U.S. Air Force Eyes New Algorithms for Target Surveillance

December 14, 2009

The mathematics of groups, fields, and rings may enable the U.S. Air Force to produce better surveillance and identification of targets.

Being able to detect, outline, and reveal obscure patterns and features under difficult conditions like dust, fog, bushes, and other obstructions, means better military planning in the field.

In the past, adequate surveillance required a careful human review of vast amounts of material. While the human factor is still essential in several aspects, using sophisticated algebraic theories has cut the time overhead by 99%.

"One challenge of the research is the matching of the algebraic structure to the data and problems at hand," said Richard A. Albanese, lead researcher at U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory in Arlington, Virginia. "We are applying algebraic structures to data index sets and in this way finding patterns that were not easily detectable before," he said in a press release for Wright Patterson Air Force Base.

"This technology is the result of several remarkable insights by two innovative mathematicians, Dr. Myoung An and Dr. Richard Tolimieri," said lead researcher, Dr. Richard A. Albanese of Air Force Research Laboratory.

Source: Wright Patterson Air Force Base (November 19, 2009).