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Context-Enhanced Information Fusion pp 453–477Cite as

Multi-level Fusion of Hard and Soft Information for Intelligence

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Part of the book series: Advances in Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition ((ACVPR))

Abstract

Driven by the underlying need for an as yet undeveloped framework for fusing heterogeneous data and information at different semantic levels coming from both sensory and human sources, we present some results of the research conducted within the NATO Research Task Group IST-106/RTG-051 on “Information Filtering and Multi Source Information Fusion.” As part of this ongoing effort, we discuss here a first outcome of our investigation on multi-level fusion. It deals with removing the first hurdle between data/information sources and processes being at different levels: representation. Our contention here is that a common representation and description framework is the premise for enabling processing overarching different semantic levels. To this end, we discuss here the use of the Battle Management Language (BML) as a way (“lingua franca”) to encode sensor- and text-based data and a priori and contextual knowledge, both as hard and soft data. We here expand on our previous works [1, 2] further detailing and exemplifying the use of BML and clarifying aspects related to the use of contextual information and the exploitation of uncertain soft input along with sensor readings.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    p1: http://www.defenceimagery.mod.uk/fotoweb/Grid.fwx?search=%28IPTC020%20contains%20%28Sentry%29%29 file is available for reuse under the OGL (Open Government License) http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/.

    p2: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:F-14_Radar_TID.jpg#filelinks; public domain.

    p3: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AN-APG-63V3.jpg, by ‘Raytheon’, freely reproducible.

    p4: http://www.army.mil/media/226029/ by Staff Sgt John H. Johnson III 11042011-A-zv120-001) public domain.

    p5: http://www.defenceimagery.mod.uk/fotoweb/Grid.fwx?position=65&archiveid=5036&columns=8&rows=1&sorting=ModifiedTimeAsc&search=%28IPTC020%20contains%28Royal%20Air%20Force%29%29 file is available for reuse under the OGL (Open Government License) http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/.

  2. 2.

    p6: http://www.gps.gov/multimedia/images/IIF.jpg United States Government; public domain.

    p7: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_E-3_Sentry, public domain

    p8: http://www.defenceimagery.mod.uk/fotoweb/Grid.fwx?archiveId=5042&search=45148329.jpg available for reuse under the OGL (Open Government License) http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/.

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Acknowledgments

This work was partially supported by ONRG Grant N62909-14-1-N061 and project MINECO TEC2014-57022-C2-2-R.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. SDF, Fraunhofer FKIE, Wachtberg, Germany

    Joachim Biermann

  2. GIAA, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Colmenarejo, Spain

    Jesús García

  3. C4I Research and Development Department, OBR CTM S.A, Gdynia, Poland

    Ksawery Krenc

  4. Department of Information Processing and Modelling, ONERA, Palaiseau CEDEX, France

    Vincent Nimier

  5. ITF, Fraunhofer FKIE, Wachtberg, Germany

    Kellyn Rein

  6. Department Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Udine, Udine, Italy

    Lauro Snidaro

Authors
  1. Joachim Biermann
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  2. Jesús García
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  3. Ksawery Krenc
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  4. Vincent Nimier
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  5. Kellyn Rein
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  6. Lauro Snidaro
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lauro Snidaro .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Udine, Udine, Italy

    Lauro Snidaro

  2. University Carlos III, Department of Computer Science and Engg. University Carlos III, Colmenarejo, Spain

    Jesús García

  3. Center Multisource Info. Fusion & Dept, Univ. at Buffalo, of Industrial and Engg Center Multisource Info. Fusion & Dept, Buffalo, New York, USA

    James Llinas

  4. Information Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory Information Directorate, Rome, New York, USA

    Erik Blasch

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Biermann, J., García, J., Krenc, K., Nimier, V., Rein, K., Snidaro, L. (2016). Multi-level Fusion of Hard and Soft Information for Intelligence. In: Snidaro, L., García, J., Llinas, J., Blasch, E. (eds) Context-Enhanced Information Fusion. Advances in Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28971-7_17

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28971-7_17

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-28969-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-28971-7

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