KITWARE INC — Department of Defense SBIR Phase II: AF153-001

Description

ABSTRACT:Kitware and the DIRS Lab at RIT propose an open, extensible software framework and demonstration system with automated change detection, tipping and cueing for exploitation of commercial satellite imagery and video. A small satellite revolution is underway in the venture-funded, commercial market. Our proposed open system will tap into this world, engage key providers, and evolve with them to continuously augment national assets with intelligence from commercial data.Our system will integrate our existing state-of-the art algorithms for satellite image registration, object detection, change detection and more.Our algorithms use the latest deep learning techniques, enabling rapid adaptation to new changes, objects and/orsensor characteristics using the DIRSIG simulation model.Our system will build on Kitware-developed open source frameworks for distributed processing and management of heterogeneous big data sources.It will leverage Kitware geographic visualization and analytics capabilities packaged into a modern, browser-based dynamic user interface.This demonstration system will be delivered for analyst assessment and transition into operations at Air Force, the intelligence community and commercial companies. WIth great potential for both military and commercial analytics, applications range from mapping crop damage in precision agriculture to commercial vehicle counting to adversary order of battle monitoring.BENEFIT:The primary benefit of the proposed work is the ability to leverage diverse, emerging, commercial satellite imagery and video for improved intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR). The proposed framework offers an efficient way to take advantage of new commercial data products, while enabling dramatic improvements in analyst efficiency and effectiveness through advanced algorithms for change detection, tipping and cueing.Additionally, the framework will benefit a variety of commercial stakeholders by making satellite data readily accessible for analysis, coupled with a comprehensive suite of state-of-the-art algorithms for the most critical exploitation problems. Satellite data can be used to monitor and analyze a multitude of factors that commercial companies can leverage for competitive advantage in various domains, such as urban planning, climate monitoring, and agriculture. Releasing both the framework and the analytics as open source will strongly encourage new and emerging companies to adopt the system, while building upon it to create a vibrant open source community for the mutual benefit of all.