RESTON, Va., 25 Jan. 2008. ObjectVideo Inc. has received a contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to provide the ground station component for a new class of aircraft-based surveillance systems being developed under DARPA's Autonomous Real-Time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance Imaging System (ARGUS-IS) program.

The ARGUS-IS program's goal is to develop a compact system combining a multi-gigapixel, high-resolution sensor; wide-field optics; an ultra-high-bandwidth, real-time airborne processing system; and a ground station for interactive multitarget designation, tracking, and exploitation.

The airborne processing system can simultaneously and continuously detect and track the presence and motion of thousands of small or large targets over an area covering tens of square miles. ObjectVideo will provide the system's ground station capabilities that will display, analyze, manipulate, and archive the data gathered from the airborne surveillance components. ObjectVideo's intelligent video software suite will be used to boost the productivity of ARGUS-IS in several important ways, including automated alerting, intelligent data reduction and video forensics.

"The ability to perform persistent surveillance over large areas is vital to the continued success of U.S. Forces and ObjectVideo is proud to be a part of the program that will exponentially enhance the capabilities of existing systems," says Paul Brewer, ObjectVideo co-founder and vice president of new technology. "ARGUS will produce an enormous amount of data to be processed and leveraged by the ground station, creating a pressing need for automation and data reduction based on intelligent video analysis. Effective ground-based processing of video data will be a key part of the overall system success."

The objective of the ARGUS-IS program is to develop a high-resolution, wide-area video persistent surveillance capability that will provide joint forces with real-time situational awareness and a means to keep critical areas of interest under constant surveillance with a high degree of target location accuracy.