The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency has selected an undisclosed company to prototype image scanning technology to support the agency’s efforts to digitize its geospatial mapping data, C4ISRnet reported Thursday.
Christy Monaco, chief ventures officer at the NGA’s Office of Ventures and Innovation, told the publication that it awarded an other transaction agreement to a small business that specializes in scanning technology.
NGA seeks to digitize its datasets including historical film-based images that may be used for the development of predictive analytics and automated target detection capabilities. The agency aims to complete digitization by 2030 before its historical films disintegrate.
According to Monaco, nontraditional acquisition approaches and partnerships with companies that don’t normally work with the government helps NGA drive a culture of innovation. Monaco, who also facilitates staff training on new procurement methods, said she seeks to help the NGA workforce “ better find new ways to think about the intelligence problems that they are working on in an unclassified way”.
NGA maintains over 170 million historical images from as far back as 1935.
