A scientific paper edited by researchers of University of Nicosia, INNOV-ACTS and UBITECH has been accepted for presentation at the 19th Annual International Conference on Distributed Computing in Smart Systems and the Internet of Things (DCOSS-IoT 2023) that takes place in Cyprus, at the Coral Bay near the city of Pafos. UBITECH’s Dr Sofia Karagiorgou (Head, Privacy-preserving Distributed Machine Learning Research Group) and her co-authors introduce a novel interactive and realistic VR-based serious game for training law enforcement officers in the analysis and understanding of terroristic activities.
The game is driven by pragmatic models of terroristic actions and teaches its users how to predict and anticipate indicators of terroristic attacks. It also provides the means for generating datasets to train Artificial Intelligence (AI) modules that could help analyzing and predict potentially terroristic activities. Emphasis is given on the description of the following innovative aspects of the game: (A) Its ergonomic and realistic VR environment for the training of Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) on terroristic indicators, events and their interrelationships, in-line with relevant literature about terroristic activities modelling. (B) Its data generation features that enable the development of AI modules for the analysis and anticipation of terroristic activities. Specifically, the game serves as a first-of-a-kind data generator that can drive the training of AI/ML applications; and (C) The design of a blockchain infrastructure for provenance and traceability of digital assets of the game, including training data, AI analytic outcomes, as well as game artifacts. The blockchain infrastructure reinforces the cyber-resilience and overall trustworthiness of the game while being in-line with the emerging concept of the metaverse.
