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Visualization of Massive Military Multimedia Datasets

W.B. Cunningham

nQuisit, L.L.C.

Classifying Applications and Issues Central to

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Why are we here?

Problems appropriate for -- Respective domain symposia -- MORS -- Analytic or management communities

Real world complexity demands human understanding and adaptability

but why Visualization?

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The view from 10,000 feet

1.6 x 10 sq km

1.6 x 10 bytes at 10 meter posting

1.6 x 10 bytes at 1 meter posting (~ 1 Terabyte with full dataset)

5

9

11

Demands some sort of data organization and compression

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On the value of more data

“The government is great at amassing statistics, whichthey raise to the nth power and take the cube root thereof,all the while forgetting that the data comes in the first instance from the village watchman, who writes downwhat he damn well pleases.”

Sir Josiah Stamp, 1854

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A Modern Fable

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Visualization is not...

• PowerPoint slides

• Slick web page graphics or animation

• Artificial Intelligence (sometimes not even real intelligence)

• Necessarily the same for different users of the same product

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Visualization is Indirect Means for Comprehending Environment

DATA

BASE

Machine

Interface

Machine

InterfaceSensors

Environment

(RealWorld)

ImmediateUser

SecondaryUser

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(Ra t

io o

f e x

plan

and s

t o d

ata)

Impu

tatio

n of

Inte

nt

Trac

king

/Cor

rela

tion

Inte

rspe

ctra

l Fus

ion

Intra

spec

tral F

usio

n

Knowledge

Understanding

Information

Data

Deg

ree

of I

nte

grat

ion

Machine Centric

(digital, deductive)

HumanCentric

(analog,, abductive & inductive)

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Problem Categories

Mission Planning (Process Specification)

Mission Execution (Process Monitoring)

Process Model Monitoring (Command vs Staff)

Process Discovery

Network Visualization

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Mission Planning -- Process Specification

Visualize current state (perhaps in significant detail)

Visualize future state (in considerably less detail)

Visualize potential way states (plus branches & sequels)

Asset allocation

Rehearse expected course of events

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Mission Execution - - Process monitoring

Asset re-allocation within expected variations

Control not possible (DOF)

“Fighting the Plan”

A surprising number of stated requirements involvereinforcement of a process model rather than adaptation

of the model. A pure control paradigm doesn’t fit complexity.

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Process Model Monitoring

Process is known or assumed up front

Process model is generally implicit rather than explicit

Process model is monitored, not the process execution

Normative behavior and variation known or estimated

Central issues: model validity and model stability -- when to enforce model and when to modify

“Fighting the situation vs fighting the plan”

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Process Discovery

Population of a (usually open) universe set

Distribution of objects on domain space ( May require definition of domain space) Object clustering by common attributes

Object clustering by interaction

Identification of temporal behavior -- objects and clusters -- prediction -- reclustering

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Network Visualization

• Flow models over fixed networks -- Subset of process monitoring

• Dynamic networks -- Combination of discovery & process model monitoring -- Depends on rate of topology change -- Depends on interaction between network content and network topology. -- Virtual networks are inherently dynamic

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Application/Problem Issues

Propagating the Understanding

Context

Fidelity

BandwidthCollaboration

C2OTM

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Propagating the Understanding

All applications require immediate user to communicate situational understanding

Second/third partymust share context -- Commander’s use of information differs greatly from that of staff -- Importance of communicating context

Construction of the communication is part of immediate user’s visualization process

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C2OTMC2OTMC2OTMC2OTMC2OTMC2OTMC2OTMC2OTM

C2OTMC2OTMC2OTMC2OTMC2OTM

C2OTM

C2OTMC2OTM

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The importance of context

When do you have enough information to sufficiently describe context and which way does it flow?

……To or from the immediate user……To or from secondary recipients of output

The problem changes as you add context

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The Moral Dilemma

When is deliberate distortion justified?

Communicating a decision is not the same as communicating representation of situation

News reporting vs entertainment

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Situation portrayal Execution portrayal

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The ultimate in bandwidth reduction

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Visualization does….

Offer a means of representing incredibly complex data about complex processes

Offer assistance in interpreting and understanding complex processes

Offer huge compression and abstraction of data

Offer tremendous bandwidth compression... but only on the system output

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Don’t forget

Object Interpretant

RepresentamenC.S. Peirce

The map is not the territory

S.I. Hayakawa

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Some problems are easier to visualizeafter the process effects are known