In military operational environments, an overflow of information along with rapidly changingconditions has the potential to reduce soldiers' performance and mission success. Performance hasbeen improved by technologies that make use of integrated means of information transfer, but thereremains an increase in commanders’ workload and information processing demands. Most of thecommunication 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 experimentalinfrastructure for future experiments to test the efficiency of tactile interfaces in operationalsettings. To this end, questionnaires were distributed among infantry officers of the Israel DefenseForces (IDF). Analysis of the collected data provided insights into soldiers’ view of the tactiledisplay usage in the battlefield. The results of this study lay the foundations for further research anddevelopment of an effective tactile channel to be used by soldiers in operational environments.
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