Concept Evaluation of the Heterogeneous Data Proximity Tool at the C4ISR Network Modernization Event FY12

Visual analytic methods are a growing area of research that targets the effective interleaving of analytical reasoning with interactive interfaces. Capitalizing on the human capacity for spatial reasoning, visual analytics enhance the decisionmaker s understanding of supporting data by highlighting complex relationships. Toward this end, the U.S. Army Research Laboratory has developed a software application that complements traditional social network analysis, enabling improved understanding of the human terrain. The software application, called the Heterogeneous Data Proximity Tool (HDPT), combines a data dimensionality reduction routine using multidimensional scaling to produce a graphical representation of similarity or dissimilarity among a set of high-valued individuals. The HDPT starts with a reference data set representing individuals with known group affiliations: insurgents, innocents, and criminals. As intelligence is collected about new individuals within an area of operation, HDPT computes and plots their relative positions with regard to the existing reference data. The resulting analytic portrays the relative position of the new individual s organizational orientation within the known human terrain. This report provides an overview of the development of HDPT and presents the results from its participation in the Communications- Electronics Research, Development, and Engineering Center, Product Director Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Network Modernization's Event 2012 field exercise. The original document contains color images.