¹Oculus Info, Inc., Toronto, ON, Canada

Correspondence: Thomas Kapler, Oculus Info, Inc., 2 Berkeley Street, Suite 600, Toronto, ON M5A 4J5 Tel: +416 203 3003; Fax: +416 203 0646; Web: http://www.oculusinfo.com E-mail: info@oculusinfo.com

Received 1 December 2007; Accepted 5 January 2008; Published online 21 February 2008.

Abstract

A story is a powerful abstraction used by intelligence analysts to conceptualize threats and understand patterns as part of the analytical process. This paper demonstrates a system that detects geo-temporal patterns and integrates story narration to increase analytic sense-making cohesion in GeoTime. The GeoTime geo-temporal event visualization tool was augmented with a story system that uses narratives, hypertext-linked visualizations, visual annotations, and pattern detection to create an environment for analytic exploration and communication, thereby assisting the analyst in identifying, extracting, arranging, and presenting stories within the data. The story system lets analysts operate at the story level with higher level abstractions of data, such as behaviors and events, while staying connected to the evidence. The story system was developed in collaboration with analysts. A formal evaluation was completed that showed high utility and usability.