CoRAVEN: modeling and design of a multimedia intelligent infrastructure for collaborative intelligence analysis

Intelligence analysis is one of the major functions performed by an Army staff in battlefield management. In particular, intelligence analysts develop intelligence requirements based on the commander's information requirements, develop a collection plan, and then monitor messages from the battlefield with respect to the commander's information requirements. The goal of the CoRAVEN project is to develop an intelligent collaborative multimedia system to support intelligence analysts. Key ingredients of our design approach include: (1) significant knowledge engineering activities with domain experts, (2) representation of an explicit model of reasoning and activity to drive design, (3) the use of Bayesian belief networks as a way to structure inferences that relate observable data to the commander's information requirements, (4) collaborative graphical user interfaces to provide flexible support for the multiple tasks in which analysts are engaged, (5) sonification of data streams and alarms to support enhanced situation awareness, (6) detailed psychological studies of reasoning and judgment under uncertainty, and (7) iterative prototyping of candidate designs with domain experts for both formative and summative evaluation. The paper discusses our current progress on all these fronts.