S&T Snapshots - Command Control & Interoperability

Uncommon Operating Picture

(July 2008) When military types and incident commanders talk about getting a common operating picture (COP), they may each have their own notion about what a COP is or ought to be for their needs. The U.S. Joint Forces Command defines a COP as “a single identical display of relevant information shared by more than one command. [It] facilitates collaborative planning and assists all echelons to achieve situational awareness.”

But how? Most COPs are basically electronic push-pin situational awareness maps, based on the same technology that you use to get directions to the nearest mall.

When first responders arrive at the scene of a disaster or an emergency, they have an abundance of data available to them, and access to real-time sensors to keep feeding data, such as cameras, radiation detectors, and air quality monitors. But it can be challenging to integrate, correlate, and effectively fuse all the raw data and the alerts provided by these sources and sensors into a cohesive, easy-to-understand view of what’s going on at the scene.

However, the DHS S&T Directorate is now sponsoring innovative technology that can make this view possible. Called fourDscape^®, the technology will help responders and their commanders to quickly analyze situations, interact with people on the scene, and coordinate a response with a clearly defined mission. It’s produced by Balfour Technologies under a contract with DHS S&T’s Small Business Innovation Research program.

In short, fourDscape^® is capable of managing a large number of cameras and sensors in a virtual, high-resolution, and four-dimensional (4-D) computer display (4-D includes the three traditional dimensions of space, plus the fourth dimension of time). Beyond a basic satellite map of an incident overlaid with data about the locations of buildings and streets, the technology allows the user to monitor cameras at the scene, watch videoconferences with colleagues, and receive alerts to get both contextual and interactive updates. These updates can help a commander understand the totality of a situation—while remaining on-scene—and make tactical decisions.

The fourDscape^® project was put to the test earlier this year during Operation Lupercale, a planning and emergency response exercise that included DHS and the Los Angeles Sherriff’s Department. The exercise simulated a scenario where a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (that is, a car bomb) and a radiological dispersion device (like a dirty bomb) were notionally released against the Tournament of Roses Parade, which takes place on New Year’s Day in Pasadena, Calif. Also included were the L.A. Sherriff’s Bomb Squad, the Hazardous Material Response Team, and other resources in the vicinity of the County Emergency Operations Center of East Los Angeles.

For the test, participants used a 4-D virtual view of the City of Pasadena, which included publicly available county images taken at different and complex camera angles (called ortho and oblique). Next, vivid 3-D building models of the parade route were layered in, followed by simulations of the float traffic, information from a police deployment plan, prerecorded traffic videos, mobile wireless helmet cameras, and even a webcam from one of the parade floats.

“The fourDscape^® management engine took all of the data from those sensors and seamlessly fused them together into a single, visual 4-D scene that was meaningful and useful to the police,” said Stephen Dennis, who manages the project at the Directorate’s Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency. “It gave us a chance to see what it would be like to have true situational awareness during a major, real-world event. It gave us, well, a not-so-common COP.”

“The technology demonstrated the value of integrated visualizations for a variety of specialized responders and command elements,” said Lt. John Sullivan of the L.A. Sherriff’s Department. As his agency continues to test fourDscape^®, the ultimate goal is to begin using it, for real, to support security operations during the actual 2009 parade on New Year’s Day. Stay tuned…