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| VRoom Puts Info Streams Into Perspective January 2002 Say you're commanding a battle or managing the response to a major forest fire in Colorado. You'll need as much information as possible to make decisions—including maps, satellite photos, weather reports, and logistical reports. How can you assimilate all this information quickly and effectively? Do you spread it out on a table? Look at a computer screen? Or would you prefer to use a "Virtual Room" that allows you to see all the necessary information at the same time in ways that take advantage of your natural visualization and spatial reasoning processes? MITRE created the VRoom to help decision-makers work effectively in command and control situations—whether it's combat, air traffic control, or emergency management. In any of these scenarios, you need to quickly process data from multiple information sources. MITRE's VRoom research and battlefield visualization technology may prove valuable in a variety of situations. Research shows that we have trouble remembering more than seven pieces of information in our short-term memory. Yet we can absorb billions of bits of information instantly if they are arrayed in recognizable patterns, with relationships and layers of information oriented in an intuitive manner. MITRE's VRoom started as a prototype display for the Information Management Product Area Directorate (PAD) of the Electronic System Command. The Information Management PAD wanted to investigate new technology for producing a Common Operating Picture (COP) in 1998.
"The COP was a two-dimensional (2D) map-based display with a top-down view," said Dave deMoulpied, MITRE's VRoom project team leader. "We looked back 10 years from 1998 and then forward 10 years to assess user interface technology trends. Ten years earlier, many systems still used the simple command line interface. Looking 10 years ahead, we saw a natural evolution to 3D." Of course, it's possible to bring all the information you need together and display it on your computer monitor. You can have multiple windows that show terrain maps of enemy targets, satellite photos of troop movements, logistical charts, and operations plans. But assimilating and understanding all the real-time information is a problem because you have to click among the stacked, overlapping windows and view them one at a time. A room inside your monitor Instead of seeing multiple overlapping windows, VRoom technology distributes the windows over the walls of a 3D room. You see a room inside your monitor in three dimensions similar to a perspective drawing. For example, the wall on the left may have four windows with intelligence information: an aerial photo, a live satellite feed from 50 miles in space showing weather patterns, a live video feed from a low-flying drone, and a chart of enemy strength at various locations. On the other walls are similar information windows displaying categories, such as operations, global mission support, and personnel. In the VRoom, any number of windows or data feeds can be placed on any wall. The operator can pan around the room with a mouse and keyboard and select any data window for detailed viewing—for example, a real-time global satellite picture overlaid with mission planning data. In short, the VRoom provides a framework that can represent almost any type of work environment. In addition to the walls, the VRoom can display a virtual sand table, one that has the ability to translate a 2D map into a 3D viewing tool. In a military application, for example, you can zoom in close to the table to see a simulated military aircraft flying a route that not only displays terrain and flight path data, but also potential route conflicts, threat domes, and detailed target images. Mission planners and pilots can view the mission from above or with the full-screen "fly-through" mode. As missions change during the planning process, the data is transferred to the VRoom and the sand table is updated.
In the future, a human-like figure called an avatar could be placed in the room to act as an intelligent agent. You will be able to configure the avatar to filter information, provide alerts, or accomplish domain-specific jobs. For example, you might program the avatar to combine information from multiple data windows and speak to you, warning of potential conflict. Why didn't MITRE pursue virtual reality goggles? "Multimodal interface devices, such as virtual reality goggles, are a natural fit for the VRoom," said deMoulpied. "However, we wanted to build an initial environment based on the familiar mouse and keyboard in order to facilitate broad usage and evaluation." The layout of the VRoom can be customized to accommodate any number of floor plans. During MITRE's initial implementation, for example, the VRoom had six walls, giving its floor plan the shape of a hexagon. One possible layout might have walls that are designated Intelligence, Operations, Personnel, Logistics, Plans, and C4I. Easier to understand volumes of information "Because many people are familiar with the Windows operating system, MITRE's visualization group used a similar look and feel so that users would not need much training to use the VRoom," said Michael Dinsmore, MITRE's VRoom lead engineer. "Each window has a title bar. You click on a window to drag it to another position on the wall, or to move it to another wall," explained Dinsmore. "You know which window is receiving input because the border is highlighted. Users can organize the windows any way they want by grouping them on walls that have titles or are color-coded. If you need more wall space, you can create another wall." Once you group your windows in a layout that you like, you can save it. For example, if two people are using the same computer, each person can use a different VRoom layout file. Once one person is finished, the next person can repopulate the room the way he or she likes by loading a new layout file. In the future, MITRE's visualization researchers will explore how two or more people can view the same VRoom scenario from distant locations. Licensing information MITRE's VRoom technology is available for technology transfer from MITRE through a license or a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement. Contact Gerard Eldering, MITRE's Technology Transfer Office Director. Or see the Technolgy Transfer site. —by David A. Van Cleave
Page last updated: January 7, 2002 | Top of page |
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