 existing Closed Circuit UBA and dry suit systems to create what we have termed the Paragon Expeditionary Dive System. With hardening solutions and water contaminant valves already in place, Paragon will use its unique life support experience to address the additional physiological design challenges imposed by the closed circuit system to provide a better integrated, and more efficient system without compromising any portion of the diver�s effectiveness. Innovations include a contaminant compatible integrated mask and hood that, despite being a closed system, allows equalization of pressure, mask defogging, CO2 flush, and sufficient movement. An affordable dry suit (cost and maintenance) is also proposed with adequate protective characteristics, suit vent / buoyancy control, and valving / filter for protection against back contamination of the counter lung. Given directly relevant experience and hardware, Paragon is uniquely positioned to provide a feasible total system solution that is obtainable within the SBIR program.
Abstract: In Phase I, DTI will examine methods of increasing tanker stand-off to a distance of 25 miles from shore, and beyond. DTI will evaluate and design the power, communications, and deployment systems required to field a distributed-pump solution; and investigate the alternative of simply increasing the diameter of the pipe used in systems. The latter approach would only require the use a single tanker-borne dry pump, but would necessitate a bulkier, more expensive pipe, and would lack the scalability offered by the distributed-pumps solution. A massively distributed pumping scheme that uses many smaller pumps in series is extremely attractive if very flexible thin wall tube can be used, because the shipboard pipe volume would be reduced significantly compared to the present 8 mile system. However the recovery method of such a flexible thin wall system will need to be evaluated and developed. In Phase II, DTI will work with the Navy to refine these initial designs, and select the optimal approach for full-scale demonstration in Phase III.
Athena ISG / GTXtreme, Inc.
Abstract: We will design and integrate an embedded electronic diagnostic system into an existing chest dressing to alert a caregiver to a developing pneumothorax so that the appropriate life saving intervention can be made. The venting of air from the intrathoracic space through a wound provides an indication of a pneumothorax. Until now no chest dressing can detect deteriorating conditions and alert a care provider. Additionally, electronics technology is now able to produce sensing without adding excessive cost of an already fielded chest dressing such as the HALO, Ascherman or Hyfin. The use of miniaturized sensory electronics including a novel microprocessor detection algorithm will be integrated into a compact, disposable unit capable of assessing state, allowing for the venting of air, detecting the vent, and triggering a visual indicator. Such as device could easily be adapted in future phases to a wireless communication embedded chip to communicate with field medic or corpsmen monitors such as the Mini-medic�. Phase 1 will embed the electronic module onto the HALO system to meet the program requirements of sized to fit most wounds, identical adhesion to wound sites as the current device fielded, and visual indicator to the occurrence of the vent.
Abstract: In order to address the Navy�s need for a diagnostic chest seal to autonomously alert care providers of the onset of tPTX/hPTX, ChromoLogic LLC (CL) proposes to develop a Pressure-Reactive Chest Seal (ReSeal) that is based on adapting a liquid manometer into a compact, microfabricated structure that can easily be integrated with existing chest seals. During Phase I, CL will work with our strategic partner, North American Rescue, the leading provider of chest wound seals to the DOD, to develop multiple prototypes for validation in a custom in-vitro model. During Phase II, CL will complete the field reliability studies of the ReSeal technology and prepare for full FDA approval.
Abstract: To address U.S. Navy�s need for a diagnostic chest dressing, Physical Optics Corporation (POC) proposes to develop a new electronics-integrated Pneumothorax Diagnostic Chest Dressing Pad (NUMOPAD). The proposed NUMOPAD is based on a chest pad/dressing with multiple embedded sensors applied on the chest wound of the injured Warfighter and a display unit carried/worn by the medic/corpsman. The innovation in the system design offers low false alarm rate (FAR) (0.02%), real-time diagnostic capability for developing pneumothorax in chest wounds and wirelessly alerts the medic/corpsman to its occurrence. The dressing is hypoallergenic and resilient to perspiration and extreme weather and its use of flexible electronics offers a small form factor (< 1 cm thick, in various sizes up to 6 in. � 4 in). Use of low-power electronics allows continuous operation of 8�10 hours of the dressing using watch batteries. In Phase I, POC plans to develop an engineering design, assemble a proof-of-concept prototype to demonstrate feasibility of NUMOPAD and develop an FDA approval strategy for this technology. At the end of Phase II, NUMOPAD will reach technology readiness level (TRL) 4/5 and be ready for initial testing for potential transition to the field.
Abstract: 21st Century Technologies� (21CT) ACCESS (Automated Comparison and Clustering of Entity SignatureS) research effort addresses the issue of comparing entities such as human personas and networks, so that a more complete assessment of at-risk entities can be made within and across the various domains in which those entities interact. The Phase I effort of ACCESS will provide an effective similarity measure and clustering algorithm for the automated comparison of human signatures that arise within and across modalities and mediums so that personas of interest can be discovered among large databases of gathered intelligence. This similarity measure will be used to create higher fidelity personas and provide the means to detect asymmetric actors/at-risk entities that manifest behavior types of interest. Key components of the ACCESS Phase I effort include: 1) Identification of one or more useful similarity measures for clustering personas, 2) Experimental data to inform assessments of the effectiveness of the identified measures, and 3) Preliminary results identifying at-risk signatures. This builds directly upon existing 21CT technologies that generate signatures from raw data, providing the customer with the ability to determine signature similarity for the identification of persons of interest.
Abstract: The search for entities of interest (either individuals or groups) in large behavioral datasets has emerged as a key need for irregular warfare, counter-insurgency, and counter-terrorism. This search requires measures of similarity between networks, and the combination of diverse multi-dimensional measures into a single meaningful scalar measure of similarity. To address this challenge, Aptima has teamed with two leaders in the field of human network research: Dr. Kathleen Carley from Carnegie Mellon University and Dr. Alex (Sandy) Pentland from the MIT Media Lab. Dr. Carley brings a meta-matrix framework developed for computational organizational modeling to the team. Dr. Pentland brings his sociometric network similarity measurement work, which introduces similarity measures based on data from new types of wearable sensors. Aptima�s work on human network similarity from a system engineering and network science perspective forms a third component and serves as a bridge. Testing of measures in Phase I will use a hybrid real-synthetic dataset. A hypothetical test case will represent a �person or group of interest� and the Aptima team will calculate measures of similarity between the entities in the dataset and the synthetic target of interest, analyzing the effects of varying levels of uncertainty on the similarity measure.
Abstract: In response to Navy SBIR topic NAVY 09-149, �Similarity Measures for Persona/Human Networks�, Michigan Aerospace Corporation (MAC) proposes the True Colors system (TC): an application that utilizes a unique means of assessing, quantifying and understanding the relationship between N-dimensional vectors which represent signatures capturing the behavior and activities of individuals or groups. Unlike popular distance and similarity metrics, the TC technique for assessing similarity does not require normalization, works with mixed numeric and categorical fields, gracefully handles missing entries, and can function appropriately in the case of imbalanced or sparsely populated records. TC is based on several years of research conducted by MAC staff in conjunction with government and industry partners in applying Ensembles of Decision Trees (EDTs) to challenging problems in Data Mining and Pattern Recognition including clustering. Advantages to this approach, include confidence estimations and relative feature importance assessment. MAC will use anonymized human interactions harvested from the well-known Slashdot forums as a testbed to demonstrate TC similarity principles. Slashdot forums supply a wealth of information about authors, users, topics, and cliques of like-minded members. The ability to assess similarity between items of varied composition has key applications in business, biology, social network analysis and many other fields.
Abstract: Under the ONR Large Tactical Sensors Networks (LTSN) program, we have demonstrated a semantic wiki application, SWIM, capable of dynamically assembling and organizing data from disparate sources into a semantic graph conformant to an ontology. Using SWIM, incoming information is linked, where possible, to existing entities in the semantic graph, with linkages subject to user validation via the semantic wiki. For this SBIR Phase I we propose to investigate and demonstrate expanding SWIM capabilities in two areas: a) iterative feature set matching algorithms that will hypothesize probabilistic persona-persona matches as a mechanism to suggest merges of existing entities. This capability will improve identification of individuals based on partial or fragmentary information. b) subgraph matching algorithms that assess similarity of evolving social network or persona role or behavior identification against canonical group structure templates. This capability will improve the association of persona with groups. We will also assess methods to structure concepts representing motivators of behavior, leading to future research connecting individuals, groups and ideals