Augmented Cognition
FAC Movie Premise
This short film takes place in 2030 in a command center that is tasked with monitoring cyberspace activities for anomalies that could threaten the global economy. The economy, which functions largely in cyberspace, is the link between countries and is extremely susceptible to instability. As might be expected, given the ever-increasing amount of data to be analyzed even in today’s world, the workers in 2030 are inundated with information from all sources. They have so much information to contend with that they are literally unable to process it all unaided. Fortunately, AugCog technologies have matured by this point and are commonly integrated into information-rich domains, including the featured command center. The film takes viewers through a near incident that is resolved by one of the analysts in the command center and is designed to tell two sides of the AugCog story: the innumerable benefits of the application of AugCog technology and the explanation of how that technology works.
In the first fifteen minutes of the film, viewers see the events as one who is observing the analysts perform their jobs. In the second portion of the film, viewers go inside the processes that allow the analysts to work, including the mental processes that enable them to process information and make decisions – all aided by AugCog technologies. The last five minutes act almost as a stand-alone documentary in which the S&T behind the closed-loop system is defined via computer animation.
AugCog researchers and developers are commonly asked about the future applications of AugCog, and FAC explains one such scenario—in one of many information-rich and demanding environments predicted to be even more prevalent in the future than they are today. While advances in knowledge management and human-computer interaction will be necessary to allow people to function in these environments, there will always be variability between people, within the same person over time, and even within the same person in real-time, as they move through the stages of a task. Augmented cognition technologies will be key in adapting computational systems specifically to individual users in order to maximize information processing.
Thanks to the input from neuroscience experts, FAC represents the future head-mounted sensor technology, as well as the entire enhanced closed-loop system. By 2030, vast strides will have been made in the way our computers process information. So, while the information barrage will remain the same, computing systems will be more capable of filtering information in real-time, helping the user increase speed and productivity.
The consideration of an operational scenario for AugCog technologies, combined with an accurate and intriguing portrayal of human information processing and closed-loop system functioning, makes the Future of Augmented Cognition a must see for AugCog scientists, engineers, and practitioners or those with an interest in any discipline that is based on human-system computing concepts.
Directed by Mr. Alexander Singer
Mr. Alexander Singer is a film director based in Los Angeles. During the past 40 years, he has directed over 280 television shows, in all forms, and five theatrical features. The body of work includes some of the best dramatic TV series: Profiles in Courage, The Fugitive, The Bold Ones, Police Story, Lou Grant, Cagney and Lacy, Hill Street Blues, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager. In 2003, Singer received an invitation to join the DARPA ISAT group researching Augmented Cognition and hosted by Microsoft Research and Development. Subsequently, DARPA asked Singer to create a short film projecting a possible Future of Augmented Cognition in the year 2030.