| At
Sandia National Laboratories, we have undertaken a program of research
and development focused on creating a family of technologies known
as “Cognitive Systems.” Our objective is to transform
human-machine systems by enabling machines to engage human users
in a human-like cognitive interaction. The result is a human-machine
collaboration with the potential to greatly enhance human effectiveness
across a broad range of endeavors.
What is a Cognitive System?
A “Cognitive System” is one that utilizes psychologically
plausible computational representations of human cognitive processes
as a basis for system designs that seek to engage the underlying
mechanisms of human cognition and augment the cognitive capacities
of human users, not unlike a “cognitive prosthesis.”
Examples
of Cognitive Systems
Discrepancy
Detection – a common problem with technology
is the situation mode error. This refers to cases in which the
human believes the machine is in one state and acts accordingly,
however the machine is actually in a different state. Situation
mode errors account for many of our daily frustrations with technology,
as well as many serious accidents.
A system with Discrepancy
Detection utilizes a detailed cognitive model of an operator to
continually interpret its own state. At the same time, the machine
uses various cues to infer the operator’s ongoing situation
awareness. Where there are discrepancies between the actual state
of the machine and the operator’s perception of the machine,
the system may intervene to resolve the discrepancy.
Cognitive
Collective – we each have unique knowledge
and experience that enables us to make sense of the world, but
also hinders our understanding the perspective of other disciplines,
interests and cultures. Furthermore, with many systems, there
is so much data that it is not practical to have humans consider
all of it, particularly if they must be experts in one or more
fields.
In a Cognitive Collective,
detailed cognitive models are developed for experts from one or
more disciplines. Data is streamed to the models in parallel and
they each respond to a unique set of cues. Any one of the models
may recognize a pattern within the data. However, models may interact
as a collective and the group may recognize a pattern in cases
where no single model was able to see a pattern.
Our Cognitive Systems Program
Sandia’s Cognitive Systems program consists of a
coordinated collection of internally and externally funded projects
to develop and validate the fundamental capabilities and transition
these capabilities to functional applications.
Transferring technologies from laboratory to application
Sandia is a government laboratory operated for the U.S.
Department of Energy. We provide technology solutions for a wide
variety of government and commercial applications. This occurs either
as a primary contractor or in collaboration with other government
agencies, corporations or academic institutions. Ongoing programs
for technology transfer, and commercialization and licensing provide
mechanisms for the transition of technology to private sector interests.
Contact Chris Forsythe (jcforsy@sandia.gov)
for more information.
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