Businesses and consumers are embracing the Internet of Things (IoT), connected devices ranging from smartphones and wearables to cars and home appliances. Globally, the IoT is expected to grow rapidly. According to research firm IDC, the number of IOT-enabled devices is projected to increase globally from 10.3 million in 2014 to more than 29.5 million in 2020.
Government security and defense agencies want to unlock the IoT’s potential for enhancing security and situational awareness. Increased data generation and sensor connectivity can mean greater protection and intervention capabilities. However, operators (those responding to threats) and analysts (those investigating emerging ones) are required to monitor ever-growing data streams—a near-impossible task. Many agencies are using disparate legacy systems not conducive for timely data analysis and information sharing. They need a better way to evaluate streaming data and quickly turn it into actionable information.
Increasing Situational Awareness
SRI’s situational awareness capabilities include open-architecture platforms that advance enterprise interoperability. To translate data generated by the IoT into actionable information, we recently created the Metadata Expression Evaluation Engine (ME3), a pluggable interface for advanced sensemaking analysis algorithms such as geospatial processing, entity extraction and correlation, and advanced reasoning and analysis.
ME3 builds on SRI’s SIMON system for maritime and port-related intelligence as well as our speech recognition, video processing and visualization technologies. ME3 recognizes emerging threats based on user-defined criteria and promptly notifies users via SMS, email or other selected channels. Users can simply set up alerts for relevant information without parsing through a plethora of unrelated data.
The ME3 capability lets users proactively identify, locate, track and mitigate threats. For example, ME3 could help protect a major sporting event by providing both operators and analysts with actionable information such as the presence of a suspicious vehicle or an abandoned package near the stadium.
Reducing Deployment Time
ME3 is not only a new approach for greater situational awareness, it can be easily integrated into government enterprise systems. While other platforms can take months or even years to integrate, SRI was able to integrate ME3 into the plug-and-play platform at Defense Intelligence Information Enterprise (DI2E) Plugfest 2015 in just two weeks. DI2E Plugfest is an annual event for the U.S. Department of Defense intelligence community to assess interoperable and reusable components related to its existing technology infrastructure, software and services to realize greater performance and cost-savings.
In recognition of ME3’s adoption of DI2E industry standards, SRI was awarded a four-star rating, the highest level of alignment with DI2E goals. This DI2E rating means that our product is complaint and interoperable with Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) national standards. ME3 can seamlessly plug and play in agency enterprise systems, enabling operators and analysts to quickly realize greater information sharing and situational awareness capabilities.
SRI’s experts can help agencies adapt their enterprise technology for the IoT landscape. Contact us to discuss your program requirements.