The U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) supports the development of classification, detection, tracking, and localization algorithms using multiple sensing modalities including acoustic, seismic, E-field, magnetic field, PIR, and visual and IR imaging. Multimodal sensors collect large amounts of data in support of algorithm development. The resulting large amount of data, and their associated high-performance computing needs, increases and challenges existing computing infrastructures. Purchasing computer power as a commodity using a Cloud service offers low-cost, pay-as-you-go pricing models, scalability, and elasticity that may provide solutions to develop and optimize algorithms without having to procure additional hardware and resources. This paper provides a detailed look at using a commercial cloud service provider, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), to develop and deploy simple signal and image processing algorithms in a cloud and run the algorithms on a large set of data archived in the ARL Multimodal Signatures Database (MMSDB). Analytical results will provide performance comparisons with existing infrastructure. A discussion on using cloud computing with government data will discuss best security practices that exist within cloud services, such as AWS.

Date Published: 23 May 2013
PDF: 16 pages
Proc. SPIE 8734, Active and Passive Signatures IV, 87340B (23 May 2013); doi: 10.1117/12.2016941

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 8734:
Active and Passive Signatures IV
G. Charmaine Gilbreath; Chadwick Todd Hawley, Editor(s)