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 "ad hoc community of human observers" provides input reports via mobile phones and PDAs. Our overall approach is based on three pillars: traditional sensing resources ("S-space"), dynamic communities of human observers ("H-space" and resources such as archived sensor data, blogs, reports, dynamic news reports from citizen reporters via the Internet ("I-space"). The sensors in all three of these pillars need to be characterized and calibrated. In Hspace 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.