The intelligence community is looking to build a technologically advanced system that can identify people from hundreds of yards away, Defense One is reporting.
If successful, the technology would let spy agencies quickly single out individuals from rooftops and unmanned aircraft. Defense One attributed the information to the Intelligence Advance Research Projects Activity, the research arm of the CIA.
Even though facial recognition technology has made substantial strides in recent years, it is not fully reliable unless there is a clear view of the subject.
The IARPA has started looking for researchers to develop the needed identification tools. It also aimed to explore technologies that take in multiple types of biometric identifiers, Defense One noted. Those include face images, movement patterns, height and gender, according to Defense One.
“Imagery captured at long-range or altitude also may require that additional biometric signatures be fused with face recognition to provide the necessary accuracy or confidence to be usable for person identification,” officials said in papers outlining the program.
“The fusion of multiple biometric signatures to address these limitations remains underserved by the research community.”
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.