Command and control in virtual environments: designing a virtual environment for experimentation

Abstract

Research in command and control is advancing rapidly through a campaign of laboratory experimentation using the ELICIT (Experimental Laboratory for Investigating Collaboration, Information-sharing, and Trust) multiplayer online counterterrorism intelligence game. In most ELICIT experiments, participants play the game though a Web interface and interact with one another solely through textual information exchange. This mirrors in large part the network centric environment associated with most counterterrorism intelligence work in practice. However, we argue that a more immersive virtual environment offers potential to improve performance. The research described in this article addresses the preliminary design and prototyping of an immersive and dynamic, virtual environment for ELICIT experimentation, in which participants play the game through avatars representing them. We summarize a number of alternate virtual environment platforms available to researchers for work such as this, and we explain the rationale for the specific environment selected for this project. Additionally, we describe the prototypical design strategies for adapting game play into virtual environments and characterize preliminary case examples to understand the differences and potential benefits of adapting ELICIT game play. This research lays a foundation for moving experimentation into immersive virtual environments.