INNOVATION COMMONS

 

IC Advancing intelligent technologies will change the nature of the battlefield, the tasks Soldiers perform, and the capabilities Soldiers need. In order for these future intelligent technologies to combine with human capabilities to achieve unprecedented overmatch, they must be able to better understand humans: to interpret and predict human behavior, actions, intentions, and goals. The Innovation Commons primarily enables collection of longitudinal data in an everyday working environment and supplies the technologies and tools necessary to rapidly implement novel solutions.


Research Goals Within this space of real-time human measurement and prediction, the Innovation Commons supports three major thrusts:

  • understanding, modeling, and predicting variability in human states and behavior at varied timescales
  • measuring and understanding human behavior within dynamic, complex, natural, and military-relevant “real-world” contexts
  • providing the tools and capabilities needed to capture such human data and feed it into adaptive intelligent systems

 

Pervasive Sensing The Innovation Commons currently supports concurrent collection of physiological and behavioral data from up to 25 individuals. 25 Android smartphones serve as on-person hubs for capturing real-time individual-level data and streaming it to the Innovation Commons server. In addition to data collected at the individual level, real-time environmental and contextual data can also be collected within the shared workspaces.

 

Current capabilities allow for the capture of:

  • Electrocardiography and respiration rate via 25 chest straps
  • Photoplethysmography, electrodermal activity, and skin temperature via 25 wrist-worn devices
  • Indoor position (within ~3m) via arrayed Bluetooth beacons
  • Audio via 25 lapel mics and 12 room mics
  • Environmental data (e.g., TVOC, eCO2, temperature, and humidity) via 10 wired environmental sensors

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Laboratory Features

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(Sensed) Electronics Lab Sometimes an off-the-shelf sensor or device just isn’t exactly what you are envisioning for the physical representation of your intelligent agent or for a data collection apparatus. In the electronics lab, you can custom design and create electromechanical systems using our Stratasys 3D printers, soldering workbenches, controllers such as Arduinos, Raspberry Pis, and BeagleBone Blacks, sensors, displays, and dozens of additional electronic components.
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(Sensed) Wet Lab This is a space dedicated to light chemistry and material engineering. It features a vacuum oven, low flow hood, sink, and resin worktops, along with chemical storage and an emergency shower and eyewash.
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(Sensed) Computer Lab A satellite location of the Brain Imaging and Experimental Research Suite (BIERS) lab, the computer lab features high end Red Hat Enterprise Linux workstations with ~200GB of RAM, NVIDIA Quadro K6000s, high speed network connections, redundant storage and power. Available software includes the Adobe Creative Suite, MATLAB, Rhinoceros 5, and SolidWorks.
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(Sensed) Break Space Designed to look like a cafe, this is the place for informal collaborative meetings or just to grab a snack. With furniture that was selected for ease of instrumentation, the space is ready to be equipped to answer your fundamental research questions of how people naturally create ideas, share information, and work together, especially in the presence of smart technology.
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(Sensed) Task and Demonstration Space In the spirit of flexibility, this space is where users of the Innovation Commons can (1) conduct more controlled study components (e.g., in-lab tasks) in conjunction with the pervasive, naturalistic data collection and (2) demonstrate concepts for how adaptive systems could use human state data.
 

 

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(Sensed) Conference Room Designed to accommodate meetings and lectures, the conference room furniture can be rearranged to comfortably handle up to 16 participants, with overflow seating for up to 6 more. It features a movable short throw projector and a wireless microphone system that can record up to 8 independent channels simultaneously.
  • This facility was designed to be completely reconfigurable to adapt to changes in user needs (e.g., through modular walls and drop-down power).