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March 2008: DI’s PACES Project Featured in WIRED BlogDI’s work on PACES (a Proactive Aiding in Command-and-Control Environments System), was recently featured in the WIRED DangerRoom, a news blog about the latest technology in national security and defense. The article, describing the evolvement of Augmented Cognition Research, highlighted that the “Air Force has tapped Design Interactive, Inc. to build a battlefield command-and-control system that [is] supposed to use EEG and eye-tracking monitors to ‘assess the operator's actual cognitive state,’” referring to an SBIR Phase I contract recently awarded to the company. PACES will be an automatic agent, informed by real-time data streams from the system, the mission, and the operator's cognitive state, using dynamic constraint-based task modeling to anticipate future mission state and operator functional state (OFS) ahead of time. |
March 2008: DI on Development Team for Training System Praised by Top Military OfficialChairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, visited the Infantry Immersion Trainer (IIT) at
Camp Pendleton. “I’m very impressed with it,” noted Adm. Mullen. “It’s a reminder of what simulation can do- it’s
certainly great preparation for the Marines as they prepare to go to Iraq-and in the end hopefully it will
contribute significantly to a better way to execute the mission and save lives." IIT is a revolutionary training
system that uses virtual reality to re-create foreign urban scenes – right down to the sounds and smells – to give
troops the necessary skills to win and survive in battle overseas. Read more here.
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Feb 2008: Design Interactive signs collaborative cross marketing agreement with 352 Media GroupDesign Interactive is pleased to announce a collaborative cross marketing agreement with 352 Media Group, of Gainesville, Florida. 352 Media Group is an award winning web technology firm, and was ranked by Inc. magazine as one of the fastest growing privately held companies in America. 352 Media offers a wide range of web development services, including Information Architecture, Web site Design, Web Application programming, Intranet and Extranet development, Web Marketing, Flash animation, E-commerce and much more. By combining and utilizing Design Interactive’s expertise in Human Systems Interaction and 352 Media Group’s proficiency in web development services we are able to offer our customers a wide array of services throughout the system lifecycle development. This exciting joint venture allows both companies to ensure our customers development of user centered, efficient and highly satisfactory systems without costly and time consuming redesigns. |
Sept 2007: DI Summer/Fall NewsletterWe are happy to announce that the first issue of DIs semi-annual newsletter is now available for download (PDF) |
June 2007: DI Awarded Navy Phase I SBIR for A-VETSThe framework for an Affective Virtual Environment Training System (A-VETS) will be developed by Design Interactive, Inc., through a Navy Phase I SBIR. The goal of the system is to guide selection of appropriate affective cues for incorporation into training environments to enhance learning and training transfer based on specific training contexts and objectives. " - See full project description here |
5/23/07: DI to develop TEE-FAST through Navy Phase I SBIRDesign Interactive, Inc. was awarded a Navy Phase I SBIR to develop the Training Effectiveness Evaluation with Neurophysiological Metrics: Fidelity Assessment of VE Training Systems (TEE-FAST) framework with the goal of developing a combination of behavioral and physiological metrics to effectively gauge simulation fidelity. TEE-FAST will build upon current theoretical frameworks including TOMCAT and A-VETS to create a system that will allow evaluators to compare the cues present in the operational environment to those in the VE to determine where non-optimal levels of physical, functional, and psychology fidelity exist and provide guidelines to optimize system fidelity at those levels. " - See full project description here |
April 2007: DI Awarded Phase II SBIR contract through DARPAIn a DARPA Phase I effort, Design Interactive, Inc. (DII) made advances toward developing a system that measurably improves the speed and quality of individual situation awareness (SA) and decision making in tactical environments by creating event-based neurophysiological templates that could be used to drive real-time system mitigation for enhanced individual SA, decision making and performance. In this Phase II effort, DII will apply this neurophysiological approach to the Intelligence Text Analysis domain to develop the Advanced Neurophysiology for Intelligence Text Analysis (ANITA) system. This real-time system will use EEG/ERP (electroencephalogram/ event-related potentials), heart rate, and eye tracking to monitor analysts’ processing of textual data and identify conscious and unconscious areas of interest, with the goal of assisting intelligence analysts in achieving profound improvements in their ability to objectively capture information of interest to their current hypotheses or focus." - See full project description here |
02/08/07: Dr. Kay Stanney receives Virtual Reality Technical Achievement Award 2006The 2006 Virtual Reality Technical Achievement Award went to Kay Stanney in recognition for seminal technical achievement in virtual & augmented reality. "Kay Stanney has been a leader in the field of virtual reality for the past ten years. Probably most important to the field of virtual reality (VR) is her contribution as editor of the Handbook of Virtual Environments: Design, Implementation, and Applications (2002, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates). Her research has centered on two primary areas: sickness and aftereffects associated with exposure to VR systems, as well as multimodal human-computer interaction..." - Download the full award notice (PDF) |
Nov 2006: DI Awarded Navy SBIR for Haptics ResearchDesign Interactive, Inc. (DII) was awarded a Navy Phase I SBIR contract to develop a bi-directional haptic communication system for dismounted soldiers that can be readily incorporated into a Marine’s attire. Phase I will focus on conceptual and prototype development of the System for Tactile Reception of Advanced Patterns (STRAP). DII is teaming with AnthroTronix, Inc. (ATinc) located in Silver Spring, Maryland, who will provide expertise in tactile actuator technology. ATinc has extensive experience in research and development involving multimodal interfaces for communication and command/control of computer-based systems such as wearable computers and robotic platforms. The ATinc team is led by Corinna Lathan, PhD, PE, the co-founder, President, and CEO of AnthroTronix, Inc. Looking towards Phase II, DI plans to incorporate the STRAP system with an embedded Team Status and Signaling system (TS3) developed by ATinc to create the desired bi-directional communication system for dismounted soldiers. |
11/04/06: Next Generation Home Appliances.Design Interactive, Inc. completed a thorough usability analysis for a major home appliance manufacturer that focused on two next-generation advanced feature concepts. Analysis techniques included user profiling, contextual task analyses, focus groups, user testing, and emotional profiling of targeted users. Our findings found numerous usability strengths as well as shortcomings with current designs. For each usability shortcoming, DI provided a rationale and included redesign recommendations targeted at alleviating the observed issues. Results were well received by the major home appliance manufacturer's usability, design, engineering and marketing staff, and are currently being implemented into their iterative design cycles. The next-generation home applicance concepts examined in this project may shape the market and become industry standard in the near future. It is therefore expected that the study has global impact on the everyday life in millions of households over the within the next 2-5 years. |
10/17/06: HFES/ACI 2006 Round-up.Four staff members of Design Interactive, Inc. (DII) attended the 2nd International Conference on Augmented Cognition (ACI) and the 50th Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) that were held jointly in San Francisco between October 15th and 21st. DII staff were authors on 6 papers and held 4 paper presentations, all of which were well received in the community and triggered interesting discussions. References to the conference proceedings can be found on our Publications page. Sven Fuchs received a "Foundations of AugCog" award, and the paper “Physiological Measures Cannot Drive Mitigation Alone” by S. Fuchs and K. Hale of DII, C. Berka and Dan Levendowski of ABM and J. Juhnke of Tanagram Partners was selected as best paper in the Mitigation Strategies track of ACI. The work outlines a revolutionary approach to event-based mitigation of perception problems in complex, information rich environments, which was developed with Phase I SBIR funding from DARPA in collaboration with Advanced Brain Monitoring and Tanagram Partners. The approach utilizes event-specific EEG signatures and behavioral responses to detect shortcomings in perception and comprehension of events. Further benefits may be seen with an integrated predictive workload models to increase task context and make better assumptions about operator cognitive state so optimal display adaptations could be selected and applied in real-time to optimize operator situation awareness. At the ACI reception event Tuesday night, both the Naval Command testbed used to develop the conceptual model for event-based, real-time mitigation outlined above and ABM’s real-time neurophysiological metrics were demonstrated. |
Oct 2006: DI Awarded Air Force SBIR for Team Performance AnalysisDI was recently awarded a Air Force SBIR Phase I contract to develop a conceptual model for a team performance assessment tool, targeted at both creating a priori hypotheses regarding potential team performance breakdowns and identifying and monitoring dynamic breakdowns in team performance. MAP IT-C utilizes social network analysis (SNA) to define team characteristics and to structure team task analysis. Mapped with task analysis data, potential team breakdowns in performance, are identified. Dynamic breakdowns are captured via contextually-driven metrics for online performance. EEG and eye tracking metrics are used to assess why breakdowns have occurred, due to situation awareness issues, team issues, or individual performance issues. |
09/27/06: Online Floral Purchasing - Usability Study.Design Interactive, Inc. recently completed a usability study for a leading brand in the floral industry with millions of online orders per year. In particular, the online checkout process – a critical element of the e-shopping experience – was evaluated to assess the impact of the new design features included in a recently revised and modernized website design. Design Interactive, Inc. conducted an expert heuristic evaluation and usability testing of targeted customers. From this evaluation, both usability strengths as well as usability shortcomings that resulted in user error and/or non-optimal navigation were identified. The usability concerns identified were deemed crucial enough by the client to reschedule the launch date of the new website so that usability shortcomings identified by Design Interactive Inc.’s review could be addressed and a best-in-class shopping experience could be ensured. Read the complete case study here (PDF). |
Fall 2006: DI to Present at 3 Major Human Factors Conferences.DI will be presenting its work at three major HCI conferences this Fall. In October, DI’s Kay Stanney will be Co-Chair of the 2nd Annual AugCog International Conference held in San Francisco, California. DI personnel will also be presenting several papers and a poster at various sessions of AugCog, showcasing the Company’s work in the areas of augmented cognition, situational awareness and mitigation strategies. Concurrent with the AugCog Conference, DI staff will be presenting three papers at the 50th Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. DI will present findings based on the Company’s years of work in the VIRTE program on spatial awareness using tactile cues in a virtual environment, and learning curve analysis. DI will close out the year with multiple paper presentations at the ITSEC show and conference in December in Orlando, Florida. DI staff has presented numerous papers and workshops each of the last four years at I/ITSEC, and this year DI will present three more papers in the area of Training Systems Design and Evaluation. |
06/15/06: DI Receives ARDA Funding.DI was awarded a $2.86M, 4.5 year contract to develop an EEG-based system for analysis of SATINT data within the ARDA CASE program. The project will attempt to develop a rapid screening system for imagery data that utilizes advanced neurotechnology and physiological measures (eye-tracking) to significantly improve intelligence analysts’ data throughput. Bias detection is the ultimate goal of this effort. DI is teaming with a world leader in electroencephalography (EEG) and neural signatures, Advanced Brain Monitoring, Inc. (ABM) of Carlsbad, California. ABM will provide technologies to identify states of bias in analysts. Also partnering with DI on this effort is Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) of Richland, Washington. PNNL is a leader in breakthrough science and technologies to meet key national needs within selected environmental, energy, health and national security objectives. The PNNL team is led by Dr. Andrew J. Cowell, a senior research scientist within the Rich Interaction Group. Andrew leads a group of researchers performing research in Social & Collaborative Environments. This effort will culminate in 2010, with the development of a state of the art bias monitoring system. DI’s expertise in Augmented Cognition concepts and Human-Systems Integration will all be brought into play in this challenging and exciting effort. |
05/15/06: Dr. Kay Stanney is Awarded the 2006 Virtual Reality Technical Achievement AwardKay Stanney has been awarded the 2006 Virtual Reality Technical Achievement Award in recognition for seminal technical achievement in virtual & augmented reality. The IEEE VGTC Technical Awards program recognizes individuals who have made a significant contribution to the community through their research. Dr. Stanney has been a leader in virtual reality (VR) research and applications for the past 10 years. Her Design Interactive, Inc. team is currently training effectiveness evaluation (TEE) lead on the Office of Naval Research (ONR) Virtual Technologies and Environments (VIRTE) Program, which is an expansive program touching all aspects of expeditionary warfare and involves the use of virtual environment technologies for training, mission rehearsal, and other mission critical tasks. Dr. Stanney co-founded, with Ronald Mourant, the Virtual Environments Technical Group (VETG) of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES), as well as the 1st Virtual Reality International, held in conjunction with HCI International 2005, the latter of which was co-founded with Michael Zyda. She is Editor of the seminal Handbook of Virtual Environments: Design, Implementation, and Applications (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates). She has also been interviewed on NBC Nightly News concerning her research in the area of sickness and aftereffects associated with VR exposure and their implications to the health and safety of VR users, as well as the acceptance of VR technology by society at large. Her research has also appeared on MTV Network’s health show MegaDose, CBC’s Undercurrents, and NBC Local Orlando News, as well as receiving front-page coverage in several local and national newspapers. |
