VERDICT: A Distributed Virtual Environment for System Engineering

摘要

This paper proposes a framework for the develoment of a distributed virtual interface (called VERDICT) for a system engineering development environment that (1) focuses on the role of the human in the system being designed, (2) focuses on the cognitive needs of the engineers using the development enviroment, and (3) facilitiates the intended universality of the enviroment by relying on technologies that allow architecutre independence. VERDICT stands for Virtual Environment for Remote Deisgn Integration and Configuration Testing. Its purpose is to provide a distributed virtual interface to a system engineering environment for the design of complex systems. Principal among its goals is the organization of information through the devlopment of a taxonomy of the types of knowledge representations, or cognitive media, used in system design. Related to this goal is the determination of how these cognitive media are best represented by physical media (text, grpahics, animation, sund, etc.). Another goal is implementation transparency, through the utilization of enabling technogies such as Java and CORBA.