Surface Haptic Technology for Geospatial Display

The goal of this development effort is to provide warfighters with inexpensive methods to view geospatial intelligence information on a hand-held tablet through their sense of touch. This allows eyes-free and silent operation without generating light. This proposal deals with two surface haptic display technologies. Variable-friction displays create haptic effects by varying the coefficient of friction between the fingertip and a surface through the control of localized electric fields. Active forcing displays provide a lateral force on the finger by coordinating friction control with in-plane motion of the surface.In Phase I we incorporated a variable-friction display into a COTS tablet and demonstrated the capability to recognize slope, altitude, and terrain of a location, to receive navigation directions, and to recognize situational dangers along a path through touch. For Phase II we propose to build a ruggedized and fully integrated two-in-one variable-friction tablet with an attachable keyboard and trackpad. The trackpad contains an active forcing haptic display, enhancing the device with the capability to display shape and to guide the finger along a path. The previously demonstrated capabilities will be integrated into a multi-functional software application that can load and display standard geospatial datasets.