Data Processing and Audio/Visual Displays for Improving Situational Awareness (DAVIS)

Future Army missions will rely on increasingly sophisticated technologies for providing the Soldier with critical situational information. These technologies will require the concomitant development of processing techniques for synthesizing and managing an increased volume of incoming data. These technologies will also require the development of advanced information displays that address the Soldier's specific information requirements. To support the development of these techniques and displays, we propose to design and prototype a system for Data Processing and Auditory and Visual Display for Improving Situational Awareness (DAVIS). Four components characterize our approach. First, we will perform a requirements analysis to identify the operational demands on Soldiers and their situational awareness needs in the context of a realistic operational scenario. Second, we will identify and select processing methods for synthesizing incoming data and providing predictive information. Third, we will use these methods to drive the design of visual and auditory displays that intelligently address the Soldier's needs. Fourth, we will prototype an integrative information processing and display system for demonstrating our approach. We will leverage our team's expertise in display design and data processing to rapidly develop DAVIS, interface it with realistic data sets, and demonstrate its potential to support DoD applications.