Lockheed Launches New AI Tool for Satellite Image Analysis

Lockheed Martin unveiled a new image analysis tool at the ongoing GEOINT 2019 symposium in San Antonio which uses artificial intelligence to search for specific objects in satellite data, SpaceNews reported Tuesday.

Mark Pritt, senior fellow at Lockheed, said the global automated target recognition system works to help analysts cut manual labor and speed up process to analyze images.

“With our tool, the user can draw a box anywhere in the world and hit the button,” he said. “The system will go search for objects of interest such as fracking wells, airplanes or refugee camps.”

Lockheed originally built the AI system for the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity’s Functional Map of the World challenge in 2018.

The tool can access satellite data from commercial vendors, including Maxar Technologies and Planet, and applies deep learning to identify ships, harbors, buildings and aircraft in the midst of other objects or infrastructure.

Also attending the GEOINT symposium, Lisa Porter, deputy undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, said the Pentagon is exploring ways to integrate AI into military applications.