CONTACT MANAGEMENT OPERATOR INTERFACE IN THE CONTEXT OF MULTIPLE HYPOTHESIS DATA FUSION

DATA FUSTION IN THE CONTEXT OF MULTI-TARGET, MULTI-SENSOR OCEAN SURVEILLANCE IS A PROBLEM OF CONSIDERABLE CURRENT INTEREST. THE CURRENT GENERATION OF CORRELATION AND TRACKING ALGORITHMS (CTAS) GENERATE AND PROCESS MULTIPLE REPORT-TO-TRACK CORRELATION HYPOTHESES. THE LARGE VOLUME OF INFORMATION POTENTIALLY AVAILABLE FROM SUCH MULTIPLE HYPOTHESIS CONTACT MANAGEMENT ALGORITHMS (MHCMA) HAS THE POTENTIAL TO OVERWHELM THE USER AND CREATES NEW REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DESIGN OF OPERATOR INTERFACES. WE PROPOSE TO DEVELOP AS PART OF OUR PHASE I EFFORT A PROTOTYPE MHCMA WHICH INCORPORATES OPERATOR INTERACTION AT A LEVEL WHICH BOTH EXPLOITS THE INTERPRETIVE SKILLS OF THE OPERATOR AND AVOIDS OVERBURDENING HIM WITH LOW-INTEREST INFORMATION. THE PARTICULAR MHCMA WE PROPOSE TO IMPLEMENT WILL BUILD ON AN EXISTINGCORRELATION AND TRACKING ALGORITHM CALLED MATCH, PREVIOUSLY DEVELOPED BY THIS FIRM FOR THE MULTI-TARGET OCEAN SURVEILLANCE APPLICATION AND WILL INCORPORATE NEW DATA STRUCTURES DESIGNED TO AGGREGATE MULTIHYPOTHESIS OUTPUT INTO WELL-DEFINED AND REASONABLY STABLE (OVER TIME) TARGET TRACK-LIKE CONSTRUCTS REFERRED TO AS CONSTRUCTED TRACK COMPLEXES (CTCS). THE ALGORITHM WILL SUPPORT GRAPHICAL DISPLAYS TO ALLOW OPERATOR INTERFACE IN THE FORM OF HYPOTHESIS MODIFICATION AT BOTH THE SCENE AND CTC LEVELS. WE WILL TEST THE MODEL FIRST ON A HOST SUN 3/60 COMPUTER AND THEN IN A NAVY SUPPLIED TESTBED ENVIRONMENT.