Agent-based Reduction of Information Density (ARID)

Information overload and cluttered user interfaces cause decreased situational awareness and lowered performance of the human operators. Irrelevant data increases searching times for tasks requiring the identification of threats, causing delayed decisions. Cognitive burden on the user increases as displays become more cluttered, which results in increased operator stress leading to slower decisions. 21st Century Systems, Incorporated (21CSI) is pleased to propose to continue research and develop an intelligent agent-based system for the automatic de-cluttering of representational UAV command and control interfaces. 21CSI¡¦s concept, entitled ARID or Agent-based Reduction of Information Density, applies an innovative design to assist in the prevention of information overload caused by overly information-dense user interfaces. A set of intelligent agents will reduce the cognitive load imposed upon a human operator by de-emphasizing those aspects of a display that can be inferred as less-important to the mission goals. ARID agents will be based upon knowledge-based reasoning and feedback learning mechanisms to deliver a significant improvement over the simplistic rules-based systems that represent the current state of the art. ARID agents are designed to address intelligently decluttering the user interface, adapting to user activities, and providing alerts that focus on the priority of the event.