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.
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