Automated, Real Time Bi-directional Communication Instrumentation of Combat Attire for Anti-Terrorism Operations

Military environments, specifically counter-terrorism and special operations, are characterized by individual and team decision makers who may be spatially (line of sight) separated and must coordinate to share information and resources to attain mission goals in dynamic and uncertain situations. The objective of this SBIR is to develop a prototype embedded Team Status and Signaling System (TS3) that can be embedded in the combat attire of the special operations dismount warfighter for real time capture of individual location and action information, as well as static and dynamic hand signals, for subsequent presentation to the unit commander and other team members in a tactical operational environment. The TS3 will include a range of sensors such as accelerometers, goniometers, magnetometers and bend and pressure sensors, as well as pattern matching algorithms for signal processing. Instrumentation of each team member could enable status information such as position, body posture, movement, and weapon status of each individual team member to be automatically collected and communicated in real time to the unit commander or other pertinent team members, increasing overall team situation awareness without distracting from the mission goals. A Phase II effort will implement vibro-tactile feedback for presentation of the data via vibratory effectors.