A SYSTEM FOR COMPUTER-AIDED RIOC EXPERIMENTS

THE GOAL OF THIS PROJECT IS TO DEVLEOP AN EASY-TO-USE, MICROCOMPUTER-BASED SYSTEM FOR FACILITATING THE DESIGN, IMPLEMENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF RECEIVER OPERATING CHARACTERISTIC (ROC) EXPERIMENTS. THE SPECIFIC PHASE I GOAL IS TO DEMONSTRATE THE FEASIBILITY OF DEVELOPING SUCH A SYSTEM BY SPECIFYING THE SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS, IMPLEMENTING A PROTOTYPE SYSTEM AND PERFORMING AN ROC EXPERIMENT WITH THE PROTOTYPE. OUR EXPERIENCE WITH PERFORMING ROC EXPERIMENTS IN THE PAST AND WITH DEVELOPING COMMERCIAL SOFTWARE APPLICATIONS GIVES US CONFIDENCE THAT OUR OBJECTIVES CAN BE MET. THE PRINCIPAL QUESTIONS WHICH NEED TO BE ADDRESSED IN PHASE I ARE: 1) HOW CAN WE MAKE THE SYSTEM USER-FRIENDLY, 2) HOW CAN WE DESIGN THE SOFTWARE TO STREAMLINE ROC EXPERIMENTS AND 3) WHAT FUNCTIONS AND FEATURES WILL BE REQUIRED FOR THE COMPLETE SYSTEM. WE WILL ADDRESS THESE QUESTIONS IN A FORMAL ANALYSIS OF SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS BASED ON OUR EXPERIENCE WITH ROC EXPERIMENTS AND THE LITERATURE OF ROC METHODOLOGY. FURTHERMORE, WE WILL FOLLOW GUIDELINES DEVELOPED BY APPLE COMPUTER, INC. FOR DESIGN OF THE USER INTERFACE AND WE WILL EVALUATE OUR PROTOTYPE USER INTERFACE DURING PERFORMANCE OF AN ROC EXPERIMENT. TO ACCOMPLISH THESE TASKS WITHIN A PHASE I TIME FRAME WE WILL IMPLEMENT SOFTWARE ONLY FOR MANAGING THE CONDUCT OF THE ROC EXPERIMENT, WHILE RELYING ON COMMERCIAL SOFTWARE PACKAGES FOR EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN, STATISTICAL ANALYSIS AND GRAPHING FUNCTIONS. THE SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION OF THE PHASE I TASKS WILL PROVIDE US A BLUEPRINT FOR A COMPLETE SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION IN PHASE II.