A framework for dynamic hard/soft fusion

We report on the ongoing development of a research framework for dynamic integration of information from hard (electronic) and soft (human) sensors. We describe this framework, which includes representation of 2^nd order uncertainty. We outline current and planned human-in-the-loop experiments in which an ldquoad hoc community of human observersrdquo provides input reports via mobile phones and PDAs. Our overall approach is based on three pillars: traditional sensing resources (ldquoS-spacerdquo), dynamic communities of human observers (ldquoH-spacerdquo) and resources such as archived sensor data, blogs, reports, dynamic news reports from citizen reporters via the Internet (ldquoI-spacerdquo). The sensors in all three of these pillars need to be characterized and calibrated. In H-space and I-space, calibration issues related to motivation, truthfulness, etc. must be considered in addition to the standard physical characterization and calibration issues that need to be considered in S-space.