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Dramatic advances in the functional bandwidth and reliability of operator-system teams are required to meet the needs of NASA's planned missions. Instead of humans adapting to their machines, humans and computers must be tightly coupled into cooperative, efficient, mixed-initiative systems. To advance the state of the art in human-centered computing, we need advances in model-based design, decision systems, and multimodal interfaces. The HCC subproject funds work in each of these technical areas, with cross-area synergy among the tasks.
Human-System Modeling (HSM) focuses on computational modeling of distributed groups interacting with autonomous systems. Better models of attention, concentration, memory, conceptual structure, decision-making, learning, and higher-level perception will provide the basis for the principled design of interactive systems (including facilities design, science protocols, work scheduling, communication and coordination, and team training). This will enable design decisions that reduce life cycle costs while enhancing system robustness and mission safety.
Decision Systems (DS) extends and exploits research results in cognition and behavior to advance software tools for knowledge modeling and dissemination. Particular emphasis is placed on tools for collaboration among geographically distributed teams of designers, engineers, operators, and scientists.
Multimodal Interfaces (MI) advances the design and development of human-centered approaches that integrate humans, computational devices, and environmental features in a seamless manner, leveraging the unique cabablities of each to satisfy system-level requirements. It focuses on human-centered man-machine system interfaces, for use in space, in the air, and on the ground. This goes beyond visual and speech interfaces to intelligent systems that help humans with complex tasks, such as analyzing field data, flying a damaged vehicle, docking to a rotating platform, or using a telerobotic manipulator. Such interfaces can be considered performance-enhancement systems.
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