Utilisation of Embodied Agents in the Design of Smart Human–Computer Interfaces—A Case Study in Cyberspace Event Visualisation Control

Wojciech Szynkiewicz,Artur Wilkowski,Włodzimierz Kasprzak,Maksym Figat,Maciej Stefańczyk,Wojciech Dudek,Cezary Zieliński

doi:10.3390/electronics9060976

Wojciech Szynkiewicz, Artur Wilkowski + Show 5 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics9060976

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Journal: Electronics	Publication Date: Jun 11, 2020
Citations: 3	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Warsaw University of Technology

Abstract

The goal of the research reported here was to investigate whether the design methodology utilising embodied agents can be applied to produce a multi-modal human–computer interface for cyberspace events visualisation control. This methodology requires that the designed system structure be defined in terms of cooperating agents having well-defined internal components exhibiting specified behaviours. System activities are defined in terms of finite state machines and behaviours parameterised by transition functions. In the investigated case the multi-modal interface is a component of the Operational Centre which is a part of the National Cybersecurity Platform. Embodied agents have been successfully used in the design of robotic systems. However robots operate in physical environments, while cyberspace events visualisation involves cyberspace, thus the applied design methodology required a different definition of the environment. It had to encompass the physical environment in which the operator acts and the computer screen where the results of those actions are presented. Smart human–computer interaction (HCI) is a time-aware, dynamic process in which two parties communicate via different modalities, e.g., voice, gesture, eye movement. The use of computer vision and machine intelligence techniques are essential when the human is carrying an exhausting and concentration demanding activity. The main role of this interface is to support security analysts and operators controlling visualisation of cyberspace events like incidents or cyber attacks especially when manipulating graphical information. Visualisation control modalities include visual gesture- and voice-based commands.

Highlights

From the point of view of a human–computer interface (HCI), an operator is perceived as an element of the environment
This paper shows how embodied agents facilitate the design and implementation of a HCI to a cybersecurity data visualisation system
Those tools, among others, enable the evaluation of performance of the created multi-agent systems (MAS). The utility of those tools is unquestionable, they do not provide guidelines on how to produce the required behaviour of an agent based systems, except the general observation that the overall behaviour is emergent and is not a simple sum of behaviours of individuals. Such guidelines do not suffice in the case of designing agent based HCIs, this paper focuses on the agent based HCI design methodology, not neglecting the implementation

Summary

Introduction

From the point of view of a human–computer interface (HCI), an operator is perceived as an element of the environment. The operator interacts with the HCI through such computer input/output devices as keyboards, mice, microphones, monitors, loudspeakers or touchpads. All those devices can be treated either as receptors or effectors of the HCI. This closely resembles robotic systems where receptors are sensors gathering information about the state of the environment and effectors are devices influencing that state. Both types of systems are very similar.

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