Research and development company X Development, a part of Alphabet, is working on an artificial intelligence-powered prototype geolocation and georectification technology meant to enhance the natural disaster response awareness and analysis capabilities of the National Guard.
The Defense Innovation Unit said Wednesday that the prototype, dubbed Bellwether, uses AI to identify the positioning of Civil Air Patrol aerial images it has ingested and identify and label critical infrastructure contained within them.
Bellwether is able to establish a match even when the CAP image shows heavy damage or changes to the landscape.
According to Georgia Air National Guard Master Sgt. Kenneth Houck, the prototype reduces the amount of time spent doing CAP imagery analysis from days to seconds, meaning, “the Guard can now react faster than ever in the critical moments after a natural disaster.”
For his part, DIU Senior Scientist and Program Manager for Remote Sensing Nirav Patel touted Bellwether’s ability to make sense even of aerial images taken from different angles, which can help reduce the amount of time needed to respond to those in need.
Bellwether is the result of a solicitation issued by the DIU on behalf of the National Guard in 2022 for AI-powered technologies that can process electro-optical aerial images.
