Research directions in remote detection of covert tactical adversarial intent of individuals in asymmetric operations

This article designs a first-order road map for modeling research to bridge the scientific gap between observations from physical sensor networks at 3-50 m on the one hand and determination of covert tactical adversarial intent of individuals with deception and in extensive clutter on the other. To be successful, the research needs to integrate kinesiological, neurophysiological, psychological, and cognitive science, and sociocultural anthropology and information science components. Research and development (R&D) issues that need to be considered include metrics for cognitive phenomena and how well detection systems work, data sets, determining whether actors can provide sufficient verisimilitude to create data sets, and relevant sensing technologies and information fusion techniques. Successful procedures may need to include actively (but unobtrusively) perturbing the situation in which the sensing takes place in order to elicit specific responses. Comprehensive government R&D programs are required to promote rapid progress.