A note on uncertainty in real-time analytics

Abstract

Today real-time analytics of large data sets is invariably computer-assisted and often includes a "human-in-the-loop". Humans differ from each other and all have a very limited innate capacity to process new information in real-time. This introduces statistical and systematic uncertainties into observations, analyses and decisions humans make when they are "in the loop". Humans also have unconscious and conscious biases, and these can introduce (major) systematic errors into human assisted or human driven analytics. This note briefly discusses the issues and the (considerable) implications they can have on real-time analytics that involves humans, including software interfaces, learning, and reaction of humans in emergencies. © 2012 IFIP International Federation for Information Processing.