Development of Serious Gaming Technology for Cognitive Enhancement in Predictive Analytics
Rick Riensche, Gary Danielson, and Patrick Paulson
Executive Summary
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This project develops techniques and a systematic framework to enable the creation of games that provide a means for users to explore the outputs of technosocial predictive models. We seek to provide an environment in which the computational power of these models can be seamlessly paired with the creativity of human players, facilitating a more robust decision-making process.
Projects
This project is extending gaming technology and methodologies to produce novel methods and tools for interaction with, and immersion in, the modeling and simulation process. These techniques will be applied to focused problems in two challenge areas of interest:
- Security and Environment (Climate Change)
- Counterterrorism.
Through the combination of rules and interfaces, the Technosocial Predictive Analytics Initiative Gaming team employs a compelling user experience to tap into the creative and competitive nature of the human players. Gaming methods and technologies are used to create scenarios that enable developing solutions for serious problems through a “what-if-then” view.
The goal is to create an environment that encourages users to think about a problem differently than if they were reading a written report and looking at a series of graphs. Game play is recorded and made available for post-game analysis to help identify the opportunities that players seized.
Specific game projects under development include a “Biofuel vs. Food Crop” game to explore possible impacts of various crop allocation strategies, and a “Counter-IED” game to look at counter-insurgency tactics related to prevention, detection, and neutralization of Improvised Explosive Devices.
Impacts
Serious Gaming Technology will provide novel methods for interacting with technical and social models, making the outputs more accessible, and stimulating creative thinking among teams of users who interactively explore the model outputs.