page_title: Data fusion
section_title: The JDL/DFIG model
hierarchical_section_title: Data fusion / The JDL/DFIG model
caption_attribution_description: English: Data Fusion Information Group Model
context_page_description: Data fusion is the process of integrating multiple data sources to produce more consistent, accurate, and useful information than that provided by any individual data source. Advances in Data Fusion are provided by the International Society of Information Fusion at www.isif.org.
  Data fusion processes are often categorized as low, intermediate, or high, depending on the processing stage at which fusion takes place. Low-level data fusion combines several sources of raw data to produce new raw data. The expectation is that fused data is more informative and synthetic than the original inputs.
  For example, sensor fusion is also known as data fusion and is a subset of information fusion.
  The concept of data fusion has origins in the evolved capacity of humans and animals to incorporate information from multiple senses to improve their ability to survive. For example, a combination of sight, touch, smell, and taste may indicate whether a substance is edible.
context_section_description: In the mid-1980s, the Joint Directors of Laboratories formed the Data Fusion Subpanel (which later became known as the Data Fusion Group).  With the advent of the World Wide Web, data fusion thus included data, sensor, and information fusion. The JDL/DFIG introduced a model of data fusion that divided the various processes.  Currently, the six levels with the Data Fusion Information Group (DFIG) model are:
  Level 0: Source Preprocessing (or Data Assessment)
  Level 1: Object Assessment
  Level 2: Situation Assessment
  Level 3: Impact Assessment (or Threat Refinement)
  Level 4: Process Refinement (or Resource Management)
  Level 5: User Refinement (or Cognitive Refinement)
  Level 6: Mission Refinement (or Mission Management)
  Although the JDL Model (Level 1–4) is still in use today, it is often criticized for its implication that the levels necessarily happen in order and also for its lack of adequate representation of the potential for a human-in-the-loop. The DFIG model (Level 0–5) explored the implications of situation awareness, user refinement, and mission management. Despite these shortcomings, the JDL/DFIG models are useful for visualizing the data fusion process, facilitating discussion and common understanding, and important for systems-level information fusion design.
caption: Joint Director of the Labs (JDL)/Data Fusion Information Group (DFIG) Model
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