Web application designed to fight piracy

NASHUA, NH, 29 May 2012. In this week's Military & Aerospace Electronics Report, Skyler Frink discusses a new application that is being designed to combat piracy by combining information from networks around the globe.

Transcription:

This is the Military & Aerospace Electronics Report, I'm Skyler Frink

There are applications for everything nowadays. Checking bank accounts, going on Twitter and playing games, you do any number of things on any device that connects to the Internet. Pretty soon you might be able to help catch pirates as easily as you can update your status on Facebook, well, if you're a sailor.

The Department of Defense is going to be funding an Office of Naval Research project for developing web applications to assist multinational navies police the oceans. The goal is to create widgets that allow sailors to analyze data to combat pirates, smugglers, illegal fishermen and other ne'redowells at sea.

The application will be compatible with maritime network systems and allow navies around the world to share data and use the tools available in an effort to catch nefarious vessels. Goals for the project include producing software that will improve automation, small-target detection and intent detection on devices that monitor the ocean in order to identify potential criminal craft.

This project is a refreshing one, showing that by banding together and sharing technology a specific set of crime can be more easily beaten. It's always a good thing to see the Internet and modern technology be used for nations to assist each other rather than launch attacks.

Could the end of piracy be brought about by an application?

For the Military and Aerospace Electronics report, I'm Skyler Frink.