It stands for:
Revolutionary Analog-based Probabilistic Inference Devices for Unconventional Processing of Signals for Intelligent Data Exploitation.
OK, so it’s no RADAR, SONAR or LASER (invented by the same folks responsible for RAPID UPSIDE, believe it or not). Apparently all the short, snappy acronyms have already been taken.
The Defense Projects Research Agency explains it in detailing the $17.2 million contract award Friday morning:
HRL Laboratories, LLC (HRL), proposed the Revolutionary Analog-based Probabilistic Inference Devices for Unconventional Processing of Signals for Intelligent Data Exploitation (RAPID-UPSIDE) to develop a revolutionary non-Boolean, non-CMOS nanodevice technology for power-efficient, high-speed processing of sensor data and image analysis applications that identifies and tracks a large number of targets in real-time. The RAPID-UPSIDE team has laid a strong foundation to realize this technology. HRL proposed a novel concept to perform fast distance computation between any two highdimensional vectors based on spontaneous synchronization among weakly coupled oscillators. HRL’s IM module design will leverage this concept by combining banks of weakly coupled oscillators to provide an unprecedented speed advantage over Boolean approaches for probabilistic inference-making because it can perform both distance computation and search for closest matching vectors in O(1) time. The other innovative aspect of this IM design is that it also offers the most energy efficient means to make probabilistic inferences since synchronization of oscillators corresponds to a stable minimum energy state. HRL’s IM based IPP (or Gold IPP) will be designed using this novel non-Boolean computational paradigm to rapidly detect and track multiple objects in a power-efficient manner.
Do you ever get a sneaking suspicion the U.S. military is busy inventing ways to defeat enemies who aren’t quite as smart as we think they are?