“Terrorism is one of the largest threats facing this country today. The WVHTC Foundation is dedicated to bringing its capabilities to the aid of our armed forces.”
- James L. Estep, WVHTC Foundation President & CEO.

About Tactical Analysis of Video Imagery
The WVHTC Foundation is now designing a terrorist threat-detection system based upon surveillance video, a project funded by the Office of Naval Research and intended to monitor terrorist cells in Iraq and beyond.

Tactical Analysis of Video Imagery (TAVI) is a three-year project funded by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) that does the following:

• Image analysis computers monitor surveillance video while it is being collected – and note unusual crowd activity or individuals who are performing suspicious acts. From there, a pan-and-tilt cameras follow the individual responsible for the threat, zooming in on his or her face.
• These facial images are instantly compared against a database of known terrorists or insurgents to attempt identification.

TAVI applies these methods to surveillance video for the first time.

Data on these events is saved and analyzed using mathematical methods that reveal information about social networks. These methods have been applied successfully to email and telephone traffic to uncover how terrorist groups are organized. The information gathered by TAVI is made available to warfighters through FORCEnet, a combat-oriented sensor and computer network currently under development by the U.S. Navy.

TAVI delivers an automated system that provides warfighters with highly-localized, near-real-time intelligence on abnormal terrorist activity, as well as the organizational structure of local terrorist cells.

The WVHTC Foundation is the prime contractor on the project and is overseeing five research groups from leading companies and academic institutions.