Natural Language Processing &Combat Simulations:
Addressing Communication Interoperability Issues
Jennifer H. Nolan &Dan M. Davis
Catholic Polytechnic University
1028 N Lake Ave MC 207
Pasadena, CA 91104
{jnolan&ddavis } @catholicpolytechnic.org
Judith L. Jacobus
SpeechAnalyst/Therapist
1564 Merion Way
Seal Beach, CA 90740
stately07@dslextreme.com
Mark C. Davis
Wood Duck Research, Inc
114 Yale Loop
Mooresville, NC 28117
davismc@ieee.org
Keywords: Natural Language Processing, Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Conversations, Standards Development
ABSTRACT:As has been advanced before, there are some supportable arguments for considering and adopting standards for emerging simulation technologies before they become firmly established in many incompatible variants. A technology that may be amenable to such an analysis is that of the use of Natural Language Processing to create virtual conversations emulating a video-conference discussion. This paper opens with a description of research in a different discipline, on-line career counseling, which was conducted by three of the co-authors (Nye, Tran & D. Davis) as members of a team at the Information Sciences Institute, University of Southern California. This demonstrated capability may be a valuable tool in battlefield simulations. As such utilities are appended to existing or emerging simulations, some semblance of interoperability might be in valuable. The second concept of the paper presents several ways in which this capability might be used, based on the authors’ experience in both active duty military service and in battlefield simulations. The next thesis of the paper will address some of the benefits expected to flow from such developments, with a brief discussion of useful metrics for assessing that inclusion. Such issues may also be ripe for simulation standards analysis. Then the paper addresses the possible parameters in both the implementation and the metrics development evolutions. Consideration is given to implementation facility, intuitive transparency, and fail-safe programming. To be cautious, the paper considers at some length the risks that such standard establishments might entail, including mistakenly projecting a path or use taken or missing one not taken. Such a function may require an easy way to modify both standards and implementation guidelines. There is an evaluation of the costs and scheduling issues that may arise from such standards and the acceptability of the simulation programming professional. Future advances in hardware and software are considered. The paper closes with a brief discussion for how such concepts might effectively be considered by simulation standards community.
Author Biographies
DAN M. DAVIS is a Research Associate Professor at Catholic Polytechnic University (CPU) and is also active as a consultant at the Institute for Creative Technologies, University of Southern California (USC). He is currently focusing on large-scale DoD simulations and virtual human implementations. Prior to retirement, he was the Director of the JESPP project at USC for more than a decade. As the Assistant Director of Advanced Computing Research at Caltech, he ran Synthetic Forces Express, bringing HPC to DoD simulations. He has also served as a Director at the Maui High Performance Computing Center and in computer research roles at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Martin Marietta. He was the Chairman of the Coalition of Academic Supercomputing Centers and has taught at the undergraduate and graduate levels. As early as 1971, Dan was writing programs in FORTRAN on one of Seymour Cray’s CDC 6500’s. While in the Marine Corps, he saw duty in Vietnam as a Cryptologist and retired in 2002 as a Commander, U.S.N. He received B.A. and J.D. degrees from the University of Colorado in Boulder.
JENNIFER H. NOLAN, PH..D. is the President of Catholic Polytechnic University and Professor of Psychology in their College of Arts and Sciences. Her earlier work specialized in memory, dementias, stroke and insulin resistance. She is a brain plasticity specialist and certified Cogmed provider. Previously, she was the C.O.O. and co-founder of a stroke and brain injury rehabilitation center. Dr. Nolan has taught university courses at the University of California Irvine, Loyola Marymount University, and Glendale Community College. She has conducted local and nationwide clinical trials, and published in both scientific journals and popular magazines. She received a BA in Psychology from Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles and a Ph.D. in Neuro-Psychology from the Dept. of Cognitive Science at the University of California, Irvine.
JUDITH L. JACOBUS is retired from conducting speech therapy as a Speech and Language Specialist for more than two decades. Her experiences were in public schools settings in Orange County. California. She also previously taught for 12 years as a classroom teacher in multi-cultural communities there. Judith currently volunteers her professional skills for a local police department, so has extensive experience with dysfunctional adults and children in a variety of both every-day and traumatic situations. Her participation in amateur theatrics has more fully familiarized her with the characteristics of human behavior as they are projected via verbal, facial and body-language cues. This experience has also exposed her to the skill and art of the selection of appropriate persons for specific on-screen roles. Judith holds a lifetime Special Education Credential in Speech and Hearing Therapy, K-12 from the State of California. She earned a B. A. Degree in Speech Communications from the California State University Long Beach and an M.A. Degree in Teaching and Teacher Leadership from the Grand Canyon University in Glendale, Arizona.
MARK C. DAVIS, PH.D. is the Chief Technical Officer at Wood Duck Research, Inc, and is semi retired after careers in the US Navy and as a computer design engineer for both IBM and Lenovo. Rising to the level of Distinguished Engineer at Lenovo, he was responsible for the design of laptop computer cross-disciplinary technology, including PC architecture, embedded systems, open source and virtualization. Previous work was with IBM in the areas of software development and architecture involving security, storage and virtualization. Dr. Davis has been granted well over fifty patents that were filed during his service at both companies. He is a graduate of the Duke University NROTC program and was commissioned as an Ensign, attended nuclear power school, and served as a Submarine Officer for twelve years, including one duty tour as a classroom instructor. He left the active duty as a Lieutenant Commander to pursue a PhD. Mark holds a BSEE degree from Duke University and a PhD in Computer Science from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where his advisor was Professor Fredrick P. Books.