Pioneering Architecture for Tablet ELectronic Kneeboard Applications (PATELLA) Navy SBIR FY2016.1 Sol No.: Navy SBIR FY2016.1 Topic No.: N161-016 Topic Title: Pioneering Architecture for Tablet ELectronic Kneeboard Applications (PATELLA) Proposal No.: N161-016-0341 Firm: Soar Technology, Inc. 3600 Green Court Suite 600 Ann Arbor, Michigan 48105 Contact: Adam Sypniewski Phone: (734) 887-7623 Web Site: http://www.soartech.com Abstract: SoarTech proposes to design PATELLA, an electronic kneeboard (EKB) solution for Navy pilots. Built from the ground-up to address the human factors issues that pilots face in the flight environment, PATELLA consists of a data-sharing system and accompanying software design specification that will overcome limitations in current electronic kneeboard technologies through two key innovations. First, PATELLA follows a cognitively-inspired design process for EKB apps. This process lays out requirements for advanced software widgets that suit the workflow of F/A-18 pilots. Second, PATELLA's centralized data-sharing system-which is a locally-executing, standalone tablet application-will allow PATELLA-compliant apps to share information. This allows PATELLA apps to request user-provided information from other apps in order to provide intelligent defaults to the pilot and reduce the number of interactions needed. With these two innovations, PATELLA will provide the Navy with a powerful, unified design for implementing intelligent apps on the EKB. This enables PATELLA to reduce the pilot's interaction time with EKB apps, which in turn decreases the loss of situational awareness that accompanies the heads-down use of current EKB solutions. Benefits: The Phase I effort will produce all of the designs and foundational research needed to build a suite of EKB apps, as well as an evaluation plan to test these designs. By the end of the phase II, SoarTech will have a EKB solution that is ready to be deployed in the flight environment, along with sufficient software design documentation to ensure that future Navy developers can continue parallel implementation of new EKB apps. Return