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At least 19 records

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NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Exploring Multimodal Interactions in Human-Autonomy Teaming Using a Natural User Interface

The creation of a multimodal, natural user interface to facilitate multi-agent interaction is essential to establishing trust among human and machine teammates in multi-agent systems. Trust is being researched, along with trustworthiness, as a path to certification of autonomous systems by the Autonomy Teaming and TRAjectories for Complex Trusted Operational Reliability (ATTRACTOR) project at NASA. The Autonomous Mission Experimental Logistics Interactive Assistant (AMELIA) is a natural user interface that enables multimodal interaction and is designed for rapid mission planning. AMELIA is an intelligent system that considers the user’s preferred communication strategies, as well as the time-critical aspect of the multi-agent system decision-making process. Twenty-four participants planned a multi-agent search and rescue mission, with the aid of an intelligent assistant. The results show that while the combined use of touch and speech was faster than speech alone, the single modality, touch, was still the most efficient. Future research should investigate additional input technologies.

Lisa R Le Vie↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Exploring Multimodal Interactions in Human-Autonomy Teaming Using a Natural User Interface

Lisa Renee Le Vie↗

NASA NTRS2016

The Virtual Tablet: Virtual Reality as a Control System

In the field of human-computer interaction, Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) have been rapidly growing areas of interest and concerted development effort thanks to both private and public research. At NASA, a number of groups have explored the possibilities afforded by AR and VR technology, among which is the IT Advanced Concepts Lab (ITACL). Within ITACL, the AVR (Augmented/Virtual Reality) Lab focuses on VR technology specifically for its use in command and control. Previous work in the AVR lab includes the Natural User Interface (NUI) project and the Virtual Control Panel (VCP) project, which created virtual three-dimensional interfaces that users could interact with while wearing a VR headset thanks to body- and hand-tracking technology. The Virtual Tablet (VT) project attempts to improve on these previous efforts by incorporating a physical surrogate which is mirrored in the virtual environment, mitigating issues with difficulty of visually determining the interface location and lack of tactile feedback discovered in the development of previous efforts. The physical surrogate takes the form of a handheld sheet of acrylic glass with several infrared-range reflective markers and a sensor package attached. Using the sensor package to track orientation and a motion-capture system to track the marker positions, a model of the surrogate is placed in the virtual environment at a position which corresponds with the real-world location relative to the user's VR Head Mounted Display (HMD). A set of control mechanisms is then projected onto the surface of the surrogate such that to the user, immersed in VR, the control interface appears to be attached to the object they are holding. The VT project was taken from an early stage where the sensor package, motion-capture system, and physical surrogate had been constructed or tested individually but not yet combined or incorporated into the virtual environment. My contribution was to combine the pieces of hardware, write software to incorporate each piece of position or orientation data into a coherent description of the object's location in space, place the virtual analogue accordingly, and project the control interface onto it, resulting in a functioning object which has both a physical and a virtual presence. Additionally, the virtual environment was enhanced with two live video feeds from cameras mounted on the robotic device being used as an example target of the virtual interface. The working VT allows users to naturally interact with a control interface with little to no training and without the issues found in previous efforts.

virtual control interface↗

NASA NTRS1986

Intelligent user interface concept for space station

The space station computing system must interface with a wide variety of users, from highly skilled operations personnel to payload specialists from all over the world. The interface must accommodate a wide variety of operations from the space platform, ground control centers and from remote sites. As a result, there is a need for a robust, highly configurable and portable user interface that can accommodate the various space station missions. The concept of an intelligent user interface executive, written in Ada, that would support a number of advanced human interaction techniques, such as windowing, icons, color graphics, animation, and natural language processing is presented. The user interface would provide intelligent interaction by understanding the various user roles, the operations and mission, the current state of the environment and the current working context of the users. In addition, the intelligent user interface executive must be supported by a set of tools that would allow the executive to be easily configured and to allow rapid prototyping of proposed user dialogs. This capability would allow human engineering specialists acting in the role of dialog authors to define and validate various user scenarios. The set of tools required to support development of this intelligent human interface capability is discussed and the prototyping and validation efforts required for development of the Space Station's user interface are outlined.

Comer, Edward↗

NASA NTRS1985

Natural Language Query System Design for Interactive Information Storage and Retrieval Systems

The currently developed multi-level language interfaces of information systems are generally designed for experienced users. These interfaces commonly ignore the nature and needs of the largest user group, i.e., casual users. This research identifies the importance of natural language query system research within information storage and retrieval system development; addresses the topics of developing such a query system; and finally, proposes a framework for the development of natural language query systems in order to facilitate the communication between casual users and information storage and retrieval systems.

Dominick, Wayne D.↗

NASA NTRS1991

The exploration metaphor

NASA's experience in planetary exploration has demonstrated that the desktop workstation is inadequate for many visualization situations. The primary mission displays for the unmanned Surveyor missions to the moon during the mid-1960's, for example, were environmental images assembled on the inside surfaces of spherical shells. Future exploration missions will greatly benefit from advances in digital computer and display technology, but there remain unmet user interface needs. Alternative user interfaces and metaphors are needed for planetary exploration and other interactions with complex spatial environments. These interfaces and metaphors would enable the user to directly explore environments and naturally manipulate objects in those environments. Personal simulators, virtual workstations, and telepresence user interfaces are systems capable of providing this integration of user space and task space. The Exploration Metaphor is a useful concept for guiding the design of user interfaces for virtual environments and telepresence. To apply the Exploration Metaphor is to assert that computing is like exploration, and to support objects, operations, and contexts comparable to those encountered in the exploration of natural environments. The Exploration Metaphor, under development for user interfaces in support of NASA's planetary exploration missions and goals, will also benefit other applications where complex spatial information must be visualized. Visualization methods and systems for planetary exploration are becoming increasingly integrated and interactive as computing technology improves. These advances will benefit from virtual environment and telepresence interface technology. A key development has been the processing of multiple images and other sensor data to create detailed digital models of the planets and moons. Data from images of the Earth, Mars, and Miranda, for example, have been converted into 3D models, and dynamic virtual fly-overs have been computed as demonstrations. Similar processing of lower altitude photography and the use of computer aided design tools promise to produce very detailed models in the future.

Mcgreevy, Michael W.↗

NASA NTRS2018

What's It like to See Earth from Space? Viewing Your World with NASA's Worldview!

When you first see Earth from space, you'll realize it's largely covered in white - our world is quite cloudy! Look closer and you'll discern landmasses, oceans, and regions covered in snow. Look closer still and you'll notice that our world is in constant motion - storms brewing and tracing paths over the oceans, plumes of smoke from wildfires and plumes of ash from volcanic eruptions billowing with the wind, dust storms blowing across the deserts, phytoplankton swirling in the oceans, icebergs floating in the oceans, and you'll see the human footprint on the earth's surface: cities connected by roads and vast swaths of agriculture. NASA's Worldview (https://worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov) interactive web map application provides a platform to view the world as it has been every day for the past 18 years, using data from NASA's fleet of Earth Observing System (EOS) satellites.This presentation will cover the history and development of the Worldview web map application; the 700+ imagery layers that are provided by the Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS) (https://earthdata.nasa.gov/gibs); current and new features that are in Worldview to constantly improve the user experience; the interdisciplinary nature of the app and how it helps a broad range of user communities discover and interact with NASA satellite imagery; and ongoing efforts to improve Worldview and serve user communities.

Earth Science↗

NASA NTRS1991

An interactive system for analysis of global cloud imagery

Synoptic images of the global cloud pattern composited from six contemporaneous satellites provide an unprecedented view of the global cloud field. Having horizontal resolution of about 0.5 deg and temporal resolution of 3 h, the global cloud imagery (GCI) resolves most of the variability of organized convection, including several harmonics of the diurnal cycle. Although the GCI has these attractive features, the dense and 3D nature of that data make it a formidable volume of information to treat in a practical and efficient manner. An interactive image-analysis system (IAS) has been developed to investigate the space-time variability of global cloud behavior. In the IAS, data, hardware, and software are integrated into a single system providing a variety of space-time covariance analyses in a menu-driven format. Owing to its customized architecture and certain homogeneous properties of the GCI, the IAS calculates such quantities effectively. Many covariance statistics are derived from 3D data with interactive speed, allowing the user to interrogate the archive iteratively in a single session. The 3D nature of those analyses and the speed with which they are performed distinguish the IAS from conventional image processing of 2D data.

Woodberry, Karen↗

NASA NTRS1987

Integration of symbolic and algorithmic hardware and software for the automation of space station subsystems

Traditional expert systems, such as diagnostic and training systems, interact with users only through a keyboard and screen, and are usually symbolic in nature. Expert systems that require access to data bases, complex simulations and real-time instrumentation have both symbolic as well as algorithmic computing needs. These needs could both be met using a general purpose workstation running both symbolic and algorithmic code, or separate, specialized computers networked together. The latter approach was chosen to implement TEXSYS, the thermal expert system, developed by NASA Ames Research Center in conjunction with Johnson Space Center to demonstrate the ability of an expert system to autonomously monitor the thermal control system of the space station. TEXSYS has been implemented on a Symbolics workstation, and will be linked to a microVAX computer that will control a thermal test bed. This paper will explore the integration options, and present several possible solutions.

Gregg, Hugh↗

NASA NTRS2006

Multiuser Collaboration with Networked Mobile Devices

In this paper we describe a multiuser collaboration infrastructure that enables multiple mission scientists to remotely and collaboratively interact with visualization and planning software, using wireless networked personal digital assistants(PDAs) and other mobile devices. During ground operations of planetary rover and lander missions, scientists need to meet daily to review downlinked data and plan science activities. For example, scientists use the Science Activity Planner (SAP) in the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission to visualize downlinked data and plan rover activities during the science meetings [1]. Computer displays are projected onto large screens in the meeting room to enable the scientists to view and discuss downlinked images and data displayed by SAP and other software applications. However, only one person can interact with the software applications because input to the computer is limited to a single mouse and keyboard. As a result, the scientists have to verbally express their intentions, such as selecting a target at a particular location on the Mars terrain image, to that person in order to interact with the applications. This constrains communication and limits the returns of science planning. Furthermore, ground operations for Mars missions are fundamentally constrained by the short turnaround time for science and engineering teams to process and analyze data, plan the next uplink, generate command sequences, and transmit the uplink to the vehicle [2]. Therefore, improving ground operations is crucial to the success of Mars missions. The multiuser collaboration infrastructure enables users to control software applications remotely and collaboratively using mobile devices. The infrastructure includes (1) human-computer interaction techniques to provide natural, fast, and accurate inputs, (2) a communications protocol to ensure reliable and efficient coordination of the input devices and host computers, (3) an application-independent middleware that maintains the states, sessions, and interactions of individual users of the software applications, (4) an application programming interface to enable tight integration of applications and the middleware. The infrastructure is able to support any software applications running under the Windows or Unix platforms. The resulting technologies not only are applicable to NASA mission operations, but also useful in other situations such as design reviews, brainstorming sessions, and business meetings, as they can benefit from having the participants concurrently interact with the software applications (e.g., presentation applications and CAD design tools) to illustrate their ideas and provide inputs.

ground operations↗

NASA NTRS2018

The Next Wave: Humans, Computers, and Redefining Reality

The Augmented/Virtual Reality (AVR) Lab at KSC is dedicated to " exploration into the growing computer fields of Extended Reality and the Natural User Interface (it is) a proving ground for new technologies that can be integrated into future NASA projects and programs." The topics of Human Computer Interface, Human Computer Interaction, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, and Mixed Reality are defined; examples of work being done in these fields in the AVR Lab are given. Current new and future work in Computer Vision, Speech Recognition, and Artificial Intelligence are also outlined.

Extended Reality↗

NASA NTRS1986

The emergence of Zipf's law - Spontaneous encoding optimization by users of a command language

The distribution of commands issued by experienced users of a computer operating system allowing command customization tends to conform to Zipf's law. This result documents the emergence of a statistical property of natural language as users master an artificial language. Analysis of Zipf's law by Mandelbrot and Cherry shows that its emergence in the computer interaction of experienced users may be interpreted as evidence that these users optimize their encoding of commands. Accordingly, the extent to which users of a command language exhibit Zipf's law can provide a metric of the naturalness and efficiency with which that language is used.

Ellis, S. R.↗

NASA NTRS1980

FAME, a microprocessor based front-end analysis and modeling environment

Higher order software (HOS) is a methodology for the specification and verification of large scale, complex, real time systems. The HOS methodology was implemented as FAME (front end analysis and modeling environment), a microprocessor based system for interactively developing, analyzing, and displaying system models in a low cost user-friendly environment. The nature of the model is such that when completed it can be the basis for projection to a variety of forms such as structured design diagrams, Petri-nets, data flow diagrams, and PSL/PSA source code. The user's interface with the analyzer is easily recognized by any current user of a structured modeling approach; therefore extensive training is unnecessary. Furthermore, when all the system capabilities are used one can check on proper usage of data types, functions, and control structures thereby adding a new dimension to the design process that will lead to better and more easily verified software designs.

Rosenbaum, J. D.↗

NASA NTRS2020

Formal Requirements Elicitation with FRET

FRET is a tool for writing, understanding, formalizing and analyzing requirements. Users write requirements in an intuitive, restricted natural language, called FRETISH, with precise, unambiguous meaning. For a FRETISH requirement, FRET: 1) produces natural language and diagrammatic explanations of its exact meaning, 2) formalizes the requirement in logics, and 3) supports interactive simulation of produced logic formulas to ensure that they capture user intentions. FRET connects to analysis tools by facilitating the mapping between requirements and models/code, and by generating verification code. FRET is available open source at https://github.com/NASA-SW-VnV/fret; a video can be accessed at : https://tinyurl.com/fretForREFSQ.

Giannakopoulou, Dimitra↗

NASA NTRS1991

The environment workbench: A design tool for Space Station Freedom

The environment workbench (EWB) is being developed for NASA by S-CUBED to provide a standard tool that can be used by the Space Station Freedom (SSF) design and user community for requirements verification. The desktop tool will predict and analyze the interactions of SSF with its natural and self-generated environments. A brief review of the EWB design and capabilities is presented. Calculations using a prototype EWB of the on-orbit floating potentials and contaminant environment of SSF are also presented. Both the positive and negative grounding configurations for the solar arrays are examined to demonstrate the capability of the EWB to provide quick estimates of environments, interactions, and system effects.

Jongeward, Gary A.↗

NASA NTRS2018

NASA Provides the Capability to Deliver Near Real-Time JPSS Data to Users in Order to Monitor Time-Sensitive Applications Such as Wildfires, Floods, Volcanic Eruptions, Tropical Cyclones and Extreme Weather Events

NASA's Land, Atmosphere Near real-time Capability for EOS (Earth Observing System) (LANCE https://earthdata.nasa.gov/lance) serves near real time (NRT) data to monitor time sensitive applications such as monitoring wildfires, floods, volcanic eruptions, tropical cyclones and extreme weather events. It currently serves data and imagery from the Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) and Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS) S NPP (Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership) instruments and is in the process of integrating continuity data products from VIIRS and OMPS onboard the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS), via the JPSS data Hub, to continue to meet the needs of agencies, scientists and members of the general public. NASA's Earth Science Division (ESD) sponsored the EOSDIS development of LANCE in 2009 to provide a central point of access to high quality NRT data products and imagery for applications users. LANCE makes data available to the public within 3 hours of satellite observation and imagery within 4-5 hours of satellite observation. Full resolution browse imagery from LANCE are provided through the Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS) which also fuels NASA's Worldview tool so that users can interactively browse near real time data. This data supports time critical applications and allows users to view current natural hazards and events and animate the imagery over time.

Near real time↗

NASA NTRS1995

A user-system interface agent

Agent-based technologies answer to several challenges posed by additional information processing requirements in today's computing environments. In particular, (1) users desire interaction with computing devices in a mode which is similar to that used between people, (2) the efficiency and successful completion of information processing tasks often require a high-level of expertise in complex and multiple domains, (3) information processing tasks often require handling of large volumes of data and, therefore, continuous and endless processing activities. The concept of an agent is an attempt to address these new challenges by introducing information processing environments in which (1) users can communicate with a system in a natural way, (2) an agent is a specialist and a self-learner and, therefore, it qualifies to be trusted to perform tasks independent of the human user, and (3) an agent is an entity that is continuously active performing tasks that are either delegated to it or self-imposed. The work described in this paper focuses on the development of an interface agent for users of a complex information processing environment (IPE). This activity is part of an on-going effort to build a model for developing agent-based information systems. Such systems will be highly applicable to environments which require a high degree of automation, such as, flight control operations and/or processing of large volumes of data in complex domains, such as the EOSDIS environment and other multidisciplinary, scientific data systems. The concept of an agent as an information processing entity is fully described with emphasis on characteristics of special interest to the User-System Interface Agent (USIA). Issues such as agent 'existence' and 'qualification' are discussed in this paper. Based on a definition of an agent and its main characteristics, we propose an architecture for the development of interface agents for users of an IPE that is agent-oriented and whose resources are likely to be distributed and heterogeneous in nature. The architecture of USIA is outlined in two main components: (1) the user interface which is concerned with issues as user dialog and interaction, user modeling, and adaptation to user profile, and (2) the system interface part which deals with identification of IPE capabilities, task understanding and feasibility assessment, and task delegation and coordination of assistant agents.

Wakim, Nagi T.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Virtual Environments in Scientific Visualization

Virtual environment technology is a new way of approaching the interface between computers and humans. Emphasizing display and user control that conforms to the user's natural ways of perceiving and thinking about space, virtual environment technologies enhance the ability to perceive and interact with computer generated graphic information. This enhancement potentially has a major effect on the field of scientific visualization. Current examples of this technology include the Virtual Windtunnel being developed at NASA Ames Research Center. Other major institutions such as the National Center for Supercomputing Applications and SRI International are also exploring this technology. This talk will be describe several implementations of virtual environments for use in scientific visualization. Examples include the visualization of unsteady fluid flows (the virtual windtunnel), the visualization of geodesics in curved spacetime, surface manipulation, and examples developed at various laboratories.

Bryson, Steve↗