Post by Ian Mayo

Learn more about handling periods of missing data in Debrief

On occasion it’s useful to determine the version of Java that a Debrief installation is using.

After a couple of months of development, we're preparing the release of the new Debrief scripting ability This new capability is intended to enable Debrief Power Users to take on more advanced data manipulation tasks, including: Apply bulk changes to Debrief objects Import unexpected data-types from file Conduct ad-hoc calculations on Debrief data

We're coming to the end of another new feature. Most of the time Debrief data comes in digital form, captured on another system. But, occasionally it arrives in text form and has to be transcribed. Some users do this within Debrief, others perform the task in a text editor such as Notepad, then save the...

Symbols are used to add value to analysis plots, through giving a visual indication of the vehicle type. In the past, the symbols have been hard-coded in Debrief, but now Debrief supports the provision of vectored symbols in the industry standard SVG format. The first set of symbols is shown below. Please feel free to...

With the conclusion of Sprint 4, the first major work package ("Epic" in Scrum language) is coming to completion, Export to PPT. In a multi-threaded package of work different members of the team have: designed PowerPoint master slides developed Python code to iteratively work through the various processes involved in transforming Debrief screen pixels into...

To support the development of multi-static analysis capabilities, we've added the ability to introduce 3 actors in the frequency optimisation process: transmitter, subject, and receiver. See more in the video below:

Analysts have always been able to use Target Motion Analysis (TMA) algorithms to predict missing track data using passive sensor data. Traditionally, this has only allowed use of a single sensor. Now analysts would like to triangulate a track using multiple sensors. This trial release will let you do just that, to perform manual TMA....

Part of the package of new features to support multi-statics is to allow manual TMA to be conducted using sensor measurements from more than one platform. This video shows how sensor data from two floating sensor buoys can be used to triangulate a straight leg of positional data. The changes to support this have affected...

Sprint 3 has largely been behind-the-scenes efforts to get ready for some upcoming significant features (especially Debrief Lite). An automated build/test of Debrief Classic is now performed on every commit, and it's now included in every release (rebadged as Debrief Lite). This has allowed us to de-risk the eventual builds of Debrief Lite proper. Debrief...

Analysts have some specific needs for their reports. Sometimes they’d like exported images to be in a specific size or aspect ratio. Resizing imported images in word or powerpoint is easy, but if it’s not in the correct aspect ratio the images can get stretched/compressed. Doesn’t look good at all does it? That’s why we’re...

At a recent meeting conducting discovery of what Debrief-Lite should look like, an existing user indicated he really wanted time filtering to be via a dialog box, not by dragging the time filter controls - which is a pain to fine tune in Debrief. Of course, it's already possible to fine-tune these controls to a...

What good is all this analysis if you can’t put it in a report? Many of our analysts use powerpoint to show their teams what they’ve found. Most use cropped screenshots for the task, but we wanted to help them do better. That’s why we’re adding the ability to export scenarios as video files or...

We're pleased to release version 3.0.440. The highlights in this release are the early technical demonstrators for video replay & lightweight tracks. Feedback on these is most welcome. It also includes the exporter (see wizard below) for data in the new UK track exchange format. Full details on the release here: GitHub Debrief

In today's release we're including a technical demonstrator for Lightweight Tracks. Some analysis tasks require the analysis of traffic passing through the exercise area. This could come from radar, AIS or IFF, and can be hundreds (or even thousands) of tracks. But, in traditional Debrief practice, all tracks sit at the top level of the...

Analysts said they wanted to analyse a video feed synced with the track plot so that they have more context to the tracks they’re analysing. Well we’ve been working on just that. Take a look at the video below and tell us what you think. What other features do you want to see?

Continuing from the previous article regarding support for non-time datasets, we're now going to consider how to collate two non-time indexed dataset to produce a 2D dataset that can be displayed as a heat map. Background The big picture objective is to view a two-dimensional plot containing the signal strength from a transmitter (tx) mapped...

A shortcoming of the initial backend datastore for Limpet (learn more here: http://limpet.info) was that it could only store datasets that were indexed by time.  This had little impact, since Limpet was only being used for analysis of time-stamped data. But, for the second phase of support for multi-static analysis, Limpet must store data indexed...

Last year's addition of Stacked Charts in Debrief started the movement towards more free-flowing analysis using Debrief.  Stacked Charts allowed the analyst to consider the relationships between any kind of data in Debrief. Traditionally Debrief had a tightly focused data model: platform tracks plus some sensor data.  While new graphical annotations and cosmetic styling of...

For the last year we've been steadily progressing Debrief's data analysis capabilities (read last year's introduction here), adding features in packages focussed on analysts' requirements. The first major realisation of this is in Debrief's new Tactical Overview display, which will be released later on today. This posting will give you an overview of the capability....

We’re launching a new capability for a broader set of analysis. In addition to running standalone  this tool will be seamlessly integrated into with Debrief. Why Do We Need a New Tool? Debrief traditionally enjoys a fixed data model, understanding precisely how to exploit, visualise and process each type of data.  Over the years analysts...

After 20 years of using the same colours, from 1st May 2015, Debrief gets a new color palette. Following the introduction of an alternative background colour set (Debrief’s background was always black before), the decision was made to introduce a new palette set of new colours. This was not only to help with a cleaner...

Abstract Since last Autumn we’ve been working on a significant part of SATC (Semi Automatic Track Construction – see more here). The genetic algorithms in SATC are now quite mature, and do a good job of producing target tracks from bearing only data. But the analysts have had an ongoing chore – the need to...

After several months of beta-testing the Natural Earth rendering has been merged into the master branch – and will now form part of the standard Debrief installation. All Debrief installations come with a small, low resolution Natural Earth dataset:   But, it’s also possible to download and install two much higher resolution datasets (in a...

Abstract A group of analysts were having trouble understanding the track followed by vessels in exercises from data collated from a number of sensors, They had a third party file converter for extracting data from Sonar S2087. When S2087’s file formats changed in 2014, the 3rd party converter became obsolete, and the analysts were stuck...

Abstract This posting discusses a modification that was made to make Debrief’s calculated data more accessible to scientific users.  Whilst Debrief has lots of tools for data analysis, it remains possible to export this data to a spreadsheet for external analysis. Customer MWC Backstory An analyst needed to product a custom XY chart to prove...