Information fusion is a process for associating, correlating, and combining data and information from one or more sources to achieve refined estimates of parameters, characteristics, events, and behaviors for observed entities in an observed field of view. Accordingly, information fusion techniques combine data from multiple sources to achieve improved accuracies and more specific inferences. From an “Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act” (“OODA”) loop perspective, information fusion capabilities increase situational awareness. That is, these capabilities provide improved results in the “Observe” and “Orient” stages of the OODA loop. Once accurate situational awareness is achieved, a response can be formulated and executed, as part of the “Decide” and “Act” stages of the OODA loop. These “Decide” and “Act” stages may, in turn, serve to further increase situational awareness. The “Decide” and “Act” phases of the OODA loop may be viewed as Course of Action and Resource Management problems having a goal of placing the right resource in the right place at the right time to perform an appropriate information-gathering task on a desired object of interest. Thus, information fusion technologies can be used as an input to OODA-loop decision-making to improve placement and usage of information resources.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds