Video/Imagery Super-Parallel and Supercomputer-Path (VISPII) Stand-Alone Hardware Compression

This research is aimed at developing a dialogue-based intelligent tutoring system, called Automated Tutoring Environment for Command or ATEC, to provide deliberate practice designed to improve battlefield command reasoning. It automates the Army ResearchInstitute classroom training program, Think Like a Commander (TLAC), through use of a dialogue management capability from the AutoTutor system, coupled with an instructional agent that replicates the knowledge and role of the human TLAC tutor, and aweb-based personalized interface which manages the interaction between agent and trainee. Issues such as modeling spatially-based discourse, implementing natural tutorial dialogue, and assessing performance in reasoning skills are research topics thatwill be addressed. A semi-automated vignette authoring/editing authoring tool will be developed to aid in acquiring the knowledge needed for reasoning about new training vignettes. Interface features such as high quality maps, bi-directional speech, andalternative means of providing pointing inputs (i.e., references to specific or general map locations or features) will be investigated and incorporated.