Development of Computerized Support Tools for Intelligence Work
Joel Brynielsson, Andreas Horndahl, Lisa Kaati, Christian Mårtenson, Pontus Svenson · 2009
In the tasks facing the armed forces today there is a need for new and improved intelligence analysis tools. The opponents no longer follow strict doctrines that determine their behavior and force-composition. Several different opposing groups must be taken into account, some of which will appear to act friendly towards us. In this paper, we describe a vision for how various information fusion tools can be used to help intelligence analysts and decision-makers achieve situation awareness. We consider intelligence work and propose an analyst-centric toolbox aiming to help analysts involved in the intelligence production process to prepare suitable reports. Intelligence analysts are overwhelmed by information, both in the form of sensory data, text stemming from human observations and other sources. We describe parts of the intelligence process and touch upon the subject of what parts can and cannot be automated. The toolbox is outlined by describing a number of possible tools, e.g., semantic information tagging, a threat model construction assistant, a situation picture construction assistant, social network visualization, a game-theoretic reasoning engine, etc. Some of the tools described have been implemented as concept prototypes whereas others are the subject of ongoing research.