Description: ANSIBLE (A Network of Social Interactions for Bilateral Life Enhancement) can be used pre, during, and post flight to connect the flight crew with their family, friends, and the ground crew to provide a sense of social consistency and permanence. ANSIBLE is a multi-modal toolset that 1) adapts, rearranges, and modifies human interaction streams to minimize the disruptive impact of communication latencies and 2) leverages virtual worlds (VW) to provide a space where humans and intelligent virtual agents (VA) can be companions, advisors, provided psychological support, and share experiences. VAs capable of detecting changes in astronaut psychosocial states can increase astronaut self-awareness, suggest countermeasures, and provide rehearsal scenarios to maintain and enhance interpersonal skills. University of Southern California(USC)'s Institute of Creative Technologies (ICT) have been at the forefront of applying VWs and VAs to training, therapy, and even detection of depression. SIFT will leverage its ongoing work with NASA's BHP group in unobtrusive detection of psychosocial dimensions, and work together with Dr. Jacquelyn Morie to apply and enhance these technologies to define the future social landscape that connects the flight crew with Earth.

Benefits: ANSIBLE can provide an added dimension of social connection that is not currently easy to accomplish and can be utilized even before the astronaut leaves the atmosphere. It can thereby help enhance and facilitate the maintenance of social relations to family, friends and ground crews. These social relationships are often eroded by the demands of extensive astronaut training which includes a full travel agenda. ANSIBLE offers a venue built on next generation communication technology for astronauts and their social networks to develop regular rituals that can be done pre, during, and post flight, to provide a sense of consistency and permanence. ANSIBLE can increase the limited physical space with a vast virtual space, providing the astronaut with solutions for personal needs - ranging for immersive entrainment to personal time-outs. ANSIBLE can also function as a training environment for NASA to rehearse social situation or on a group level, to increase team work efficiency and group cohesion.

ANSIBLE can be easily adapted to usage in other non-goverment markets. It can be used by geographically disperse work teams allowing for alternative communication avenues to maintain social relationships with advanced communication methodologies, including verbal and non-verbal communication, audio and visual cues or rendered virtual identities. It is therefore able to be a next generation communication tool that pushes past the limitations of a real world setting. ANSIBLE can be expanded to make full use of socially intelligent virtual avatars who can function as tutor, motivator, guide, coach, trainer or virtual therapist to increase motivation, provide therapeutic relief or empower team members and increase team cohesion. ANSIBLE can also be used for the rehearsal and training of social situations - the applications range from the rehearsal of cultural training scenarios and negotiations to addressing the needs of persons suffering from social phobias or other anxiety disorders.