Earlier this week, Mission Essential Personnel won a Central Command contract for “aiding in the coordination, planning and execution of intelligence collection operations, exploitation and analytic support” in Afghanistan. It’s worth up to $475 million through 2013. And it comes just months after the company won a re-up from the government for its translator work totaling an eye-opening $679 million.
On A Question of Superempowerment
Adam and Crispin have an interesting piece up on SWJ. The question is, while the a global economic superinfrastructure enables individuals to have ^n’th impact, can this actually bring about a desired change in policy or is it only destructive?
Some food for thought. Simply there are two kinds of superempowered actions. (It’s a question of degrees/intensity rather than categories.)
- Leverage stronger/better/faster information flows to raise awareness or make something go ‘viral’ in an effort to change the way the system works. Think taking over the Discovery Channel headquarters. Or 4Chan. Or Hastings re: McChrystal (though that was really more just traditional press.)
- If you apply overwhelming pressure (9/11) or enough for long enough (Henry Okah). The difference is, you’re not just sending ‘content’ over existing networks, but rather, you’re shaping the system itself. Think an insurgency rather than (armed) protest. That’s superempowerment.
*Wikileaks probably falls somewhere in the transition between the two.
Mumbai-Style in Europe
Like I predicted in 2008, this plot is in motion. Even if this particular instance fails to get off the ground. Notes from my article back then:
- To achieve greater speed and inflict exponentially more damage, terrorists will likely cut out command and control hubs entirely, instead opting for greater operational flexibility and peer-to-peer communication.
- They may use small, cheap, aerial drones or networks of strategically placed webcams or even elaborate disinformation campaigns to misdirect first responders and police forces.
- Their primary common objective will be the creation of chaos, followed by an imperative to stay alive, for the longer they are alive and free, the greater the success that can be achieved.
- It is extremely unlikely their efforts will be limited to that country.