Commercial Multimedia Technologies for Twenty-First Century Army Battlefields A Technology Management Strategy (1995) / Chapter Skim
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Technology Management Strategy
Technology Management Strategy
Pages 78-86
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From page 78... ...
BE A HUNTER GATHERER OF TECHNOLOGIES In Chapter 3 of this report the committee provided an overview of 17 building block technologies that can be used to create multimedia information systems in a wide variety of generic application domains. In Chapter 3 the committee also gave examples of how multimedia information technologies are being applied in commercial cellular and wireless communication systems, electronic commerce, intelligent transportation systems, and residential information services.
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From page 79... ...
In those cases, Army investment will often be better spent on participation in standards activities and 79 perhaps in joint activities with commercial firms to improve the alignment of emerging commercial technologies with Army needs. In addition, the Army should closely monitor commercial trends and developments, including the successful or unsuccessful commercial application of emerging technologies, in order to maximize the timely and effective insertion of emerging technologies into Army applications.
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From page 80... ...
Specific advantages include interoperability; reuse of the building blocks, modules, and objects; insertion of new technologies; and facilitation of ad hoc modifications. Interoperabi~ity When systems employ the same building blocks, or where interoperability concerns between heterogenous building blocks are considered in advance, it is far easier to interconnect systems and to have them interoperate without extensive, costly, and time consuming develop
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From page 81... ...
Reuse of Boilding Blocks, Modules, and Objects When systems conform to a common architecture and employ standard building blocks, it is possible to reuse the functionality of building blocks, and the modules and objects within building blocks, across multiple systems without having to redevelop them multiple times. Thus a database management system, and specific data structures that are created to perform a map management function, for example, can be reused in other systems and applications that require map management functions.
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From page 82... ...
The Army should participate in external R&D activities in carefully selected areas in order to influence technology trends and to obtain access to proprietary emerging commercial technology under appropriate nondisclosure agreements. In working with commercial companies, the Army can return real value to the commercial companies by pros viding something that the companies have always had trouble obtaining, namely, solid end-user requirements.
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From page 83... ...
While the provision of wireless communication devices to individual soldiers at the squad level may have been too expensive in the past and may have resulted in unmanageable levels of communication, modern lowcost integrated circuitry has transformed wireless twoway communications devices into common consumer appliances. Coupled with modern information filtering and network management technologies it is possible 83 that every soldier will have access to and be accessible via the battlefield information networks of the future.
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From page 84... ...
Putting Low Cost Multimedia and Wireless Appliances Into the Hands of Squad-teve! Soldiers The committee believes that the ongoing and accelerating appearance of low-cost consumer appliances that employ multimedia information technologies (e.g., wireless personal communications devices, pagers, facsimile machines, portable personal computers, global-positioning-system appliances)
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From page 85... ...
The committee recommends that the Army get ahead of this trend by accelerating the deployment of such low-cost COTS appliances in a standard way to avoid the proliferation of incompatible systems. The committee believes that low-cost (several hundred dollars wireless communications appliances could be made available by the Army to squad leaders and individual soldiers for use in battlefield applications.
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From page 86... ...
In addition to recommendations on a sound technology management strategy, the committee also offered recommendations based on intuitive reaction to some of the presentations it heard and site visits it made during the course of this study. The committee recommended that the Army encourage innovation and be proactive in putting technologies into the hands of soldiers.
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