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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