Bio-terror Preparedness Exercise in a Mixed Reality Environment ⋆ Alok Chaturvedi, Chih-Hui Hsieh, Tejas Bhatt, and Adam Santone Purdue Homeland Security Institute, Krannert School of Management, 403 West State Street, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2014 {alok, hsiehc, tejas, santone}@purdue.edu Abstract. The paper presents a dynamic data-driven mixed reality en- vironment to complement a full-scale bio-terror preparedness exercise. The environment consists of a simulation of the virtual geographic loca- tions involved in the exercise scenario, along with an artificially intelli- gent agent-based population. The crisis scenario, like the epidemiology of a disease or the plume of a chemical spill or radiological explosion, is then simulated in the virtual environment. The public health impact, the economic impact and the public approval rating impact is then cal- culated based on the sequence of events defined in the scenario, and the actions and decisions made during the full-scale exercise. The decisions made in the live exercise influence the outcome of the simulation, and the outcomes of the simulation influence the decisions being made during the exercise. The mixed reality environment provides the long-term and large-scale impact of the decisions made during the full-scale exercise. 1 Introduction The Purdue Homeland Security Institute (PHSI) created a Dynamic Data- Driven Mixed Reality Environment to support a full-scale bio-terror prepared- ness exercise. In a mixed reality environment certain aspects of the scenario are conducted in the live exercise, while others are simulated. Actions and outcomes in the live exercise influence the simulated population, and the actions and out- comes of the simulation affect the lessons learned. The simulation modeled the public health aspect of the virtual population, as well as the economy of the virtual geographies. The artificial population would also voice a public opinion, giving a measure of support for the decisions and actions the government is tak- ing on their behalf. The simulation provided the capability to analyze the impact of the crisis event as well as the government response. With such powerful capabilities, there are numerous advantages to using the simulation to augment the live exercise. The simulation allows us to scale the scenario to a much larger geographical area than possible with just a live exer- cise, thereby allowing key decision makers to keep the bigger picture in mind. ⋆ This research was partially supported by the National Science Foundation’s DDDAS program grant # CNS-0325846 and the Indiana State 21st Century Research and Technology award #1110030618. Y. Shi et al. (Eds.): ICCS 2007, Part I, LNCS 4487, pp. 1106–1113, 2007. c  Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007