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MATRICS

MATRICS

Modeling and Analysis Toolkit for Realizable Intrinsic Cognitive Security

A research project funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)

Project Overview

MATRICS is a collaborative research project investigating foundational approaches for understanding and analyzing intrinsic cognitive security in mixed‑reality (MR) systems. The project examines how human cognitive processes and immersive system behavior interact, and how those interactions can be considered in system design and evaluation.

DARPA ICS: Intrinsic Cognitive Security

Mixed reality (MR) merges real and virtual worlds in real time. Adversaries could exploit the intimate connection between users and their MR equipment through various techniques targeting cognition. Examples include:

  • Information flooding to induce motion sickness;
  • Planting real-world objects to clutter displays;
  • Injecting virtual data to distract personnel;
  • Using real-world objects to overwhelm the user with confusing false alarms, etc.

Commercial MR systems apply cognitive engineering principles during system development, but today’s methods do not ensure that systems operate safely when facing an adversary intent on interfering with a mission. Cognitive effects that have been demonstrated in virtual settings include manipulating emotion, inducing cybersickness, causing confusion or anxiety, and reducing trust in equipment.

To fulfill its mission to prevent technological surprise, DARPA intends to get in front of this issue before military personnel widely rely on MR for their missions. The Intrinsic Cognitive Security (ICS) program aims to explore and validate mathematical approaches, known as formal methods, to provide guarantees that MR system designs mitigate potential cognitive attacks.

Formal methods have not been widely used to protect MR users, but the cognitive engineering field provides principles to help formulate models and guarantees. ICS aims to prove guarantees relevant to MR user attacks and protections based on models applicable to MR system use.

Modeling user behavior in the MR domain will also help formalize an understanding of how people behave when using immersive systems. ICS does not have a sole MR system in mind. Instead, performers will work with various commercial technologies performing different MR-related tasks.

ICS is a 36-month effort divided into two phases. Phase 1 focuses on developing proved guarantees to describe desirable properties of mixed reality systems and supporting models to enable proofs of the guarantees, including cognitive models. Building off Phase 1 results, Phase 2 will validate the usefulness of the guarantees in mixed reality systems. Performers will develop prototypes to demonstrate how guarantees can lessen vulnerabilities using commercially available hardware and software.

Research Focus

  • Human–system interaction in mixed‑reality environments
  • Cognitive considerations relevant to system safety and security
  • Modeling and analytical approaches that incorporate human behavior
  • Validation approaches informed by human‑subject research

Iowa State University Involvement

Iowa State University participates in MATRICS through the VRAC Research Center. The Iowa State team contributes expertise in human–computer interaction, mixed reality, cognitive modeling, and experimental research methods.

Project Team
  • DARPA (Program sponsor)
  • Collins Aerospace (Prime contractor)
  • RTX Technology Research Center
  • Florida Institute of Technology
  • SIFT
  • Iowa State University

Publications

Publications and publicly released materials associated with the MATRICS project will be listed here as they become available and approved for
public distribution.

  • P. Ganeriwala, C. Chambers, S. Bhattacharyya, I. Amundson, J. Babar, “Compositional Reasoning over System Architectures with Integrated Cognitive Models,” 20th Annual IEEE International Systems Conference (SysCon’26), Halifax, NS, Canada, 2026
  • P. Ganeriwala, C. Chambers, J. I. Lathrop, S. Bhattacharyya, J. Babar, S.J. Gilbert, I. Amundson, M. C. Dorneich, M.A.H. Khan, “Formal Analysis of Stochastic Cognitive Models,” 18th NASA Formal Methods Symposium (NFM 2026), Los Angeles.
  • I. Amundson, “Modeling and Formal Analysis of High-Assurance Mixed-Reality Systems,” NSF Workshop on Networking and Systems Challenges in Immersive Computing, Arlington, VA, 2025
  • J. Babar, “Modeling and Formal Analysis of High-Assurance Mixed-Reality Systems,” 25th annual High Confidence Software and Systems (HCSS) Conference, Annapolis, MD, 2025
  • I. Amundson, J. Babar, H. Herencia-Zapana, S. F. Rollini, B. Brussee, P. Wu, T. E. Wang, A. K. Newendorp, A. R. Kohl, S. J. Fieffer, S. S. Khan, M. Sanaei, M. Muscala, S. B. Gilbert, E. Winer, M. C. Dorneich, J. Lathrop, D. Musliner, R. P. Goldman, J. Gottlieb, P. Ganeriwala, C. Chambers, S. Bhattacharyya, “Modeling and Formal Analysis of High-Assurance Mixed-Reality Systems,” 2025 AIAA DATC/IEEE 44th Digital Avionics Systems Conference (DASC), Montreal, QC, Canada, 2025, pp. 1-10, doi: 10.1109/DASC66011.2025.11257175.
  • H. Herencia-Zapana, I. Amundson, “A Repository of Cognitive Attack Patterns for Extended-Reality Systems,” In Proceedings of the Twenty-sixth International Symposium on Theory, Algorithmic Foundations, and Protocol Design for Mobile Networks and Mobile Computing (MobiHoc ’25), Houston, TX, 2025, pp. 468–472, doi: 10.1145/3704413.3765304
  • T. E. Wang, I. Amundson, J. Babar, P. Wu, “Formal Analysis of Vulnerabilities in Mixed-Reality Systems,” IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (SMC’25), Vienna Austria, 2025
  • S. B. Gilbert, P. Ganeriwala, J. I. Lathrop, A. K. Newendorp, S. J. Fieffer, P. Wu, I. Amundson, C. Chambers, A. Kohl, S. S. Khan, M. Sanaei, J. Babar, T. Wang, D. Musliner, R. P. Goldman, J. Gottlieb, E. Winer, M. C. Dorneich, S. Bhattacharyya “Can Someone Prove Your Operator Won’t Get Distracted? A Gentle Introduction to Formal Methods in Human Factors,” In Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting. https://doi.org/10.1177/10711813251369496
  • P. Ganeriwala, C. Chambers, S. Bhattacharyya, J. Babar, “Explainable Assurance through Compositional Verification with Cognitive Models,” 4th International Workshop on Explainability of Real-time Systems and their Analysis (ERSA), Boston, MA, 2025

Contact

For general information, please contact the VRAC Research Center at Iowa State University.

 

This material is based upon work supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed on this site are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of DARPA or the U.S. Government.

© Iowa State University of Science and Technology 2026