The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA), the research and development arm of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, announced today the Biometric Recognition & Identification at Altitude and Range (BRIAR) program — a multi-year research effort to develop new software systems capable of performing whole-body biometric identification from great heights and long ranges.
The program’s advanced research and technologies will enable the Intelligence Community and Department of Defense to recognize or identify individuals under challenging conditions, such as from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), at far distances, and through distortions caused by atmospheric turbulence.
“National security technologies must accurately and reliably operate under conditions that are extremely difficult for existing biometric technologies to succeed in,” said program manager Dr. Lars Ericson. “I am confident that our excellent team of research organizations, scientists, and engineers will push the research forward and build technologies that are significantly ahead of the current state-of-the-art.”