Technology being developed in a nondescript office building in Reston could change how Army soldiers train for and operate in combat thousands of miles away.
The Army’s Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) runs on a pair of Microsoft goggles and links to a micronized drone that flies autonomously and collects video analyzed in real time by artificial intelligence algorithms trained to identify threats, like an enemy combatant with an assault rifle coming around a corner, or a vehicle of interest. Detections are sent to a heads-up display within the goggles and are shared across a squad.
“It can all be done at the tactical edge out on the battlefield, using new-edge computing technologies, which basically puts the power of a supercomputer in the soldiers’ hands,” says Rob Albritton, a vice president at Reston-based Octo who heads up the AI Center of Excellence at the federal contractor’s oLabs tech accelerator. Octo has been working on developing AI technology for IVAS since 2020 and is currently working with about 20 government agencies on a variety of other AI projects.
In 2011, IBM’s Watson supercomputer wowed the world, demonstrating the power of artificial intelligence by beating “Jeopardy!” champ Ken Jennings, who still holds the television quiz show’s record for the longest streak of victories. Bowing to defeat, in his response to the match’s final question, Jennings added a “Simpsons”-inspired quip: “I for one welcome our new computer overlords.”
While that sort of doomsday scenario hasn’t occurred, artificial intelligence has matured into a routine — and often unseen — part of our daily lives, moving in recent years from the realm of science fiction to the mundane. From mapping apps on smartphones to technology that helps secure the United States’ borders, AI is performing everything from rote business tasks like scanning health records to helping the Navy search for underwater mines from unmanned surface ships.
Continue reading: https://www.virginiabusiness.com/article/artificial-intelligence-gets-real/
The Army’s Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) runs on a pair of Microsoft goggles and links to a micronized drone that flies autonomously and collects video analyzed in real time by artificial intelligence algorithms trained to identify threats, like an enemy combatant with an assault rifle coming around a corner, or a vehicle of interest. Detections are sent to a heads-up display within the goggles and are shared across a squad.
“It can all be done at the tactical edge out on the battlefield, using new-edge computing technologies, which basically puts the power of a supercomputer in the soldiers’ hands,” says Rob Albritton, a vice president at Reston-based Octo who heads up the AI Center of Excellence at the federal contractor’s oLabs tech accelerator. Octo has been working on developing AI technology for IVAS since 2020 and is currently working with about 20 government agencies on a variety of other AI projects.
In 2011, IBM’s Watson supercomputer wowed the world, demonstrating the power of artificial intelligence by beating “Jeopardy!” champ Ken Jennings, who still holds the television quiz show’s record for the longest streak of victories. Bowing to defeat, in his response to the match’s final question, Jennings added a “Simpsons”-inspired quip: “I for one welcome our new computer overlords.”
While that sort of doomsday scenario hasn’t occurred, artificial intelligence has matured into a routine — and often unseen — part of our daily lives, moving in recent years from the realm of science fiction to the mundane. From mapping apps on smartphones to technology that helps secure the United States’ borders, AI is performing everything from rote business tasks like scanning health records to helping the Navy search for underwater mines from unmanned surface ships.
Continue reading: https://www.virginiabusiness.com/article/artificial-intelligence-gets-real/
