Web Usability Guidelines for Air Force Knowledge Now Web Site

The Department of Defense Net-Centric Data Strategies number one key attribute is to ensure data is visible, available, and usable when and where needed to accelerate decision-making. The Internet provides opportunities for quick and efficient disseminating of information to the public, distributing information throughout the Air Force, and accessing information from a variety of sources. In 2002, the Air Force CIO designated the Air Force Knowledge Now (AFKN) as the center of excellence for Knowledge Management. The site is a one-stop resource, providing access to a great depth and breadth of information. This study seeks to determine how usable and accessible the web interface is to its customers. A literature review determined the usability inspection method called Heuristic Evaluation to be most favorable for this type of evaluation. The researcher conducted a case study using heuristic evaluation to determine the site usability compliance rate. A second case study using web content accessibility guidelines was then performed to determine the sites accessibility compliance rate. The study finally presented a comparative analysis of the usability and accessibility checklists to determine if any overlap occurred between the two or if one is a subset of the other. This exploratory research finds more emphasis on web usability and accessibility should be explored in the future for AFKN

Identification of potential malicious web pages

Malicious web pages are an emerging security concern on the Internet due to their popularity and their potential serious impact. Detecting and analysing them are very costly because of their qualities and complexities. In this paper, we present a lightweight scoring mechanism that uses static features to identify potential malicious pages. This mechanism is intended as a filter that allows us to reduce the number suspicious web pages requiring more expensive analysis by other mechanisms that require loading and interpretation of the web pages to determine whether they are malicious or benign. Given its role as a filter, our main aim is to reduce false positives while minimising false negatives. The scoring mechanism has been developed by identifying candidate static features of malicious web pages that are evaluate using a feature selection algorithm. This identifies the most appropriate set of features that can be used to efficiently distinguish between benign and malicious web pages. These features are used to construct a scoring algorithm that allows us to calculate a score for a web page's potential maliciousness. The main advantage of this scoring mechanism compared to a binary classifier is the ability to make a trade-off between accuracy and performance. This allows us to adjust the number of web pages passed to the more expensive analysis mechanism in order to tune overall performance

Cooperative and Multimodal Capabilities Enhancement in the CERNTAURO Human–Robot Interface for Hazardous and Underwater Scenarios

The use of remote robotic systems for inspection and maintenance in hazardous environments is a priority for all tasks potentially dangerous for humans. However, currently available robotic systems lack that level of usability which would allow inexperienced operators to accomplish complex tasks. Moreover, the task’s complexity increases drastically when a single operator is required to control multiple remote agents (for example, when picking up and transporting big objects). In this paper, a system allowing an operator to prepare and configure cooperative behaviours for multiple remote agents is presented. The system is part of a human–robot interface that was designed at CERN, the European Center for Nuclear Research, to perform remote interventions in its particle accelerator complex, as part of the CERNTAURO project. In this paper, the modalities of interaction with the remote robots are presented in detail. The multimodal user interface enables the user to activate assisted cooperative behaviours according to a mission plan. The multi-robot interface has been validated at CERN in its Large Hadron Collider (LHC) mockup using a team of two mobile robotic platforms, each one equipped with a robotic manipulator. Moreover, great similarities were identified between the CERNTAURO and the TWINBOT projects, which aim to create usable robotic systems for underwater manipulations. Therefore, the cooperative behaviours were validated within a multi-robot pipe transport scenario in a simulated underwater environment, experimenting more advanced vision techniques. The cooperative teleoperation can be coupled with additional assisted tools such as vision-based tracking and grasping determination of metallic objects, and communication protocols design. The results show that the cooperative behaviours enable a single user to face a robotic intervention with more than one robot in a safer way