TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Human Systems

OBJECTIVE: Develop an unobtrusive, real time, bi-directional communication system that can be embedded in the combat attire of the counter-terrorism dismount warfighter for the capture of individual location and action information with subsequent presentation to the unit commander and other team members via the tactile modality.

DESCRIPTION: Unobtrusively sending and receiving time critical information to and from the warfighter during combat operations and counter-terrorism efforts can increase both individual and team performance and overall survivability. Due to personal safety constraints with respect to situation awareness, the dismount warfighter often requires unobstructed vision and hearing as well as the ability to automatically communicate his status. This type of advanced communication system could be achieved by instrumenting the warfighter�s attire and with sensors to automatically deliver status information and haptic feedback actuators to receive command information.

Human skin is capable of detecting and distinguishing a variety of tactile stimuli, including tapping, vibration, pressure, pain, temperature, and texture. The number and type of stimuli that can be detected simultaneously is dependent on a number of factors such as where the stimuli are presented on the body and the distance and time between presentation of two distinct stimuli. The fingertips, for example, contain about 100 times more receptors per square centimeter than the skin on the back, contributing to the fact that the two-point threshold distance (distance required between 2 stimuli) on the fingertips is 2 to 3 millimeters (mm) while the arm senses two points but only when they are 35 to 40 mm apart. A stimulus in the real world typically activates several kinds of receptors simultaneously; this integration of sensations allows humans to experience an ice cube as both smooth and cold, for example. As this information is sent to higher brain centers, sensations also take on meaning because of past experiences. Thus the potential for the warfighter to receive a vast amount of information through the skin exists. By, combining various types of tactile stimulation such as pressure, vibration, and temperature, as well as displaying the information at various points of the body, exploiting proprioceptive sensing, the special operations warfighter could receive messages and commands with spatial significance. Where the stimuli are presented and in which combinations could also relay relevant information to the warfighter.

If the actions and/or status of each team member could be captured via instrumented sensors in a warfighter�s combat attire, a real time snap shot status of the entire operation could be conveyed instantly to every warfighter via tactile representation. Additionally, real time, continuous situational data of team members would allow the unit commander to "watch" in real time the progression of the operation, communicating with individual members as needed. Voice communications over the radio only allow one member of the unit to supply a report at any given time, making it difficult for special operations warfighters to conceptualize the status of the operation. Instrumentation of each team member could provide data such as body posture, movement, and weapon status (to include direction pointing). If the unit commander has the information about which team members are walking, running, standing, prone, kneeling, and/or firing weapons, he will be able to make well informed critical decisions based on a significantly better understanding of the situation at any given time. Even with the lack of physiological monitoring, these data could indicate potential causalities (e.g., prone, no movement, not firing). Additionally, direction of enemy, ammunition depletion, and severity of enemy engagements could be ascertained. The data must be in a form that can be transmitted over existing communication systems using minimal bandwidth and power.

The sensor instrumentation suite and tactile communication system will need to be portable, low power, and light weight for successful deployment with the warfighter, and must be seamlessly integrated into the body equipment and combat attire on special operations forces.

PHASE I: Preliminary design and proof of concept in which a feasibility assessment of an Information Collection and Communication System will be conducted. Requirements and design specifications for a fully deployable system should be developed and documented in the final report along with a detailed work plan for development and testing.

PHASE II: Development and demonstration of Phase I design. This phase must include data collection to verify system performance capabilities and will be provided in a final system evaluation report. This final report will also include a lessons learned document, including (re) design recommendations. An option would be provided to support a field evaluation of the system.

PHASE III: Develop an Information Collection and Communication System that capitalizes on the results of the Phase 2 effort, and fully integrate with Navy/Marine Corps acquisition programs

PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL/DUAL-USE APPLICATIONS: The fully, immersive gaming and entertainment industry would benefit from a system such as described in this topic. The system could be incorporated into existing gaming systems. Additionally, law enforcement SWAT teams could benefit from these communication technologies.

REFERENCES:
1. Lindeman, R.W., Sibert, J.L., Mendez-Mendez, E., Patil, S., and Phifer, D., Effectiveness of Directional Vibrotactile Cuing on a Building-Clearing Task, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in Computing Systems (2005), pp. 271 - 280

2. Lindeman, R.W., Cutler, J.R. (2003). Controller Design for a Wearable, Near-Field Haptic Display, Proc. of the 11th Symp. on Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Environment and Teleoperator Systems (2003), pp. 397-403.

3. Lindeman, R.W., Yanagida, Y., Sibert, J., and Lavine, R., Effective Vibrotactile Cueing in a Visual Search Task, Human-Computer Interaction -- INTERACT'03, M.Rauterberg et al.(Eds.), Published by IOS Press,(c) IFIP,2003,pp. 89-96

KEYWORDS: Instrumentation; Warfighter Status, Information Presentation

TPOC: Roy Stripling
Phone: (202)767-3960
Fax: (202)767-1608
Email: [email protected]
2nd TPOC: Dylan Schmorrow
Phone: (703)696-4466
Fax: (703)696-1212
Email: [email protected]

** TOPIC AUTHOR (TPOC) **

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