DEFENSE PLANS

.Combine advances in computer models and predictions about group behavior with upgraded video game graphics, and you'll have a virtual world in which defense analysts can explore and predict results of possible military and policy actions, according to computer science researchers at the University of Maryland. The researchers published a commentary on computer predictions in the Nov. 27, 2009, issue of the journal Science.




"Defense analysts can understand the repercussions of their proposed recommendations for policy options or military actions by interacting with a virtual world environment," wrote V. S. Subrahmanian. He's a computer science professor at the university and director of the school's Institute for Advanced Computer Studies.



He and John Dickerson, computer science researcher at the university in College Park, authored the commentary.



Virtual technology can help defense analysts propose policy options and walk skeptical commanders through a virtual world - a world in which one can literally see how things might play out, the pair wrote.



"This process gives the commander a view of the most likely strengths and weaknesses of any particular course of action," they said. "Computer scientists now know pretty much how to do this, and have created a pretty good chunk of the computing theory and software required to build a virtual Afghanistan, Pakistan, or another world.



"Human analysts, with their real world knowledge and experience, will be essential partners in taking us the rest of the way in building these digital worlds and then in using them to predict courses of action," the researchers wrote.