Meet ARGUS: The World’s Highest Resolution Video Surveillance Platform

The most interesting this about this creepy camera brought to you by the kind folks at the Defense Advance d Research Projects Agency (DARPA), is the fact that just like in George Orwell’s classic dystopic novel 1984, the government wants you to know they have this technology.  From ExtremeTech:

DARPA and the US Army have taken the wraps off ARGUS-IS, a 1.8-gigapixel video surveillance platform that can resolve details as small as six inches from an altitude of 20,000 feet (6km). ARGUS is by far the highest-resolution surveillance platform in the world, and probably the highest-resolution camera in the world, period.

ARGUS, which would be attached to some kind of unmanned UAV (such as the Predator) and flown at an altitude of around 20,000 feet, can observe an area of 25 square kilometers (10sqmi) at any one time. If ARGUS was hovering over New York City, it could observe half of Manhattan. Two ARGUS-equipped drones, and the US could keep an eye on the entirety of Manhattan, 24/7.

The original goal was to deploy ARGUS in Afghanistan, but that never came to pass. It isn’t entirely clear what ARGUS’s future is; it was meant to be mounted on Boeing’s high-altitude A160 Hummingbird helicopter (pictured right), but the chopper has since been scrapped. If ARGUS is to be deployed, it will most likely be strapped to the underbelly of a Predator drone. Where it will be used, however, with the war in Afghanistan apparently winding down, is another question entirely. Its efficacy in a military setting would be unsurpassed, but it’s easy to imagine how ARGUS could be used here at home in the US, too.

Well isn’t that cute.  Now take the time to meet ARGUS, also known as Wide Area Persistent Stare.

Full article here.

In Liberty,
Mike

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20 thoughts on “Meet ARGUS: The World’s Highest Resolution Video Surveillance Platform”

  1. Yes, the GigaPixel resolution is amazing. You can go to youtube and just type in gigapix for some examples. I liked the GigaPix from Prince William’s wedding – Incredible! Yes, NY City will probably have automated ticketing for tobacco smoking violations in unauthorized locations = New Yorkers would be wise to follow Colorado’s lead in regulating cannabis like alcohol.

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  2. This, and similar advances in technology, will be invaluable in the struggle against all forms of anti-democratic terrorism, not to mention every day issues like search and rescue. It is not the technology per se which is dangerous, it is the use that it is put to.

    Holding politicians accountable for their actions is the key to Democracy.

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    • Ha ha ha! The Sheeple will never hear about this. MSM silence is an integral part of the roll out, thus the pols will never suffer. So dies the Republic, ai it decends into democracy then despotism.

    • “Holding politicians accountable…”

      Yes. Following that line of thought, having a small and limited gov’t is the key to being able to hold politicians accountable. Because no one can keep track of what the gov’t is up to in its current bloated state.

      I don’t completely buy the ‘tech is neutral’ idea. The cost of most high-tech puts it out of the reach of most people, so only a relative handful, whether private parties or gov’t, decide how it is used. Invariably humans have less than perfect ethics, and some will seek to use their priveleged access to tech to further their own selfish ends, dishonestly. What to do about this? I don’t know.

      Finally, what are you talking about, ‘anti-democratic terrorism’? You mean what the US gov’t is doing, both in the US and abroad? Sorry, they’re the ones that control the technology.

  3. And now a word from: Oh-Bummer-Drone-Biden

    “Hello folks, If you don’t like me I got three words for ya.
    ARGUS Predator Drone.” “You think you can hide out just getting by off the grid, avoiding your mandatory healthcare.” “Well you’re not going to get out of it.” “My Youth program in conjunction with Ameri-Corps and my Drone Fleet will find you.” “Just take your shots, and your mandatory pills, and pay your mandatory Insurance Bills.”

    “We will have peace in this nation, good night folks.”

    Everyone read along…
    I pledge alligiance to Barak the Immortal leader of the United States.

    Reply
  4. This technology is ALREADY being deployed for use by police across the US and has been used in multiple states across the US. This tech is a complete violation of privacy and constitutional rights and is the very definition of a police surveillance state. One device that literally tracks everyone in the city and databases their movements for forensic discovery is an assault on one’s freedom from unreasonable search. In an environment of gun bans, whistleblower imprisonment, indefinite detention, torture, dragnet electronic spying and secret law, ARGUS and Persistics are existential threats to individual liberty, privacy and constitutional rights. Join Teame Zazzu in opposing the deployment of Wide Area Persistent Surveillance technologies inside the USA.

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