Maps, Space-time Cubes, and Meta-Information for Under-standing Path Information: A Comparative Analysis

Bisantz, A.1, D’Arcy, J.1, Kerker, D.1, Hegde, S.1, Guan, P.1, Voshell, M.2, and Kilgore, R.2 The 58th Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, Chicago, IL (October 2014) Two experiments were conducted to investigate the usefulness of different geospatial representations in interpreting paths and activities of individuals moving through a complex spatial environment. […]

How to tell a “Good” Cognitive Task Analysis?

Bisantz, A.1, Endsley, M.2, Hoffman, R.3, Klein, G.4, Militello, L.5, and Pfautz, J.6 Discussion panel at the 58th Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, Chicago, IL (October 2014) Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA) has become part of the standard tool set of cognitive engineering. CTAs are routinely used to understand the cognitive and collaborative demands that […]

Physiological Synchronization is Associated with Narrative Emotionality and Subsequent Behavioral Response

Bracken, B.1*, Alexander, V.2*, Zak, P.2, Romero, V.1, and Barraza, J.2 Accepted to Lecture Notes in Computer Science 8534:3-13, and presented at the 16th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (HCII), Crete, Greece (June 2014).  Neurophysiological compliance is a correlation of neurophysiological measures (synchronicity) between individuals. Higher compliance among team members is related to better performance, and higher synchronicity occurs […]

Interpreting Cognitive and Physiological States from Biometric Sensors to Predict Performance Degradation

Bracken, B.1, Guarino, S.1, Dorin, W.1, Romero, V.1, Pfautz, J.1, DiZio, P.2, and Lackner, J.2 Presented at the 44th Annual Society for Neuroscience Conference, Washington, DC(November 2014) Biometric techniques for sensing peripheral nervous system indicators (e.g., heart rate, blood pressure, and galvanic skin response), when analyzed and interpreted correctly, provide an opportunity to objectively assess and forecast […]

Urban Socio-Cultural Monitoring with Passive Sensing

Farry, M., Bullock, B., and Pfautz, J. In Understanding Megacities with the Reconnaissance, Surveillance, and Intelligence Paradigm: Topical Strategic Multi-Layer Assessment (SMA) and U.S. Army Engineer Research Development Center (ERDC) White Papers in Support of National Security Challenges (2014) The most challenging operational requirement in localized social-cultural situation assessment (SCSA) is to provide timely, local information for […]

Microgames for Training Perceptual Skills

Guarino, S.1, Jarvis, R.1, Mahoney, S.1, and Connell, M.2 Presented at the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC), Orlando, FL (December 2014). A common challenge in military training lies in motivating personnel to practice and retain lessons in the limited time they have available. A training methodology that can exploit the moments of “micro-boredom” that […]

RENATO: Rapid Ethnographic Network Analysis Tool

Hopkins, C. Presented at the International Sunbelt Social Network Conference, St. Pete Beach, FL (February 2014) In this presentation, we introduce the Rapid Ethnographic Network Analysis Tool (RENATO), a software package for the analysis of relational data such as found in social network analysis and cultural domain analysis. Historically, researchers have used a combination of […]

MAVERICK Synthetic Murder Mystery Dataset

Jenkins, M., Bizantz, A., J. Llinas, J., and Nagi, R. Retrieved from the University of Buffalo, State University of New York (SUNY) Institutional Repository. The MAVERICK dataset was originally created to support a series of empirical studies looking at the effectiveness of network visualizations at support information foraging and human sensemaking. This synthetic dataset is […]

Hierarchical Management of Large-Scale Malware Data

Kellogg, L., Ruttenberg, B., O’Connor, A., Howard, M., and Pfeffer, A. Presented at the IEEE International Conference on Big Data 2014 (IEEE BigData 2014), Washington, DC (October 2014) As the pace of generation of new malware accelerates, clustering and classifying newly discovered malware requires new approaches to data management. We describe our Big Data approach to managing malware […]

Visual Estimation of Human Attributes: An Empirical Study of Context-dependent Human Observation Capabilities

Kerker, D.1, Jenkins, M.2, Gross, G.2, Bizantz, A.2, and and R. Nagi, R.3 Proceedings of IEEE International Multi-Disciplinary Conference on Cognitive Methods in Situation Awareness and Decision Support (CogSIMA), San Antonio, TX (March 2014) Visual estimations of target attributes in a real-world environment are highly context-dependent when the estimations are provided by human observers. For example, the […]

A Framework for Text-Based Search and Navigation of Social Networks for Non-Experts

Koelle, D. Presented at the International Sunbelt Social Network Conference, St. Pete Beach, FL (February 2014) Today’s social network analysis tools provide advanced capabilities that enable experts to analyze and understand the behavior of networks and their constituent entities. Increasingly, non-experts have access to data about network that they can (or should be able to) explore, […]

Increasing the Transparency of Unmanned Systems: Applications of Ecological Interface Design

Kilgore, R. and Voshell, M. Accepted to Lecture Notes in Computer Science 8526:378-389, and presented at The 16th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (HCII), Crete, Greece (June 2014). This paper describes ongoing efforts to address the challenges of supervising teams of heterogeneous unmanned vehicles through the use of demonstrated Ecological Interface Design (EID) principles. We first review the EID […]

Modeling Potential and Requirements for Model Predictive Control (MPC)

Lofdahl, C.  Presented at the 5th International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics (Cross-Cultural Decision Making track), Krakow, Poland. For More Information To learn more or request a copy of a paper (if available), contact Corey Lofdahl. (Please include your name, address, organization, and the paper reference. Requests without this information will not be honored.)

Identifying and Understanding Trust Relationships in Social Media

Lofdahl, C., Pfautz, J., Farry, M., and Stickgold, E. Topical Strategic Multi-Layer Assessment (SMA) and U.S. Army Engineer Research Development Center (ERDC) Multi-Agency/Multi-Disciplinary White Papers in Support of National Security Challenges (2014) The explosion of social media use over the past decade has yielded an unprecedented amount of data from which analysts can extract information […]

Designing PED Systems Using Simulation

Lofdahl, C., Voshell, M., and Mahoney, S. Engineering Cyber Physical Systems: Machine Learning, Data Analytics and Smart Systems Architecting, San Jose, CA (November 2014) New automated intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) sensors and processing technologies provide access to larger amounts of high quality intelligence data. Managing this technology represents a profound system of systems challenge. In […]

Supporting Procedural and Perceptual Learning in Laparoscopic Surgery

Lou, Y.1, Flinn, J.1, Ganapathy1, S., Weyhrauch, P.2, Niehaus, J.2, Myers, B.1, and Cao, C.1 To be presented at the 58th Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, Chicago, IL (October 2014) Expertise in surgical performance requires mastery of both technical skills such as suturing, and nontechnical skills such as perceptual and procedural knowledge. […]

Minimizing Energy Consumption in Distributed Ground Sensor Networks by Optimizing Sensor and Relay Radio Placement

Mafusalov, A., Stouch, D., and Moore, T. Proceedings of the 82nd Military Operations Research Society (MORS) Symposium, Operational Energy working group, Alexandria, VA (June 2014) Wireless ground sensor networks provide superior situational awareness in operational areas such as around forward operating bases (FOB) and command outposts (COP), but their deployment is complicated by unpredictable signal […]

A Generalized Extended Kalman Filter Implementation for the Robot Operating System

Moore, T. and Stouch, D. Presented at the 13th International Conference on Intelligent Autonomous Systems (IAS 13), Padova, Italy (July 2014) Accurate state estimation for a mobile robot often requires the fusion of data from multiple sensors. Software that performs sensor fusion should therefore support the inclusion of a wide array of heterogeneous sensors. This […]

A Flexible Framework for the Creation of Narrative-Centered Tools

Niehaus, J., Romero, V., Koelle, D., Palmon, N., Bracken, B., Pfautz, J., Reilly, S.N., and Weyhrauch, P. Presented at the 2014 Workshop on Computational Models of Narrative, Quebec City, Canada (July 31-August 2, 2014) To better support the creation of narrative-centered tools, developers need a flexible framework to integrate, catalog, select, and reuse narrative models. Computational […]

Data-driven Generation of Policies

Parker, A.1, Simari, G.2, Sliva, A.3, and Subrahmanian, V.1 SpringerBriefs in Computer Science. Springer, New York (2014) This Springer Brief presents a basic algorithm that provides a correct solution to finding an optimal state change attempt, as well as an enhanced algorithm that is built on top of the well-known trie data structure. It explores […]

Visual Detection Improvements with Frontal Beta Patterns of Rhythmic Non-invasive Neurostimulation Demonstrated by Shifts of the Psychometric Function

Quentin, R.1, Vernet, M.1, Elkin-Frankston, S.3,4,  Chanes, L.1, Toba, M.1, and Valero-Cabre, A.1,2 Cognitive Neuroscience Society Annual Meeting, Boston, MA (April 2014) Rhythmic Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) has demonstrated an ability to enhance brain oscillatory activity at the input frequency. Using this approach, we recently reported that uniform 30 Hz TMS patterns delivered pre-target on […]

Deterrence via Narrative – The Role of Narrative Transportation in Creating Persuasive Messages

Romero, V. In Leveraging Neuroscientific and Neurotechnological (Neuro S&T) Developments with Focus on Influence and Deterrence in a Networked World, (Eds. H. Cabayan, W. Casebeer, D. DiEuliis, J. Giordano, and N.D. Wright), a Strategic Multi-Layer Assessment (SMA) White Paper (2014). Stories engage a different type of cognitive processing than do logical arguments; stories can bypass the […]

Identifying Shared Software Components to Support Malware Forensics

Ruttenberg, B.1, Miles, C.2, Kellogg, L.2, Notani, V.2, Howard, M.1, Ledoux, C.2, Lakhotia, A.2, and Pfeffer, A.1 Presented at the 11th Conference on Detection of Intrusions and Malware & Vulnerability Assessment, Egham, England (July 2014)   Recent reports from the anti-malware industry indicate similarity between malware code resulting from code reuse can aid in developing a […]

A Big Data Methodology for Bridging Quantitative and Qualitative Political Science Research

Sliva, A. and Neal Reilly, S. American Political Science Association 2014 Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2014) The spread of digital technologies has led to a massively interconnected global system that creates and transmits astronomical quantities of data. This “information explosion” impacts the ways we can study and understand the dynamics of socio-political systems by increasing […]

Extending Tactical Range for Bomb Disposal using Autonomous Ground Robots

Stouch, D., Ost, A., and Moore, T. Proceedings of the 82nd Military Operations Research Society (MORS) Symposium, Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Advanced Explosives (CBRNE) Defense working group, Alexandria, VA (June 2014) Unmanned robotic systems are a vital component of today’s military operations. They are used for operational maneuver (e.g., reconnaissance and IED defeat), maneuver […]

Rapid Assessment of Natural Disaster Effects using Autonomous Aircraft

Stouch, D., Moore, T., and Johnson, J. Proceedings of the 82nd Military Operations Research Society (MORS) Symposium, Infrastructure Analysis, Protection and Recovery (IAP&R) working group, Alexandria, VA (June 2014) Large-scale natural disasters have the potential to create loss of life and property on a large scale. Responding to these incidents is a complex process involving […]

Rapid Aerial Assessment of Post Incident Damage for Enhanced Situational Awareness

Stouch, D. Proceedings of the 2014 Center for Rebuilding Sustainable Communities after Disasters (CRSCAD) International Conference on Disaster Mitigation, Preparedness, Response, and Sustainable Reconstruction: Science and Technology Applications to Mitigate Natural Hazards, Boston, MA (May 2014) Natural disasters such as hurricanes, floods, and forest fires have the potential to create great loss of life and property. […]

Creating Verifiable Colliding PDF Signatures

Temkin1, A., Boyer1, J., Brown1, K., Ramesh1,2, M., and Wu1,2., C. In the Proceedings of 10th Annual International Conference on Computer Science and Education in Computer Science, Albena, Bulgaria, (July 2014). In this paper, we extend the work of Stevens, et al. [Stevens 2007] to produce a pair of PDF documents that not only hash to […]

Supporting Representation Management in Intelligence Analysis through Automated Decision Aids

Voshell, M.1, Guarino, S.1, Tittle, J.2, and Roth, E.3 Presented at the 58th Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, Chicago, IL (October 2014) Intelligence analysts—overloaded with complex and disparate data—must incorporate information into cohesive and convincing narratives and explanations. For analysts, data overload can result in developing premature conclusions and limit their ability […]

Implications of Hierarchies for RSO Recognition, Identification, and Characterization

Wilkins, M.1, Pfeffer, A.2, Ruttenberg, B.2, Schumacher, P.3, and Jah, M.4 Presented at the 24th International Symposium on Space Flight Dynamics (ISSFD), Laurel, MD (May 2014) In our previous work, we demonstrated that hierarchical (taxonomical) trees can be used to depict hypotheses in a Bayesian object recognition and identification process using Figaro™, an open source probabilistic […]

A Tactical Decision Aid to Optimize Placement of Relay Nodes in Forward-Deployed Wireless Ground Sensor Networks

Mafusalov, A., Stouch, D., and Moore, T. Proceedings of the 82nd Military Operations Research Society (MORS) Symposium, Decision Analysis working group, Alexandria, VA (June 2014) Wireless ground sensor networks provide superior situational awareness in operational areas such as around forward operating bases (FOB) and command outposts (COP), but their deployment is complicated by unpredictable signal […]