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The intensive care unit (ICU) is one of the most complex areas in hospital care, as patients require continuous monitoring by physicians and nurses. Currently, clinicians are informed about the patients’ physiological conditions through visual color-coded signals and auditory alarms. Previous studies have shown that vibrotactile cues can be used to inform clinicians of a patient’s vital signs status, either in a unisensory or multisensory alarm scheme. We present the results of the first in a series of experiments devoted to examining the feasibility to use tactile cues to convey detailed physiological information about more than one patient, rendered through a lower-leg tactile interface. The current experiment utilized a simulated clinical environment with 14 undergraduate students. Participants were required to interpret information delivered by the tactile interface, for two different patients, while they performed a continuous cognitively demanding task. Results indicate that under such conditions, it is possible to deliver critical information with a successful interpretation rate of approximately 85% but not without cost to the continuous demanding task. Future experiments should evaluate more tactile patterns in order to increase their interpretation success rate, and evaluate the use of these tactile cues with clinicians.

Vibro-tactile interfaces can support users in various aspects and contexts. Despite their inherent advantages, it is important to realize that they are limited in the type and capacity of information they can convey. This study is part of a series of experiments that aim to develop and evaluate a “tactile taxonomy” for dismounted operational environments. The current experiment includes a simulation of an operational mission with a remote Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV). During the mission, 20 participants were required to interpret notifications that they received in one (or more) of the following modalities: auditory, visual and/or tactile. Three specific notification types were chosen based on previous studies, in order to provide an intuitive connection between the notification and its semantic meaning. Response times to notifications, the ability to distinguish between the information types that they provided, and the operational mission performance metrics, were collected. Results indicate that it is possible to use a limited “tactile taxonomy” in a visually loaded and auditory noisy scene while performing a demanding operational task. The use of the tactile modality with other sensory modalities leverages the participants’ ability to perceive and identify the notifications.

One of the most significant safety concerns regarding Highly-Automated Driving (HAD) is drivers’ ability to regain control of the vehicle safely. Vibro-tactile alerts were already suggested as an effective modality for Take-Over Requests (TOR) in terms of reducing reaction times. However, it is not clear yet whether such alerts should be compatible or incompatible with the location of hazards that might be present when the TOR is initiated. Studies regarding tactile directionality in other domains, and in manual vehicles have found mixed results. It is argued that part of the contradictory evidence may be related to contextual differences between the driving domain and other domains. Thus, this study aimed to test which directional design would be preferable for TORs in time-critical situations. Twenty-seven participants drove a highly-automated vehicle on a highway with two lanes in each travel direction, in a driving simulator. Each participant experienced five TORs in which they were required to take control and divert their vehicle away from an impending hazard that shut down an entire lane and was situated four seconds ahead. The disengagement of the autonomous driver was signaled using a tactile alert. For the first group, the tactile alert was directed towards the hazard (incompatible with the required action), for the second, it was directed away from it (compatible with the required action), and for the control group, the alert was non-directional. Results showed that drivers using the compatible alert reacted faster and more accurately than those using the incompatible alert. Participants using the non-directional alert reacted slower and less accurately than participants in both directional groups. The results contradict previous findings in the manual driving domain, where drivers are faster and more accurate to respond when the alert is compatible with the location of the hazard and not with the direction of the required action. It is argued that these discrepancies stem from the modified HAD driving task demands where drivers are disengaged from the driving task for long periods and are less aware of the driving environment. The implications for the design of autonomous vehicles are discussed.

In armored fighting vehicles (AFVs), the vehicle commander (VC) and crew communicate through an audio system that all crew members inside the AFV can hear. This can be distracting and inconvenient, especially for effective communication between the VC and the driver. We assessed the feasibility and usability of a tactile system for direct communication between the VC and the driver in addition to (or instead of) the existing auditory system. Field experiment results show that, with or without auditory commands, tactile cues can be utilized to direct AFV drivers during operational tasks. Hence, specific design and implementation of a tactile interface should be considered for internal communication traffic.

In military operational environments, an overflow of information along with rapidly changing conditions has the potential to reduce soldiers’ performance and mission success. Performance has been improved by technologies that make use of integrated means of information transfer, but there remains an increase in commanders’ workload and information processing demands. Most of the communication between commanders and their soldiers is handled by audio and visual devices. Less common is the use of tactile interfaces. The tactile modality allows a fast, intuitive, secured, and silent channel of communication. The main goal of the current study was to determine soldiers’ requirements and needs and based on those establish the characteristics of an experimental infrastructure for future experiments to test the efficiency of tactile interfaces in operational settings. To this end, questionnaires were distributed among infantry officers of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Analysis of the collected data provided insights into soldiers’ view of the tactile display usage in the battlefield. The results of this study lay the foundations for further research and development of an effective tactile channel to be used by soldiers in operational environments.

In military operations, commanders gather information in real-time from multiple sources. Their immediate communication is primarily through audio and/or visual devices. At the same time, most of their tasks rely heavily on the visual modality. Together with the need to execute tasks rapidly, cognitive overload and decreased performance may occur. It has been shown that in operational settings tactile alerts can enhance performance and improve information transfer in terms of cognitive workload and interruptions management. We aim to transfer sub-primary information to the commander via tactile alerts in order to improve awareness to accumulation of new relevant information. A field examination introduced this concept of alerts for the case of squad disconnections (separation of squad member from the team) and was aimed at providing information to commanders via visual or tactile modalities. Eighteen infantry soldiers took part in this examination. The participants were divided into three squads. Each squad consisted of one commander and 5 soldiers. All participants were military reserve soldiers who have been on active duty in the year prior to the study. Each commander wore two tactile bracelets, one on each forearm, which were used to transfer the tactile alert. The visual alerts were activated through a regular smartphone and the alert appeared visually on the phone's screen (without audio or vibration). The experiment included an urban navigation task from one waypoint to another. The duration of each experiment was 75 minutes and the pace of the navigation was set at an operational pace of 3-4 km/h. During the navigation task, the commander was required to detect targets on route and mark them on a map and at same time to ensure that there are no separations between squad members. The route was split into three sections: in the first section the commander received tactile alerts for disconnection, in the second section he received visual alerts and the third section was a baseline condition with no alerts. The third section simulated the current and common practice in armies today. The experimental findings focused on commanders' performance: navigation abilities, and target detection and response time to the separation/cutoff events. Each one of the commanders had one navigation error, i.e., wrong turn. For each one of the three participants, this error occurred in the visual alert condition, i.e. when they received alerts through the visual interface. With regards to target detection, the experimental results indicated a slight advantage for the tactile alerts condition (with a 73% success rate) compared to visual alerts or the baseline condition (with an average of 67% success for both cases). Regarding the response time to the separation/cutoff events, all three commanders identified and reported all 9 disconnection events that occurred during their experiment, which is quite expected as they are experienced Infantry commanders. A linear mixed model (LMM) was used on the log of the response time. The time until detection of disconnection with tactile alerts was approximately 9 times shorter than the detection time in the case of visual alerts and no alerts. Although the visual display condition had no significant statistical difference than the baseline, shorter response times were seen in the visual condition section. Results revealed that using tactile alerts during a mission decreased commanders’ response time to mission critical events compared to visual alerts or no alerts. Commanders' subjective opinions of tactile devices were highly supportive. Future research should include the effect of integration of tactile alerts and tactile communications on commanders and soldiers in operational environments.