In 2007, DARPA was
awarded a contract with a budget of $18.5 million to develop the Autonomous
Real-Time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance Imaging System, more commonly known as
ARGUS-IS. Recently, a limited amount of details regarding this military
surveillance system were released to the public. This technology, designed by
Yiannis Antoniades, has incredibly innovative and impressive capabilities.
ARGUS is actually composed of 368 5 megapixel cell phone cameras in a mosaic-like
form which are mounted to a drone. The video stream from each of these chips is
blended together to create an incredible 1.8 billion pixel real-time video
stream, capturing areas up to 15 square miles in a single glance. The
resolution is so defined that an operative can zoom in from 17,500 feet to
clearly view an object as close as 6 inches from the ground. Not only does
ARGUS-IS stream video at a rate of 600 gigabytes per second, but it also is
capable of storing a million terabytes, or 5,000 hours of high definition
footage per day. And this is just what the government has allowed us to know so
far.
Whether or not the
implications of the ARGUS-IS are cool or terrifying is disputable. First, let’s
delve into the positive aspects of this technology. The fact that this imaging
system can transmit 600 gigabytes of data per second is a huge leap into the
future of wireless data transfer technology. Although it is unclear what this
means for everyday Americans, it is not unwise to assume that this will impact
the speed at which we are able to transmit data on a societal level. ARGUS-IS
is also obviously beneficial for its very purpose: to make military
reconnaissance more reliable. With this technology, American military
operatives will have the ability to gain more reliable information from further
away. There is also a possibility that ARGUS-IS could be used in the field of
law enforcement to do anything from locating criminals to finding missing
persons.
The fact that some
pieces of the sensor are still considered classified information raises
suspicion, and fairly so, in the minds of many Americans. The use of this
device on American soil presents an array of problems, most of which arise from
the potential for conflict with rights guaranteed in the United States
Constitution. The Fourth Amendment
offers protection against warrantless searches and seizures, which in recent
years has been extended to include the use of GPS devices to track
citizens. Now, one of the
features of the ARGUS-IS is its ability to isolate and record the movement of
specific objects in its field of view.
Because this type of technology is unprecedented, no legislation has
been passed with regards to its use in America, but it is certain to be found
to conflict with the rights assured in the Fourth Amendment. The unsettling nature of this device is
not limited to the infringement upon Constitutional rights, however. In recent years, there has been a significant
increase in the amount of surveillance that each citizen is placed under every
day. The addition of the
surveillance ability of the ARGUS-IS would only be another step towards a
George Orwell-esque future in which we are constantly monitored and controlled
by “The man”.
