Acquiring representations of Meta-information to Enhance Battlespace Awareness (AMEBA)

Modern battlespaces are characterized by large amounts of complex information that must be rapidly processed by the decision-maker. Part of this complexity is due to meta-information, or, characteristics of information such as uncertainty, staleness, etc.that add to the decision-making burden. Knowledge regarding this meta-information, and methods for effectively portraying it, have the potential of not only relieving the decision-maker's workload, but also encouraging more battlespace-aware decisions.To support meta-information visualization, we propose to design and prototype a system for Acquiring representations of Meta-information to Enhance Battlespace Awareness (AMEBA). Three core components characterize the proposed process. First, we willperform a cognitive task analysis of a selected set of case studies to develop a principled categorization of the key types and sources of information and meta-information, to identify the meta-information required by the decision-maker, and to identifydisplay elements in existing military systems. Second, we will design and prototype a toolkit for augmenting incoming data with the identified meta-information types and rapidly creating new meta-information visualization methods and interfaces. Thistoolkit will support integration of prototype visualization methods with existing DoD display systems. Third, we will develop an evaluation methodology, including metrics of the utility of each meta-information visualization technique.