3. 3
The Intelligence Problem: The
Warfighter’s Perspective
What information
requirements can
I satisfy?
What available
information will
help me?
• What available
information satisfies
my needs?
• How can I best
interact with the
information?
• What are the current
information
requirements?
• Am I in a position to
satisfy the
requirements?
• How can I gather
intelligence with the
least disruption to my
mission?
4. 4
Information Exoskeleton: Contextual Window
Audio comms, Video, Blue Force Tracking, RF signals,
Enemy position, Unmanned vehicle control
and mental state, Role and mission
Acquire Individual Context
Adaptive Contextual Processing
Acquire World Context
Experience,
Sensed
physical
Warfighters need to
transport more
weight than they are
physically able to
carry
A physical
exoskeleton
provides additional
physical support so
the warfighter can
carry the load
(Photo: Lockheed Martin’s HULC )
The Information Exoskeleton provides Cognitive Support
Information processing changes based on
acquired World and Individual Contexts
5. 5
Enabling Capabilities
• Assessing the warfighter's operational context
– External (mission-level) environment
– Internal cognitive/physical state
• Assembling information based on context
• Adapting the UI to the information and user operational context
– Provides seamless interaction with information
6. 6
Information Exoskeleton example: Medical and Tactical SA
Hands-free collection and automated transfer of medically significant information such as loss of
consciousness along with tactical intel that supports casualty evacuation and mission replanning
• Body-worn sensors
provide baseline
vitals and help
assess readiness
• Casualty triggers
sensors to alert
medic
• Medics can review
vitals and blue force
position in route
• Hands-free capture
of Injury and
treatment data at
point of injury
• Digital MEDEVAC
request sent forward
with sensor data to
TOC and hospital
Alignment Engine – Receives data and information from the Context Tracker regarding the dimensions along which data should be aligned before passing it on to the Presenter. Examples of alignment might be: temporal, geo-spatial, relational, organizational etc.
Anomaly Monitoring & Alerting – Monitors data and produces alerts based on the rules of the context in which it is operating. The alerts are then delivered to the alignment engine for processing.
Asset Tracker – Responsible for tracking external and internal assets that feed data into the InfoSkeleton. Internal assets include biometric sensors, GPS, accelerometer, etc. External assets include reports, blue force tracking and RF detections.
Context Tracker – Perhaps the most complicated piece of the IES. Includes multiple different trackers for biometrical context, world context, human context, tactical context? The component decides what is relevant to the human and propagates appropriate information to the presenter (via alignment piece). It maintains the “true” state of the world thus complementing the theoretical state of the world maintained by the Planner.
Data Cloud – Data Cloud is external to the IES and represents all data servers that the IES exchanges information with.
Data Manager – A central data repository for all other IES components and any external data coming from sensors and the cloud.
Historical Tracker – Collects statistics about user actions and data that is being used and provides the learner and the planner with information regarding historical use of the information.
Info Needs Assessment – Receives plan updates and determines what data is relevant to support the current execution of the plan (theoretically).
Learner – Uses AI algorithms to learn what kinds of information is relevant to the user based on feedback it receives from direct user actions (coming from Presenter) as well as the longer-term statistics from Historical Tracker and current context from Context Tracker.
Planner – Monitors the real-world feedback and updates progress of the mission based on a predefined plan. Provides the theoretical “what should happen” perspective. (Note: need a planner capable of understanding plans from the perspective of the human)
Presenter – Responsible for delivering data via an appropriate set of modalities to the user and present the user with a user interface that supports user’s current needs.
Relationship Finder – Taking feedback from the learner, builds and maintains a set of meaningful relationships between dimensions that the learner finds to have a strong correlation.
