Chat Extractor "ICEs" the Competition Published Sept. 28, 2010 By David Williamson and Robin Snyder 711th Human Performance Wing WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio -- Responding to requests from the Headquarters Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Innovations office, Air Force Research Laboratory recently delivered ICE--a new Internet Relay Chat Coordinate Extractor that monitors online chat rooms for geospatial coordinates entered during Predator/Reaper operations and automatically plots those locations in the FalconView map program. In developing the ICE software, AFRL human performance specialists analyzed over 215,000 lines of chat logs (from past and current operations) in order to identify the variety of coordinate formats transmitted via chat. The scientists then developed a sophisticated chat parser to extract locations and send them to a custom-developed FalconView plug-in. One of the key features of ICE is its capacity to forward extracted locations from FalconView via the standard cursor-on-target messaging standard. Preliminary analysis of the parser shows a coordinate extraction accuracy of over 99%, with zero false alarms. Parser refinements are ongoing, and AFRL will forward these updates to HAF as applicable. Several recent ICE demonstrations have earned substantial accolades from key HAF and Air Force Special Operations Command personnel, who have praised the work not only as a rapid development success, but as an excellent example of AFRL's contribution to the ISR Innovations mission. Additional ICE demonstrations--including one addressing AFSOC-specific use of the tool (slated for Hurlburt Field, Florida)--will occur as interest indicates.