The Synthetic Battlebridge: a tool for large-scale VEs

Abstract

The Synthetic BattleBridge gives users interface tools that help them navigate, analyze, and comprehend a complex, active, distributed virtual battlespace environment. A primary objective for the SBB project is to develop an observatory for real time monitoring and assessment of the activities of intelligently behaving autonomous actors and manned simulators within a VE. Therefore, the SBB uses both environment and computation distribution to let users monitor and assess in real time the activity within a VE and to provide cognitive support for situation analysis. The SBB also addresses the development and evaluation of advanced user interfaces, information aggregation techniques, and information presentation techniques. For the SBB to function as we require, it must present to the user the spatial orientation, type, motion, and distribution of actors in a VE. Key issues regarding these capabilities are updating and displaying the VE at interactive display rates and providing a very large scale environment containing a wide variety of actor types, sizes, and speeds, The SBB provides these capabilities by computing vehicle position, motion, and velocity data for all actors in the battlespace and presenting this information in real time using a 3D rendering of the battlespace and its contents. The user controls the SBB and information presentation with an interface consisting of a combination of visual icons and text, which we describe.