High difficulty computer vision cluster munition detection | Hacker News Reader

High difficulty computer vision cluster munition detection

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123 pointsmzs28 comments

I wonder if this kind of detection would work even better with hyperspectral cameras that have a dozen or more color channels instead of just the usual three. You could teach an AI to recognise the optical spectrum of specific paints used on munitions that would be undetectable to the human eye.

Such devices can be assembled at relatively low cost by combining multiple greyscale CCD or CMOS sensors with something like a set of dichroic splitters. Old TV cameras used to work this way, with three separate sensors for light split into red-green-blue channels. It's possible to split it further into finer divisions.

It probably would, remote sensing problems usually work best on hyper spectral data

The answer is yes, now quit guessing so accurately

Combine it with a high gain drone mounted antenna/magnetometer

At one point the YouTube algorithms decided that what I wanted to watch was people prospecting for gold nuggets in the Australian outback.

One team simply walked over a large open area with a metal detector and found a few thousand dollars worth of nuggets.

What occurred to me was that this could be automated without too much difficulty. Make an all-terrain electric buggy drone and have it do passes back-and-forth automatically. Look for nuggets with an integrated metal detector.

That's how things currently work for new mine discovery and exploration.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeromagnetic_survey

A filter on the lens designed to pass the paint wavelengths is another alternative. Painted objects would produce a higher signal that the surrounding environment. But I'm not sure how well this would play with the light changes.

Some nit-pick. TV cameras usually used Philips prism. Dichroic mirrors were (and still are) more common on projectors.

Will it be possible to just fabricate a new RGBCMYUvIr+ Bayer array and put onto an off the shelf camera under microscope?

Things like this are what swarms of ground and air drones can do for infantry. Vastly increase the terrain and danger awareness in places like jungles, forests and other areas resistant to air and satellite surveillance.

Hm, now that I think about it, this might be a fundamental technology to undermine the effectiveness of guerilla forces in forests and especially urban areas. Modern armies hate those because it eliminates so much of their technological advantage and it's back to boots on ground vs boots on ground.

But if you can systematically sweep areas with disposable drones? Look out. And the thing is, you can remotely operate the drones 24/7 for constant scanning, so even if really good hiding holes are created, they can outlast the soldiers hiding in the holes.

Neat. Glad this is being used. Ukraine is going to have this issue for a long time.

For peacetime usage, how about one that does Morel mushrooms? Those things are impossible to find until you see the first one or two in the season and remember how they blend in.

Collect some data (and mushrooms at the same time) and I'm sure you can make a killer app :)

Mushroom killer* app

Depends on the false positives rate, could also be a people killer app

What might make that even cooler is having multiple layers.

1. Detect the trees (I think morels are symbiotic with some kind of tree) that morels are most likely to be found near.

2. Detect the morels themselves, perhaps taking into account that you are now in a particular environment so you know you don't have to worry about detecting them on a sandy beach or some other ecological impossibility (if there is such a thing for morels, and I suspect there is).

Yeah, you bring up a good point. Morels are usually found around elms and ash trees that are quite dead and shedding bark. I have had good success when finding a dead standing tree or one that fell and has been rotting a season or two.

I also hunt chicken-of-the-woods and dryad saddles which honestly are much easier to find and are, at least in my opinion, easier to cook and use. Dryad saddles are very nice as they have a fresh cucumber like taste. Need to get them 'young' when they are still spongy and not woody.

I foraged myself for the first time recently and got a small number of puffballs.

They were far and away the tastiest mushrooms I've ever had, different enough from the store bought variety to make the whole hassle worthwhile.

I imagine this could be trained on any “needle in a haystack” problem?

I don’t want to sort Lego anymore. My kids always mix it all up. Just show me where that piece probably is!

With regard to Lego, you may be interested in this app:

https://brickit.app/

Excerpt from their about us page:

“It scans your pile of bricks, identifies every piece in it, gives you ideas what to build with them”

Ooooh thanks. I’ll give it a try!

That looks cool, but $45/year is pricey! When I saw that amount I assumed it would be a one-time IAP, but it's the annual cost (discounted from $84/year that you'd pay if you subscribed monthly). Expensive surprises like this are why you shouldn't give your kid your icloud password!

At least the recurring fee model makes sense: this is mainly using server resources every time right?

I hate the monthly fee for apps that are purely offline.

IDK if it uses server resources each time. It's possible the model was created using a server, but that all processing happens locally. Modern iPads have incredibly powerful processors!

That might be the most effective video demo of a product I’ve ever seen.

As an avid (but terrible) disc golfer, this gives me an idea...

As another avid and also terrible disc golfer please build this app so I can salvage my favorite plastic. Even better maybe help me track down those errant field work throws that I forgot about? :)

Imma need an aquatic one for a particularly nasty hole...

Wouldn't it lead to the user over-relying on it, being effectively blind for false negatives?

Neat! Ukraine is gonna have a lot of unexploded and unused explosives after the war.

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