In my previous post, I mentioned that there is a concern that DoD has as to how to harness mountain of data collected from various devices and it is trying to solve this problem by developing algorithms from the perspective of Big Data. Pulling out the meaningful information from the data is very important. However, the information that is also necessary in the battlefield is of extreme time-contraint.
Let's see what is happening in Afghanistan. Contact with local village elders and gleaning a vast amount of familial, tribal, religious and economic information are one of the way to collect data. It becomes a very unique understanding of what is happening in their region. These data are usually delivered through mobile devices. Also, many UAVs for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance are flying over their region to harvest a petabyte of video data every day.
If these data should be analyzed in the central headquarter, there will never be enough bandwidth to carry all the tera- or petabytes. In order to enhance the performance of the Big Data system, the article I refer to suggests additional approaches.
1. Increase on-board processing of data
- Each sensor needs to analyze and triage
2. Integrate analytics into data storage
- The network only burdens with brief reports rather than hundreds of terabytes of information
3. Move to automated tiering of data storage
- The older information is moved to the lower tier of information storage
Reference: http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/2012/10/11458170
This article presents some very good ideas but implementing them into practice is a whole different story. The key to the whole process is the first point in the article. In order for the information to be accurately and efficiently analyzed and triaged, it must be in an understandable format and language to the storage and retrieval systems. This is not a major issue if the data is taken by an automated system like an unmanned platform or a computerized part of a weapon system. Unfortunately, a lot of the data in the military is still gathered by hand, whether it maintenance logs or records taken from the population inhabiting a hostile theater. To get soldiers to fill out any paperwork to level of detail one would desire can be what seems like an unwinnable battle.
ReplyDeleteWhile the tools and systems used on the battlefield are designed and developed by well educated professionals, the end user of these systems are usually an eighteen year soldier with little or no college education. If by some chance you do get a more experienced soldier, the culture in the military is resistant to change. Only the changes that make the soldiers’ job easier will have a chance to be accepted. So in order to gather relevant data in the format necessary for analysis and triage, the information that soldier inputs should be keep to a minimum and be presented in minimum stress format like a checklist or series of yes or no questions. Once the data can be process and sorted effectively, the data can be transported and stored more efficiently.