N101-102 TITLE: Adaptive System Behavior through Dynamic Data Modeling and Auto-Generated User Interface

TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Information Systems

ACQUISITION PROGRAM: Mobile User Objective System (MUOS)

RESTRICTION ON PERFORMANCE BY FOREIGN CITIZENS (i.e., those holding non-U.S. Passports): This topic is "ITAR Restricted." The information and materials provided pursuant to or resulting from this topic are restricted under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), 22 CFR Parts 120 - 130, which control the export of defense-related material and services, including the export of sensitive technical data. Foreign Citizens may perform work under an award resulting from this topic only if they hold the "Permanent Resident Card", or are designated as "Protected Individuals" as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3). If a proposal for this topic contains participation by a foreign citizen who is not in one of the above two categories, the proposal will be rejected.

OBJECTIVE: Develop an innovative tool that incorporates dynamically updating net-centric data stores and auto-generating user interfaces to allow users to tailor their decision support environments in a timely manner.

DESCRIPTION: This topic addresses the operational problem of dynamically updating net-centric data stores and auto-generating user interfaces with minimum or no downtime with a focus on threat information against our critical 24x7 satellite communications operations. This dual-use effort will invoke services or capabilities to dynamically reconfigure data stores and user interfaces based both on the data integrated as well as learned user preferences allowing users to tailor their decision support environments in a timely manner.

Software applications are developed to analyze large data stores to solve specific problems. With the rapid expansion of data sources, static databases that are not rapidly extensible cannot support the data needs of threat warning, command and control, or other enterprise-wide commercial services. Also, an enterprise�s view of a problem domain changes over time. Software applications quickly become irrelevant without significant outlays for upgrades to adapt to changes.

The capability to dynamically update military and commercial enterprise applications in support of enterprise application integration would greatly increase responsiveness to growth in data sources and integration amongst systems. Example commercial data bases that can use this technology include transportation, healthcare, financial, education and insurance industries, amongst others. The challenge is to construct an adaptive user interface based on an ever-updating data structure to give the user a more personalized experience.

The area of intelligent and adaptive user interfaces has been of interest to the research community for a long time; however, to date research in this field has not led to widespread application. The emergence of dynamic data models, ontologies, and probabilistic network technologies offer the potential for finding an innovative enterprise solution to manage dynamic data stores and adaptive user interfaces. The proposed capability will allow more rapid access to constantly evolving and emerging information sources, which is applicable in fast-paced military and business environments.

PHASE I: Design an architecture around the concept for dynamic data model implementation and adaptive user interfaces. The architecture with dual use capabilities will be developed to support integration and interoperability with existing Navy Commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) / Government-off-the-shelf (GOTS) technologies. This will be the basis for a Phase II prototype and demonstration effort.

Tasks under this phase could include:
� Design an architecture for dynamic data model implementation and adaptive user interfaces
� Identify technology shortfalls to be further addressed in Phase II

PHASE II: Based upon the proposed dynamic data management architecture and tools for adaptive user interfaces, a reconfigurable, extensible and adaptive prototype will be implemented and demonstrated in a laboratory environment. The Laboratory environment should include candidate systems to support a representative Navy operational environment consistent with the Four Layer Defense for SATCOM

� Implement a prototype
� In a laboratory environment, evaluate measured performance characteristics versus expectations and make design/process adjustments as necessary.
� Metrics of interest during the demo include:
o The latency between 1) the addition of a new data element to the data model and 2) that new data element appearing in the application editor UI.
o The latency between 1) a user's interaction with the system and 2) the effects of that interaction being interpreted and resulting in a semantically-driven change to the application editor UI (i.e. a new wizard is generated to facilitate that particular task in the future).
o The quality of the analytics engine, as measured by 1) the number of tasks that are successfully completed based on the auto-generated wizards relative to 2) the number of tasks that have to be performed the "hard way" by explicitly hunting down and changing data.

PHASE III: This phase will focus on migrating the laboratory demonstration to an operational capability required for defense of DoD satellite systems. Phase III will also have the goal to commercialize a reconfigurable, extensible and adaptive data model capability, algorithms and technologies within an enterprise framework relevant to other markets such as transportation, healthcare, financial, education and insurance, amongst others.

PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL/DUAL-USE APPLICATIONS: This technology can be applied to supporting the defense of any space system. Additional private sector commercial applications include transportation, healthcare, financial, education and insurance industries, amongst others.

REFERENCES:
1. User Modeling in Adaptive Interfaces http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&q=author:%22Langley%22+intitle:%22User+modeling+in+adaptive+interfaces%22+&um=1&ie=UTF-8&oi=scholarr

2. OMG Model Driven Architecture http://www.omg.org/mda/

3. http://adenu.ia.uned.es/adaptaplan/pub/informeTIN2007.pdf

4. Microsoft Corp. (2005) "Adaptive Systems and Interaction", http://research.microsoft.com/adapt/

5. http://st-www.cs.uiuc.edu/users/johnson/papers/dom/DynamicObjectModel.pdf

6. Current Trends in Adaptive User Interfaces: Challenges and Applications http://www2.computer.org/portal/web/csdl/doi/10.1109/CERMA.2007.42

KEYWORDS: Adaptive systems, dynamic data models, machine learning, services, architectures, probabilistic networks, adaptive user interfaces

** TOPIC AUTHOR (TPOC) **

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