Collecting intelligence.

• Author: Raeth, Peter
• Position: READERS'FORUM - Letter to the editor

* I wanted to thank you for your excellent summary of the issues surrounding sensor data being applied to practical use in tactical situations. ("Military swimming in sensors and drowning in data," National Defense, January 2010)

Some of the people you quoted appeared to think that the article's topic is something new. Yet, it is a problem that has existed for some time.

As someone who develops algorithms for sensor data processing and designs software for improved throughput, the Defense Department's approach to "solving" the data flood is very discouraging. The thrust appears to be hiring more and more people to stare at CRTs while hand-massaging data. From my personal point of view, there is a lot of effort spent to deploy more sensors but little effort put into deciding what the sensors will be used for within an end-to-end chain (sense, transmit, analyze, decide, act).

The problem does not lie in algorithms to automate much of the processing. At the present time, humans...