Software may help analysts read between the lines.

• Author: Beidel, Eric
• Position: Defense Technology Newswire

People don't always say what they mean, especially when they know they are being watched.

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Superfluous language and cultural nuance often prevent defense analysts from making the right connections when poring through documents containing intelligence gathered during military missions. Many times, information is deliberately obscured and important matters are addressed in roundabout ways.

The Pentagon wants to get to the bottom of what it calls "deep natural language" by creating an automated system that can process text at its most basic level to reveal meaning that otherwise may not be apparent.

Analysts have mountains of information to go through and never-ending deadline pressures. In this stressful environment, they can miss crucial links, said Bonnie Dorr, who manages the Deep Exploration and Filtering Text (DEFT) program for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

"Especially when meaning is being deliberately concealed or otherwise obfuscated," she...