DARPA Project Will Literally Look for a Needle in a Haystack

By John Farrier in Science & Tech on Jan 11, 2010 at 7:29 pm

DARPA is the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a US government organization that performs research in military technology. One of their current projects, the Fine Detail Optical Surveillance (FDOS), hopes to develop optical equipment sensitive enough to literally “a needle moving along the surface of a haystack.” That phrase is actually in the specs:

The program can be described as developing the technology and systems analogous to that required for the rapid imaging and identification, without the need for scanning or focusing of the optical receiver, of a needle moving along the surface of a haystack, where the location and type of needle on the haystack is uncertain.

Link via DVICE | Photo: NASA


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  1. zeytoun
    Jan 11th, 2010 at 8:42 pm

    It’s a needle IN a haystack, not a needle on the surface of some hay.

    Besides, finding a needle in the haystack is easy. Just light it on fire.

  2. Johnny Cat
    Jan 11th, 2010 at 9:40 pm

    I once found a sewing needle in a haystack. True story.

  3. Skipweasel
    Jan 12th, 2010 at 2:56 am

    A needle would have a fairly limite range of possible lengths and shapes. That would seem a much simpler problem than looking for the more generalised field of “threat” which I presume the final article is intended to detect.


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