Márcio Roberto de Campos

Creating Emergency Management Training Simulations through Ontologies Integration

Training simulations, which involve the collaboration of multiple users (represented as avatars), sharing a common virtual environment, are difficult to build, control and manage. This paper describes an architecture to support non-programmer emergency management trainers to rapidly create different instances of powerful and complex training simulations. The novel aspects of this architecture, that makes it different from other related systems, are the innovative techniques and concepts that are used. Events collected from sensor networks deployed on physical environments subject to emergency situations can be added to the simulation scenarios being created. A set of ontologies was devised to create powerful training simulation instances, such as different fire classes, different fire fighting techniques, specific rescue tactics, etc. A case study was implemented to validate the architecture. The results show that this system can be a powerful tool for the creation of complex training simulations.

Methodology for Data and Information Quality Assessment in the Context of Emergency Situational Awareness

Situation Assessment (SA) approaches aim to provide powerful resources to support decision makers in enhancing their Situational Awareness (SAW). The process of SA in emergency response systems is of utmost importance once the information acquired and inferred from human reports is used to support the deployment of tactics and resources to attend incidents. However, operators of such systems may face informational barriers leading to an erroneous SAW and consequently jeopardize the assessment process if they are not handled. One of such barriers in this context is the presence of low-quality data or information. Hence, a challenging issue in this field is to determine how to generate, score, update and represent data and information quality cues to support operators to reason under uncertainties and improve their understanding about an ongoing situation. The state of the art in this area presents a research gap regarding methodologies for the information quality assessment which can be used in the emergency management domain. Also, there is a lack of approaches that interface with different levels of situational information during an assessment routine. Hence, in order to enhance operators situational awareness, a new methodology is presented to improve the capabilities of SA systems by enriching knowledge about situations with reliable metadata. Such methodology, named Information Quality Assessment Methodology in the Context of Emergency situational awareness, is composed by: elicitation of data and information quality requirements; definition of functions and metrics to quantify quality dimensions, such as completeness, timeliness, consistency, relevance and uncertainty; and the representation of situational information by the instantiation of a situation model, which can be consumed by an ontology. Finally, a case study is addressed to verify the applicability of the methodology using data and information from a robbery event. The results obtained show situational models with qualified information that feed SA systems, enabling them to be aware of information quality.

Conceptual Framework to Enrich Situation Awareness of Emergency Dispatchers

Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD) systems provide powerful resources to support emergency operators (dispatchers) in their activity. However, these dispatchers can work under heavy stress, which can lead to failure to get necessary information, resulting in unsuccessful response to calls. One challenging issue to better support operators in stressing calls is to determine how to generate, score and represent informational quality cues to help them to reason under uncertainties and improve their understanding about an ongoing situation (situational awareness - SAW). In such a context, the poor knowledge about the entities involved in a situation and what is really going on may lead to wrong decision-making. One of the gaps in the state-of-the-art research in this area is the lack of a common ground regarding information quality. This is due to domain-specific demands and the absence of a comprehensive framework of information quality that interface with different levels of knowledge during a situation assessment cycle. Hence, in order to improve dispatchers’ situational awareness, we present a new conceptual framework to support decision making in emergency call situations by enriching situations knowledge with reliable metadata and successive reassessments of information quality. The framework’s requirements elicitation was carried out with police experts as well as the definition and application of information quality scoring criteria and the representation of such scores along with a semantic knowledge representation model. The framework application on real robbery reporting calls has indicated very positive results.

Understanding and Building Interoperable, Integrable and Composable Distributed Training Simulations

Distributed virtual environments for training simulations can potentially improve team work quality besides introducing a safe environment to investigate human behavior in abnormal situations. However, the creation of such simulations is complex and expensive. Simulation reuse by means of interoperability, integrability and composability help saving money and development time. However, this is one of the greatest challenges for the simulation research area. This paper discusses and contrasts these important and complex concepts, using several examples. A tool to support the creation of interoperable and composable training simulations is introduced. A proof of concept is described using our proposed tool.

From Behavior Modeling to Communication, 3D Presentation and Interaction: An M&S Life Cycle for Serious Games for Training

The convergence of training simulations with serious games can incite trainees to a more active participation, improving their learning experience and involvement. Games are difficult and expensive to develop thus, methodologies that support both reuse throughout the M&S lifecycle and interoperability are critical. There are different M&S methodologies proposed to facilitate the development of new serious games for training. However, these methodologies typically do not provide support to the whole M&S life cycle, from behavior modeling to communication and 3D presentation and interaction. In this paper, we introduce an M&S methodology to create, reuse and interoperate 3D serious games for training. We refined and validated this methodology by applying it in a practical undergrad discipline, in which students modeled dozens of emergency management training simulations: from START triage and fire fighting to emergency command and operations system. As results, we present a few developed scenarios.

HLA Compliant Training Simulations Creation Tool

This paper presents an architecture to support the modeling of different High Level Architecture (HLA) compliant emergency management training simulations. Different ontologies are created to support complex simulation instantiation. Simulations can be accessed through any device that can run an X3D browser. A context database is created, which provides real life events, collected via wireless sensor networks that can be added to different simulation scenarios. A use case is described using our proposed architecture.

Multi-criteria Fusion of Heterogeneous Information for Improving Situation Awareness on Emergency Management Systems

Information Fusion is the synergic integration of data from different sources for the support to decision-making. The emergency management systems predominance of such application has driven the development to new and better sensors, new methods, for data processing and architectures that promote access, composition, refinement and information handling, with the active participation of specialists as data providers and specialists of the systems. In this scenario of data fusion, uncertainty of diverse natures can be aggregated to both data and information at different levels of the process, creating distorted information to the specialist. As a result the situation awareness and cognitive process can be affected leading to poor quality support to decision-making as a generalization of information quality, uncertainty need to be reduced to improve awareness about the situation of interest. The objective of our work is the mitigation of uncertainty propagated by other quality attributes such as information completeness, so specialists can be able to convey an improved understanding. For such, a new fusion framework fed by multi-criteria parameterization, including information quality measures and its semantics, is depicted as an engine to build more accurate information from diverse sensed possibilities. A case study with a situation assessment application is in course to validate the effectiveness of the generated solution. Preliminary and promising results are discussed as a more valuable tool to support decision-making.

Sistema Integrado para Avaliação de Desempenho Humano em Simulações Interativas

A educacao a distancia tem ganhado significativa atencao tanto na academia quanto nas iniciativas governamentais. Neste contexto, cresce tambem a preocupacao com a avaliacao da qualidade dos diversos aspectos destes cursos mediados pelas tecnologias da informacao e comunicacao. Apesar de muitos trabalhos discutirem diversos aspectos da avaliacao em Ead, a literatura carece de relatos de experiencia que, especialmente, abordem os cursos tecnicos a distancia que possuem especificidades relevantes. Assim, este trabalho relata uma experiencia onde se avalia e adapta uma das propostas existentes na literatura de avaliacao mediada por foruns, ao contexto dos cursos tecnicos a distancia, constituindo-se esta adaptacao e sua discussao as principais contribuicoes do mesmo.Em Educacao a Distância mediada por meio de Ambientes Virtuais de Aprendizagem, foruns de discussao sao um instrumento importante e amplamente utilizado na articulacao de debates e discussoes entre os atores envolvidos no processo de ensino e aprendizagem. Com a ampla utilizacao dos foruns muitas mensagens sao trocadas e isso, por vezes, excede a capacidade de monitoramento por parte dos professores e tutores. O presente trabalho apresenta a concepcao de um classificador de mensagens de foruns que classifica as mensagens em positivas ou negativas, a fim de identificar mensagens que necessitam de maior atencao. Este trabalho aplica conceitos de mineracao de textos, com o algoritmo SVM obtendo taxas de acerto satisfatorias.Este artigo apresenta o framework Contagious, cujo proposito e estabelecer diretrizes que norteiem a construcao de redes sociais online orientadas a Difusao de Inovacoes. Compreendo-se o fenomeno das redes sociais online como consequencia natural do carater social do ser humano, vislumbrou-se esse meio tecnologico de comunicacao e interacao social como potencial ferramenta para a extensao de praticas educativas, com vistas a formacao do carater integral do cidadao. Para isso, foi adotada a teoria de Difusao de Inovacoes, propria das ciencias sociais. As contribuicoes deste trabalho, portanto, compreendem duas vertentes: a) o mapeamento de principios de uma teoria social na forma de recursos computacionais e; b) um enfoque orientado a educacao sobre as redes sociais online.A proposta do trabalho consiste em desenvolver um sistema para ser usado no celular como ferramenta de auxilio para alfabetizacao, utilizando-se de imagens e sons como forma de facilitar o aprendizado. Como metodo de desenvolvimento utiliza-se o processo P@PSEduc (Processo Agil para Software Educativo) e a ferramenta JME (Java Micro Edition).O crescente uso e difusao de tecnologias Web, a ubiquidade de ferramentas educacionais vem proporcionado verdadeiras revolucoes nos ambientes de ensino. Atualmente, sabe-se que nao mais se deve tratar alunos de forma homogenea, como se assim os fossem. Em face disso, este artigo apresenta um sistema adaptativo de apoio a aprendizagem colaborativa, cujo tema e a construcao e representacao do conhecimento por meio de mapas mentais multimidia. Tal sistema, baseia-se na Teoria da Carga Cognitiva, cuja preocupacao primaria e a facilidade com a qual as informacoes sao processadas pelos individuos.

Uncertainty Visualization Framework for Improving Situational Awareness in Emergency Management Systems

Situation awareness (SAW) is the perception of environmental elements within a volume of time and space, the comprehension of their meaning, and the projection of their status in the near future. Processes of acquisition, maintenance and recovering of situation awareness, guided by information visualization methods, may be affected by problems related to the quality of information processing and display, undermining the decision-making process. Among such problems, uncertainty, general dimension and association with the complete gathering of information may arise from the acquisition to its processing and cognition in SAW-oriented systems. Thus, the present study describes the creation of a framework that integrates and disseminates issues related to quality of information and quality of representation, involving the application of graphical representation techniques of uncertainties generated by the dimensions of completeness, consistency and dimensions related to time, such as currently. A case study of emergency management information display will be discussed to illustrate the applicability of the representative framework to improve situation awareness, as well as the graphical representation techniques of uncertainty. Results of this study are discussed, and they point out the contribution to the process of situation awareness of emergency management makers.