Development of a System for Tactile Reception of Advanced Patterns (STRAP) to Support Bi-directional Haptic Communication Navy SBIR FY2006.2 Sol No.: Navy SBIR FY2006.2 Topic No.: N06-149 Topic Title: Development of a System for Tactile Reception of Advanced Patterns (STRAP) to Support Bi-directional Haptic Communication Proposal No.: N062-149-0285 Firm: Design Interactive, Inc. 1221 E. Broadway, Suite 110 Oviedo, Florida 32765-9135 Contact: Kelly Hale Phone: (407) 706-0977 Web Site: www.designinteractive.net Abstract: The current effort proposes the development of a portable, low power, lightweight, unobtrusive, real time, bi-directional haptic communication system using vibratory tactors and sensors embedded in combat attire, which provides real-time information to squad leaders and individual warfighters during limited vision or out-of-sight operations. During Phase I, investigators will develop and validate a System for Tactile Reception of Advanced Patterns (STRAP) that uses vibrotactile technology to display a haptic communication language developed under this effort. The haptic language will consist of haptic symbols and a generative grammar for presenting complex information associated with Special Operations Forces (SOF), such as warfighter posture, movement and weapon status, as well as a means to convey commands such as those currently conveyed via hand signals. Phase II will incorporate the STRAP and embedded Team Status and Signaling System (TS3) systems (parallel effort by AnthroTronix) into a single bi-directional haptic communication system, and validation of techniques developed in parallel Phase I efforts for conveying status information, issuing haptic commands, and summarizing status and command information for haptic presentation will be completed. The resultant haptic communication system will enhance information throughput, situation awareness, and performance of SOF team members by utilizing human multimodal information processing capabilities. Benefits: The proposed STRAP system will incorporate a vibrotactile display and haptic language that provides a structured approach to haptic communication and supports a wide range of haptic cue dimensions (e.g., stimulus location, frequency, duration, patterns of sequential stimuli) where consistent rules can be applied to facilitate decoding and comprehension. The haptic language developed would be framed around critical information required for Special Operations Forces (SOF) to effectively enhance information throughput, situation awareness, and performance of SOF team members. Using the STRAP interface and communication language, one can expect a significant benefit for cognitive demands and training complexity by formalizing how information must be conveyed as opposed to transmission of symbols in random order. This approach would further eliminate ambiguity in expression (which may lead to critical and potentially fatal errors in high-stress SOF environments), allow for easy expansion, and avoid the creation of an unstructured patchwork of commands. The results from this effort will provide groundwork for development of a fully deployable STRAP device for presenting haptic information to SOF personnel in the field, which in Phase II will be partnered with the embedded Team Status and Signaling System (TS3) developed under a parallel effort to create a portable, low power, lightweight, unobtrusive, real time, bi-directional haptic communication system using vibratory tactors embedded in combat attire, which provides real-time information to squad leaders and individual warfighters during limited vision or out-of-sight operations. Return