Table of Contents
The Operational Area Map (OAM) interface is meant to give decision makers a picture of a particular operational area and the events occurring at a given time. These events might include both the events submitted by Wiglaf users and automated sensor events. The interface can be used in conjunction with Lucca, so that after a situation is analyzed, an appropriate response can be projected.
The primary OAM interface components, as shown in Figure 1, are:
- A map rendered using Microsoft MapPoint Web Services
- A “find” area that allows the user to enter a city or zip code for which a new map will be rendered
- A legend displaying a list of event types which might be received and the corresponding icon which will be placed on the map to represent the event
- A “Send to Lucca” area which allows the user to select an area on the map and then send the coordinates to Lucca for use in receiver selection.
Several steps must be taken to use the Operational Area Map.
As mentioned above, the Operational Area Map is meant to be used in conjunction with Lucca and the location of Lucca must be set. To do this, use the File/Set Lucca Location menu option.
If a message is unsuccessfully sent to Lucca, a "Failed to connect to server" error message will appear.
It is possible to set an expiration time for arriving events. After a period of time has passed, these events will be automatically removed from the map. To set an expriation time, go to the File/Set Expiration Time menu option, displayed in Figure 3.
Note that
- If the expiration time is set to zero, events will not expire. They will remain on the map until removed manually.
- The expiration time is set to zero by default.
- If the expiration time is changed, only events arriving after the change will use the new expiration time. Previous events will not be effected.
By default, the Operational Area Map displays all incoming events specified in the config file. It is, however, possible to filter these events using the File/Sender Attributes menu option, shown in Figure 4.
This option displays a list of all event attributes. For each attribute, the name, a check box, and a text box are displayed. If the check box is selected, the information entered in the text box will be used to filter the events displayed on the map. In this way, a user may restrict the information shown to only the relevant information.
The OAM interface contains a “Send to Lucca” feature. At any time, a commander may select a map area by dragging the mouse over the map. This action draws a rectangle on the map, as is shown in Figure 5. The range of selected latitude and longitude coordinates are displayed, and the user may send these coordinates to Lucca. This feature is useful when a task or constraint must be targeted to a specific area in order to respond to an event or events.
The OAM interface is adaptable. The events and corresponding icons to be displayed on the map are contained in a simple configuration file. Within the OperationalAreaMap project, this file is called app.config. With OperationalAreaMap.exe, the file is called OperationalAreaMap.exe.config.
For each event type handled by the Operational Area Map, the config file must include a string description and a pointer to a BMP image which will represent the event type on the map. For instance, the following adds the BombEvent and ChemicalSpillEvent type:
add key="Event1" value="BombEvent" /> add key="Event1.bmp" value="OperationalAreaMap.Images.greenbox.bmp" /> add key="Event2" value="ChemicalSpillEvent" /> add key="Event2.bmp" value="OperationalAreaMap.Images.bluebox.bmp" />
Note that:
- Up to 10 event types can currently be listed. This is hardcoded.
- Various images (multiple shapes and colors) are available for use in the Operational Area Map project's image folder.
The config file also gives the user the option to display all events received or only events whose type is explicitly listed. To display all event types, set the UnknownEvent option to "true" and specify a BMP image to represent unknown event types.
add key="UnknownEvent" value="true" /> add key="UnknownEvent.bmp" value="OperationalAreaMap.Images.blackbox.bmp" />
To display only the specified event types, set the UnknownEvent option to "false."
add key="UnknownEvent" value="false" />