Defense & National Security
Case Studies
Newsfor Defense & National Security
Airbus is investing in developing autonomous passenger aircraft
Airbus has set the goal of developing autonomous planes that operate with just one person pilot. It is working with Chinese tech and AI companies in order to make self-driving technologies found in the automotive industry applicable to airplanes. To accelerate the development of the project, which in the future would cut staffing costs down, the company has committed to setting up an innovation hub in Shenzhen, China.
Linked use case: Automate aircraft piloting
Airbus is offering a virtual assistant for astronauts that gives companionship and expert advice while in space through a neural network based astronaut assistance system
Airbus has designed an AI-based assistant for astronauts, a machine able to support space flight crews by problem solving and ensuring the completion of a routine schedule. Using IBM''s Watson it provides the psychological support of talking to a crew member, which is believed is crucial for the success of long-term missions. The assistant will first be tested by Alexander Gerst on the ISS during the European Space Agency’s Horizons mission in mid-2018.
Linked use case: Deploy robots to replace human staff
Airbus used deep machine vision to detect clouds in satellites decreasing the error rate from 11% to 3%
Airbus used convolutional neural networks to detect clouds in satellite imagery. They decreased the error rate from 11% to 3%, a 72% improvement. They used the TensorFlow ML framework and results were obtained in about a month.
Linked use case: Identify physical properties of scanned images
Beijing Police identify people by their walking gait from up to 50 metres away
Beijing Police are using gait recognition technology to identify individuals based on their physical features when walking. The benefit of this technology is that it can be used from further away than facial recognition technology. One of the vendors of this software is Watrix, although the technology does not work yet in real-time.
Linked use case: Identify security-related individual targets from range of data including sensors, camera feeds and suspect activity
Chinese authorities trial facial recognition technology to identify parallel traders at Hong Kong-Shenzhen border
The Chinese General Administration of Customs has announced that a facial recognition technology system is now in use at the Shenzhen Bay and Lo Wu checkpoints. It aims to streamline travellers'' checking process at the border while primarily to identify parallel traders. No further details have been given as to what will happen when a traveller is flagged as a potential parallel trader based on the database which real-time footage is compared against.
Linked use case: Identify persons of interest to law enforcement through facial recognition
Chinese facial recognition technology mistakes businesswoman''s face on bus ad for someone actually jaywalking
The city of Ningbo, China used facial recognition to identify people crossing the road illegally, referred to as ''jaywalkers''. The system is installed at six intersections in the city and has captured more than 7,800 incidents. However, the system showed its limitations as it got confused by the face of the famous Chinese businesswoman, Dong Mingzhu in an advertisement on the side of a bus. Authorities have admitted that the technology failed and have since update the system to prevent such errors.
Linked use case: Identify persons of interest to law enforcement through facial recognition
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Centre predicted at expert-level 91% accuracy which students are at higher risk of perpetrating school violence using machine learning on interview scores
A pilot study indicates that AI may be useful in predicting which students are at higher risk of perpetrating school violence. At 91% accuracy it is as accurate as a team of child and adolescent psychiatrists, including a forensic psychiatrist.
Linked use case: Predict likelihood of recividism or criminal activity on an individual basis
DARPA simulates flight and landing of Boeing 737 by an AI-driven robot co-pilot
DARPA has announced the successful simulated flight and landing of a Boeing 737 by an AI-driven robot co-pilot named ALIAS, which is an acronym for Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System. The system was build by Aurora Flight Sciences and consists of cameras, machine learning technology and a robotic arm capable of operating all of the cockpit’s controls.
Linked use case: Automate aircraft piloting
Deep Sentinel identifies neighbourhood security threats using machine vision that can detect potential intruders and other events
Using computer vision and machine learning, Deep Sentinel wants to make security systems intelligent. Next gen cameras will be constantly monitoring the neighbourhood to learn about normal happenings and familiar faces in the neighbourhood. Activities are classified into threat or normal and law enforcement is alerted as fit.
Linked use case: Identify security-related individual targets from range of data including sensors, camera feeds and suspect activity
Durham Police Constabulary improves custody decisions by predicting whether offenders will re-offend using machine learning that results in 98% avoidance of false negatives
Durham Police Constabulary predicts whether an offender is at high-risk of offending. If so they are charged and those with a lower risk are offered a rehabilitation program and forgo a criminal conviction. The modelling used random forest machine learning based on comprehensive profiles of individuals from Experian such as geography, family composition, occupation and even names linked to ethnicity. This resulted in prediction accuracy of over 60% and 98% accurate in avoiding false negatives.
Linked use case: Predict likelihood of recividism or criminal activity on an individual basis
Dutch police plan to use machine learning to detect illegal substances sent in the mail based on X-rays
The Dutch police are planning to implement an AI system which analyses X-ray scans to detect illegal substances, such as drugs, contained in letters and parcels without opening them. The pilot will begin in January 2019.
Linked use case: Identify physical properties of scanned images
Enigma Pattern cracked the German WW2 Enigma code in just under 13 minutes by recognising German language patterns
Using Grimm''s Fairy Tales to train the AI it took 12 minutes and 50 seconds to decrypt a coded message with over 53 billion different combinations of letters. The father of modern AI, Turing, cut his teeth leading Britain''s efforts to break Germany''s Second World War Enigma codes - this showed how far technology has come in ~70 years...
Linked use case: Automate code breaking
FBI maintains law enforcement database searchable by facial recognition
The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) maintains a large database of over 20M facial photographs which can be searched using facial recognition. This database is used by various law enforcement agencies both inside and outside the United States.
Linked use case: Identify persons of interest to law enforcement through facial recognition
HM Prison Service trials facial recognition to identify visitors and reduce contraband
HM Prison Service has trialled a facial recognition system at its facility HM Humber. The goal is to identify visitors who may be using fake IDs or other credentials to smuggle contraband in for prisoners.
Linked use case: Identify persons of interest to law enforcement through facial recognition
Hanwha Aerospace supply Korean military with SGR-A1 autonomous sentry gun to protect their border with North Korea
Hanwha Aerospace (formerly Samsung Techwin) have supplied the Republic of Korean military with the SGR-A1 autonomous sentry gun to protect their border with North Korea. The aim is to reduce the potential casualties to and increase the firepower from the national defences in the event of an attack.
Linked use case: Automate operation of military installations e.g. sentry guns
Homeland Security tests facial recognition technology around the White House
The Department of Homeland Security has shared details of a U.S. Secret Service plan to test facial recognition technology in and around the White House for security purposes. Existing camera in the White House Complex will be used to analyse images of individuals passing by on public streets and parks in the area and cross-check them against persons of interest. To train the system and prove its usability, for now the persons of interest are volunteer staff members. The test was to begin on November 19th and carry on until August 30th, 2019, however it is not clear if the test is actually in operation.
Linked use case: Identify persons of interest to law enforcement through facial recognition
Indian Army plans AI driven translation to communicate with Chinese soldiers in real-time
India shares a border with China. The lack of Chinese speaking Indian Army soldiers creates an impediment to communications in a sensitive area. It has been identified as a key issue for their Army. Cogknit Semantics Pvt Ltd has offered the army an AI solution that can translate Chinese into English or Hindi in real-time. This is planned and it is not clear if the Indian Army will adopt.
Linked use case: Translate languages in real time to facilitate understanding
Jiangxi Province Police in China used facial recognition technology to identify and arrest a single person of interest in a concert crowd of 60,000
China has the largest CCTV network in the world with an estimated 170m cameras in place with and further 400m planned. The cameras are highly sophisticated with facial recognition technology trained on massive data sets that contain information on every one of China''s 1.4b population. Recently the Jiangxi Province Police was able to locate and arrest one person of interest in a concert crowd of 60,000.
Linked use case: Identify persons of interest to law enforcement through facial recognition
Labsix researchers generate images and objects which deceive Google''s image classifier successfully 96% and 84% of the time but remain undetectable to humans
Researchers develop an algorithm which can trick neural network-based image classifiers into misclassifying images of 2D and 3D objects. The disruptions to the images are undetectable to humans but worked to cause Google''s image classifier into miscategorising them 96% of the time for the 2D images and 84% for the 3D objects.
Linked use case: Deploy decoy assets to support activities such as network security management
London Metropolitan Police plan automatically detecting illegal and inappropriate material on confiscated devices
The London Metropolitan Police plan to implement AI software which can identify inappropriate and illegal content, such as child pornography, stored on confiscated devices. Currently their software identifies guns and drugs.
Linked use case: Identify illegal or inappropriate images on devices confiscated by the police
Malaysia''s Auxiliary Force improves pubic security by equipping officers with
In February 2018, Malaysia’s Auxiliary Force deployed Yitu Technology''s facial recognition technology. By equipping the Force’s officers'' uniforms with live body cameras, officials will be able to analyse the footage and identify persons of interest.
Linked use case: Identify persons of interest to law enforcement through facial recognition
NASA and Autodesk reduce the weight of designs for space craft lander by 35% using machine learning for generative design
NASA''s Jet Propulsion Laboratory worked with Autodesk to generate a new deep space landing craft that would be lighter in weight than existing models. Autodesk utilised machine learning in the design generation
Linked use case: Enable self-learning option generation in CAD software
NASA automates 86% of HR transactions through Robotic Process Automation, RPA, of administrative tasks
NASA implemented Robotic Process Automation (RPA) on four administrative tasks in IT, accounts and HR in a shared services environment. RPA based business-process automation replicates typical back office tasks involving data manipulation and entry between multiple systems such as updating a customer address, for example. NASA claims 86% of transactions were completed without human intervention in their HR processes.
Linked use case: Digitise and automate processes using Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
NASA replaced output from a faulty sensor in space by using other sensor data to predict the ultraviolet radiation sensor measurements with 97% accuracy
NASA encountered a malfunction in Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) satellite''s instrument that measures ultraviolet light. Researchers from IBM, the SETI Institute, Nimbix, Lockheed Martin, and academia were able to use the data gathered from the satellite''s two other instruments to make up for the lost data on extreme ultraviolet radiation sensor measurements. The team was able to to create a deep learning neural network that predicted the required data with greater than 97% accuracy.
Linked use case: Predict testing outcomes
NASA successfully researchers detection of anomalies in rocket propulsion using machine learning
NASA investigated four different unsupervised learning systems for anomaly detection using data from its space shuttle main engine and a rocket engine test stand. The systems successfully detected a major system failure along with several sensor failures and additional anomalies in testing.
Linked use case: Discover anomalies across fleet of vehicle sensor data to identify potential risks