Haptics in military applications

Lauri Immonen

University of Tampere
Department of Computer Sciences
Computer Science / Int. Technology
Seminar paper: Haptics in military
applications
December 2008
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University of Tampere
Department of Computer Sciences
Computer Science / Interactive Technology
Lauri Immonen: Haptics in Military Applications
Seminar paper, 14 pages, 4 index and reference pages
December 2008

Haptic applications are used versatilely in the military field. Haptics can be used to
enhance the users’ immersive feeling when performing training in virtual reality
environments. Better performance in real life situations can be expected with the help
of realistic training environments. Haptics can also be used to communicate or navigate
in different surroundings. Haptic navigation and communication methods can provide
an alternative to traditional methods.

In this paper I have a look at different military fields and applications. I present
example applications, which are being used in those fields. The applications are
discussed and conclusions are made. Haptics, despite of being a relatively new topic in
military field, has a small but certain ground already and will be more important in the
future.

Key words and terms: Military; communication; haptic cue; tactile signal; tactile
display; vibrotactile; tactors; virtual reality; surgery simulation
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Contents
1. Introduction ............................................................................................................... 1
2. Fields of applications................................................................................................. 1
2.1. Medical ............................................................................................................ 1
2.2. Communications and navigation...................................................................... 2
2.3. Combat ............................................................................................................. 3
3. Application examples ................................................................................................ 3
3.1. Medical field: A Haptic-Enabled Simulator for Cricothyroidotomy............... 4
3.2. Communication field: Comparison of Army Hand and Arm Signals to a
Covert Tactile Communication System in a Dynamic Environment ........................ 5
3.3. Communication, navigation and combat fields: Tactile Displays and
Detectability of Vibrotactile Patterns as Combat Assault Maneuvers are Being
Performed .................................................................................................................. 7
3.4. Navigation and combat fields: The design and deployment of a spatialized
vibrotactile feedback system ..................................................................................... 9
3.5. Combat field: A tactile cue for firearms and other trigger-activated devices 12
4. Discussion ............................................................................................................... 13
5. Conclusions ............................................................................................................. 14

References ..................................................................................................................... 15
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1. Introduction
Military operations and actions include often many different areas; in one large scale
military operation involved could be strategic, logistical, medical, communication,
combat and maintenance areas. Traditionally training in military has been training in
theory and then practicing the learned theories in real life environments or in
environments, which imitate real environments, such as obstacle courses.

As technical and electronic products and applications are developing, there is a need
also in military field to research and introduce new technologies, which could help in
training and operating in different military areas. The using of new technologies can
bring along advantages that can lead to improved performance and reduced risks.

Virtual reality based training can have a positive effect in real life performances for
military personnel. The virtual environments do not have to be entirely realistic to
provide useful training, which affects the performance in real situations. However bad
and unrealistic haptic feedback can cause total failure of the haptic experience, so a
certain level of quality must be maintained even if total realism is not required. Haptic
feedback in these training scenarios may play an important role in virtual reality
training. [Jiang et al., 2005]

The use of haptics has potential to enhance the feeling of immersion in training whether
the training is performed in virtual reality simulators or real life training situations in
e.g. an obstacle course. The use of haptic feedback can improve performance and sense
of presence. [Fowlkes et al.] In this report I will have a look at haptics in military
applications. To be more precise, I have divided the field of focus into categories: I
shall have a look at medical, communicational and navigational and combat
applications.

2. Fields of applications

2.1. Medical

In medical situations realistic practising and training is often difficult. Current practise
methods are using animals, cadavers and dummies that are made of plastic. There are
problems with these methods, such as that animals do not have the correct anatomy,
cadavers do not respond physiologically correctly and dummies lack the full range of
anatomical variations. There can also be ethical questions with using of animals and
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cadavers. [Liu et al., 2005] Those could be such as if humans are entitled to use animals
as test subjects or if corpses should be buried instead of being operated on. Haptic
actions are often used in open surgery, because visual action is not possible. The
surgeon depends on haptic feedback when identifying e.g. bloode vessels under other
tissues [Hu et al.].

With the help of computer simulations with haptics it is possible to provide alternative
training options to replace those earlier mentioned possibilities. It is possible to provide
precise representations of human physiology. Different patient types can be simulated.
One important function for training purposes is that computer-based simulators can
save the data and thus measure the performance of the training person. [Liu et al., 2005]
When the performance can be monitored, it is possible to give more accurate feedback
about a person’s learning.

To my opinion, the combination of visual and haptic feedback can be very valuable
when training e.g. field surgery operations. The operating conditions in a battlefield can
be poor; there is lots of dirt and blood on the operating area so the sense of touch is
emphasized compared to the sense of sight. If it is possible to learn, how an operation
feels, it should be practised as much as possible. However, it is essential that the haptic
feedback is realistic; learned unrealistic or wrong sensations from the haptic device can
lead even to death in real surgery situations.

2.2. Communications and navigation

Communication between individuals usually happens by speech, but it can happen also
by other means. One very common means of communication in the army is
communicating by using hand signals. There are reasons for using hand signals; at
battlefield the hearing of soldiers may be damaged temporarily or even permanently
because of loud noises or there may be situations where speaking or shouting is not an
option. An example of that kind of situation could be entering a house or area as
silently as possible.

However, hand signals may not be useful in all situations; there may be obstacles
blocking the view, dust or smoke in the air that prevents sight or it could be too dark to
see. Even if there would not be any obstacles to using hand signals, finding an
alternative way to communicate could allow soldiers’ visual channel to remain free and
allow them to maintain longer distances between each other.
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The challenge for soldiers on field is to maintain and monitor visual and auditory
information channels, and at the same time having enough awareness of the
environment and the situation the soldier is in. The soldiers can focus more at different
obstacles and environment awareness when receiving tactile signals than when
receiving visual hand signals. [Krausman and White, 2006; Pettitt et al., 2006]

Security issues must be taken into account; the soldiers must get reliable information
via the haptic applications. The technology that delivers the information must be robust
and work in extreme conditions. Even if the technology works fine, it is as important to
make sure, that the messages sent are clear to be understood in difficult conditions.
Reliability of the information source is essential; in case of a combat situation, if the
enemy could feed wrong information to the soldiers’ tactile displays, the results could
be disastrous.

If the tactile signals are not reliable enough for some reasons, it could be well worth
having a look if tactile signals could be used as attention cues; the tactile information
would just deliver a message about more specific information somewhere else.

2.3. Combat

Safety is also in military world an important issue, so improving safety should also be
considered when thinking about the possibilities of haptics in training environments. In
combat situations so called friendly fire is always a risk, and in training situations the
learners can be inexperienced with handling of weapons. Training with real weapons
always poses a risk of a serious accident; alternative training methods are welcome if
similar results can be achieved with them.

In Chapter 3 I will present an example of a haptic vest, which is used in close-quarters

combat training. As another example I will present a rather simple invention, which
aims to improve the safety of handguns. I think this invention could be used easily in
military training with assault rifles and other weapons.

3. Application examples

In this chapter I want to present some of the numerous possibilities, in which haptics
can be applied in the military field. Not all examples are of military applications, but
are of such nature that they could easily be used also for military purposes. I will
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present examples about medical and communicational applications. One important

military point of view is combat, so I will have a look at combat applications too.

3.1. Medical field: A Haptic-Enabled Simulator for Cricothyroidotomy

Liu, Bhasin and Bowyer describe in their article [2005] their efforts to build a
computer-based cricothyroidotomy simulator to address the problems mentioned in
chapter 1.1. Open cricothyroidotomy is an operation, in which the patient’s airways are
blocked and an alternative breathing method has to be accomplished. This could be the
case in a severe facial wound caused by a gunshot or an explosion, or certain gas
injuries.

In this system, users have 3D shutter glasses and a Phantom haptic device, so users can
see and feel what happens on virtual environment. The authors claim that this is the
most natural interface for open cricothyroidotomy. The software components in the
system include the graphical user interface, the patient model and key surgical skill
steps.

Figure 1. Graphical user interface [1] Figure 2. A virtual patient model [1]

The skill steps are steps, which require a specific action to be performed. There are four
of them in the simulator. The first step, landmark identification, is a primarily a tactile
task. The student uses the Phantom device to locate the place, where the incision will be
made. In the second step, making the incision, the user can feel the sensation of cutting
with a scalpel. In the third step, incision enlargement, haptic feedback constrains the
instrument to penetrate skin at a single point. The final step, intubation, simulates the
resistance of inserting a tube in the incision.

The authors claim that the preliminary comments of evaluators of the system have been
favourable. The accuracy of the haptic feedback was commented positively. I think that
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the system is promising; however I would like to see the Phantom device to be replaced
by a haptic glove. This would bring more realism to the system, and also give more
realistic haptic feedback. In my opinion, realistic haptic feedback is essential in this
kind of simulators, because in real life situations operations like cricothyroidotomy
require often operating by mostly touch. Visibility can be limited because of lack of
lights or dirt and blood.

3.2. Communication field: Comparison of Army Hand and Arm Signals to a

Covert Tactile Communication System in a Dynamic Environment

Pettitt et al. conducted a study [2006], in which soldiers’ abilities to interpret and
respond to tactile commands was evaluated. The study was conducted with infantry
soldiers while they were carrying out a combat patrol simulation on an obstacle course.
Tactile signals and visual hand signals were sent to the soldiers, and their response
times and accuracy of signal interpretation was documented. According to the authors,
with proper implementation the using of tactile displays could reduce interference with
the soldiers’ visual and auditory channels and improve their overall performance.

The objective of the study was to find out, if soldiers are able to interpret and response
to tactile commands as efficiently as they can to hand signals in a dynamic
environment. They also wanted to find out, if the use of a tactile system hinders the
ability of soldiers to complete an obstacle course.

The soldiers were given commands while completing an obstacle course. The
commands were tactile signals, hand and arm signals from a leader in front of the
soldier and hand and arm signals from a leader behind the soldier. The soldiers were
voluntary participants from the Infantry Training Brigade, Fort Benning, Georgia. All
tasks in the study were a normal part of a soldier’s life. They were wearing their normal
combat uniform and a device to simulate an M4 assault rifle.

The tactile systems in this study consist of tactile displays and receiver units. The
display consists of eight tactile actuators, which are attached to a belt that is worn
around the waist of a soldier. The tactors can be activated individually, sequentially or
in groups to create sensations to replace standard army hand and arm signals. The four
signals that were used are shown in Table 1 and the tactile display is shown in Figure 3.
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Signal Hand signal Tactile signal

Attention Hand raised straight forward at eye A sequenced side-to-side activation of front tactors
level, then waving from side to side
Halt Hand raised straight up Four tactors simultaneously actuated
Move out Head facing the direction, then a A sequenced back-to-front activation of tactors,
motion with arm from behind neck creating movement around each
towards the direction side of the body
Rally Waving the arm straight up with a A sequenced activation of all tactors, creating a
circular motion. circular motion around the body
Table 1. Hand and tactile signals. [Pettitt et al., 2005]

Figure 3. Tactile display. [Pettitt et al., 2005]

The obstacle course simulated the following actions: patrolling, crawling, climbing and
firing. Once the obstacle course was started, the soldiers would follow their team leader
from a distance of around ten meters until the end of the course. A squad leader would
follow behind the soldier. Before entering the obstacle course, the soldiers were trained
to recognize the tactile signals with 100% accuracy.

The soldiers on the course could receive signals at any point from the team or squad
leader or from the tactile display. When receiving a tactile signal, the soldiers told the
meaning of the signal to a data collector, who was nearby. The study was conducted
during daytime at an obstacle course, which made it much easier to notice and interpret
given hand signals correctly. In a realistic environment there would have been lots of
vegetation and landscape obstacles.
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The authors found that the tactile signals were intuitive and easy to understand for the
soldiers. The soldiers were able to interpret and response faster to tactile signals than to
signals given by hand or arm. The study conditions were favourable to traditional
signals, so the authors believe that in a real situation the difference could be even
greater. One benefit of a tactile system would also be that with the system, commands
to a whole group can be given at the same time instead of the message going from a
soldier to soldier.

The authors claim that in a real situation the system would perform even better than in
the experiment, but I do have my doubts about that. In a real combat situation there is
the presence of danger, which cannot be simulated. Extreme situations can be life
threatening and people could behave very differently in a real situation. With a hand
signal, the soldier is able to quickly communicate a signal back, for example showing
that they did not get the first signal. I think this system could perform rather well in a
quiet stealth mission, but not that well in a real combat situation.

3.3. Communication, navigation and combat fields: Tactile Displays and

Detectability of Vibrotactile Patterns as Combat Assault Maneuvers are
Being Performed

Another study about tactile displays is presented by Krausman and White [2006], in
which they examine the detectability of vibrotactile patterns as combat assault
manoeuvres were performed. They say that one issue, which has not yet been looked at
thoroughly, is how different types of tactile displays affect to recognition on tactile
messages especially considering the tasks that soldiers perform during combat
operations. They wanted to find out those things in their study.

The other objectives of Krausman and White’s study were to find out how wearing
protective body armour affects the recognition of tactile messages and if different
tactile patterns have the same recognition rates.

The participants of the study were ten officers from Fort Stewart, Georgia. Like in the
study from Pettitt et al. there was an obstacle course, which the participants carried out.
The manoeuvres were similar; they included running, jumping, balancing, windows
climbing and crawling.
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Figure 4. Different manoeuvres at the obstacle course. [Krausman and White, 2006]

The system consisted from a tactile display and a receiver unit. There were two
different tactile displays; one like in Pettitt et al. used in their study, and a display that
consisted of an 4x4 array of tactors. The belt display was worn around the participants’
lower abdomen and the array display on the lower back.

Figure 5. Array and belt displays. [Krausman and White, 2006]

The participants received different tactile patterns while performing on the obstacle
course, signals lasting for about two seconds. There were six patterns for each display
type. The experiment began after the participants reached 100% accuracy in
recognizing the tactile patterns.
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Figure 6. The patterns in array and belt displays. [Krausman and White, 2006]

The experiment reveals that the type of tactile display did not affect the detection and
recognition of the tactile patterns. Wearing the protective body armour did not have an
effect either. The results show that when the participants were high crawling (see
middle of fig. 4), only 63% of the tactile patterns were detected. When manoeuvring the
tires, 92% were detected and with the windows 88% of patterns were detected. The
differences between the six different patterns were small.

It seems clear, that more work is needed to find out, how to improve tactile pattern
detection rates. The studies were performed in good conditions at an obstacle course; in
real battlefield conditions with an enormous amount of stress, exhaustion and anxiety
the results could drop much more. Since errors in detecting and identifying commands
can cause as much as deaths, it is important to carry on research until the results show
reliable detection rates.

3.4. Navigation and combat fields: The design and deployment of a spatialized
vibrotactile feedback system
Lindeman et al. describe in their article [2004] a system, which deliveres haptic cues for
use in immersive virtual reality environments. The system consists of a body-worn
garnment that has a large number of vibration units attached to it, and a device that
supports the delivery of vibrotactile cues.
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The motivation for the authors is to design and implement a system for delivering
vibrotactile cues to the whole body for use in real world and virtual environment
applications. The problem is to find a solution to provide enough coverage of the body
to impart collision information to the wearer in order to improve the realism of the
experience.

The authors have come up with a solution, in which they have positioned tactors at
different points of the body with a vest, and control the vibration intensity with a
computer using wireless connection. There are a few challenges with the design of a
tactile vest. Those are that the vest has to keep the tactors fairly tight against the body,
and that the vest should fit as well to different sized users.

The authors have faced those problems by designing a tight fitting stretch neoprene vest
with some hook-and-loop fasteners to keep the bits of the vest in place. The tactors are
placed at locations with a higher probability to get in contact with virtual objects. The
authors have also kept in mind that the users will be wearing a military protective vest
and other gear during a virtual reality environment session. The placement of the tactors
can be seen in figure 5.

Figure 5. A tactile vest with numbers marking the placement of tactors. [Lindeman et
al., 2004]
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The authors are a part of a team working to create a fully immersive simulator for
training small-unit tactics, techniques and procedures for close-quarters battle. This task
requires soldiers to often operate inside buildings. The environments in buildings vary
greatly, it can be dark and noisy, there can be smoke and debris, but it can also be a
quiet environment requiring the use of stealth and silent actions. The soldiers have to
efficiently operate and possibly use combat actions in these conditions. The conditions
are physically and mentally demanding and the authors aim to simulate that as
accurately as possible.

The users of the system wear in addition a military protective vest and a head mounted
virtual reality display. An optical tracking system is used to track the user’s head, torso,
waist, arms, legs and a weapon. The users may get in contact with virtual environment
objects for several reasons: They may look at something else while moving, their view
may be limited or they choose to touch a virtual object. The goal of the system is to
handle these situations as realistically as possible to improve the user’s immersive
feeling.

Figure 6. Using the virtual reality system. [Lindeman et al., 2004]

There are challenges that need to be solved in order to the system being really realistic.
The users have said that it is difficult to know where their body is in relation to the
environment and they may get stuck on objects. Figure 7 shows an example of a
situation like this. The left side shows the user’s view, which reveals no obstacles.
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However, on the right side picture we can see that actually the user’s shoulder is
colliding with the doorframe.

Figure 7. A user is stuck in a doorway. [Lindeman et al., 2004]

The system described in the article does look promising. The situations, in which the
soldiers would be, are often dangerous and very demanding, so the more realistic
training environments can be provided, the better and more efficient the results will be.
The system could be developed in the direction that the users would be fully covered
with tactors, and even more realistic feedback would be possible. Also, among the
virtual environment, some smell effects like smoke could be quite easily used to add
realism to the simulation.

I do think that virtual reality training is and will be an important factor in military and
other demanding situations training. However virtual environments are yet not so
realistic that the main part of training could be done in simulators. Real life
environments and real situations training are still in my opinion the best training
methods, but virtual reality training definitely does add a useful alternative training
option to traditional training methods.

3.5. Combat field: A tactile cue for firearms and other trigger-activated devices
Not all haptic inventions are complicated or expensive and difficult to implement.
William McMoore has invented [2005] a tactile cue for trigger-activated firearms or
other devices. A tactile stimulus, either a groove or rising is placed on the firearm in the
place where the user’s trigger finger should rest.

The idea of the invention is to make trigger-activated weapons safer. McMoore says
that it may take time to learn to keep the trigger finger in a safe position; not on the
trigger. This claim especially applies to people who have little or no experience with
trigger-activated firearms.
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Figure 7. Trigger finger in a shooting position. [McMoore, 2005]

The physical tactile cue (No. 22 in figure 5) reminds the users to keep their finger off
the trigger until they intend to shoot. The invention is not meant only for military
purposes, but for all kinds of trigger-activated devices and uses. A similar tactile cue is
used in keyboards; the letters F and J and the number 5 have a similar tactile cue. I do
think that this invention could easily be used in military training. It would be
inexpensive to implement and hopefully improve the learning of how to properly
handle a weapon. Keeping in mind, that firearms are deadly and accidents may and will
happen, even this kind of simple invention could save a life at some point.

4. Discussion
After getting familiar with the examples I chose to present in this paper and learning
generally about haptics in military applications, I am sure that not only there is a place
for haptic applications in the military world but haptic applications will become more
common as the techniques evolve.

It is already clear, that virtual reality training has positive effects to real life
performance. When haptics are added to that, it is possible to create even more realistic
simulations and improve the performance even more. It has to be kept in mind though,
that unrealistic haptic effects can ruin the whole experience and make the training
rather useless. Realistic effects definitely improve the simulations; I do expect fast
improvement in the realism of the effects as computer power grows strongly.

With the help of realistic effects and costs getting less expensive, I expect especially the
medical field to benefit from using of haptics. Surgeons can train much more in quite
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realistic environments and thus get a certain level of experience and routine, which
helps in real life situations even though the situation differs significantly from a training
situation. Having said that, I do think that even the best virtual practice cannot
completely replace real life experiences and the lessons learned from those situations.
Especially in military field there are often dangerous, even deadly situations, and
performing in extreme conditions differs dramatically from safe training environments.

The realism of haptic effects is still not everything. Vibrotactile signals can be used in
communications and navigation, with success as the examples show. There is yet lots of
work to do, because detecting haptic signals is not that simple as we can see in Chapter
3.3. However I could easily see haptic signals to be used as kind of awareness cues, to
inform soldiers that there is a message for you, observe your squad or team leader.
Haptic cues could be very well used as attention signals, and with more research, they
could be used to give more accurate and detailed instructions to soldiers. In certain
situations, like silent stealth missions, tactile signals could prove valuable.

As the use of haptics, especially in the combat field, is a fairly new practice, I think that
it should be taken at first slowly but surely into wider use. There will be, like with all
new things, resistance to new concepts. It would be a shame if new technology would
be taken into use too fast and perhaps fail with some applications because of that;
leading to people abandoning that application. If new technology is taken into use bit
by bit, people get used to it faster and benefit from it faster, too.

5. Conclusions
As technology evolves and computer power grows, haptic devices and effects evolve
and get more realistic. This makes it possible to use realistic training environments and
provide training possibilities in environments, in which earlier it has been impossible or
difficult to work in. The more realistic training can be provided, the more efficient
learning results can be expected even though virtual training will not replace training in
real environments.

Haptic signals can be used to communicate and navigate. This field requires research
about how to deliver signals as reliably as possible. It should be looked in if is it
possible at all to give orders by haptic signals. Perhaps haptic signals should be used as
cues about other information, as kind of attention grabbers, or haptic signals are good
for certain kind of messages. Be that as it may, the use of haptics in military
applications is looking promising as long as more thorough research will be done.
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References
[1] Liu, Bhasin and Bower: A Haptic-Enabled Simulator for Cricothyroidotomy.
Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, vol. 111, pp. 308-313. IOS Press, 2005.
http://simcen.org/pdf/liu%20mmvr%202005%20paper.pdf

[2] Krausman and White: Tactile Displays and Detectability of Vibrotactile Patterns as
Combat Assault Maneuvers are Being Performed. U.S Army Research Laboratory,
Technical Reports. 2006.
http://www.arl.army.mil/arlreports/2006/ARL-TR-3998.pdf

[3] Pettitt, Redden and Carstens: Comparison of Army Hand and Arm Signals to a
Covert Tactile Communication System in a Dynamic Environment. U.S Army Research
Laboratory, Technical Reports. 2006.
http://www.arl.army.mil/arlreports/2006/ARL-TR-3838.pdf

[4] Jiang, Girotra, Cutkosky and Ullrich: Reducing Error Rates with Low-Cost Haptic
Feedback in Virtual Reality-Based Training Applications. Eurohaptics Conference,
2005 and Symposium on Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Environment and Teleoperator
Systems, 2005. World Haptics 2005.
http://bdml.stanford.edu/twiki/pub/Haptics/ImmersionProject/STTR_paperV7.doc

[5] Fowlkes, Durlach, Drexler, Daly, Alberdeston and Metevier: Optimizing Haptics
Perceptions for Advanced Army Training Systems: Impacts on Performance.
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.14.1953

[6] Hu, Chang, Tardella, English and Pratt: Effectiveness of Haptic Feedback in Open
Surgery Simulation and Training Systems.
http://www.energid.com/74059600241626145924740331/Link.htm

[7] McMoore: Tactile Trigger Finger Safety Cue for Firearm or Other Trigger-
Activated Device. United States Patent No. 6862829. 2005.

[8] Lindeman, Page, Yanagida and Sibert: Towards Full-Body Haptic Feedback: The
Design and Deployment of a Spatialized Vibrotactile Feedback System. Proc. Of ACM
Virtual Reality Software and Technology (VRST), Hong Kong, Nov. 2004.
http://web.cs.wpi.edu/~gogo/papers/Lindeman_vrst2004.pdf