Constructing Knowledge of the World in Crisis Situations using Visual Language

Knowing the situational information about the current world is the precondition for setting goals and domains of actions. Special events in the world can also be used to initiate new actions or interrupt ongoing processes. A prototype of a communication interface has been developed which enables users to create visual messages to represent concepts or ideas in mind. The messages are constructed using a spatial arrangement of visual symbols. The interface has been tested by observers in a simulated crisis situation. The system processes the incoming message to build a world model by the employment of ontology. A blackboard of a dynamic ad-hoc network shares the knowledge and updates the display of the mobile devices of the users within the same region of the crisis event.