Tactile Situational Awareness System (TSAS)

The Tactile Situational Awareness System (TSAS) proposed by Chesapeake Technology International (CTI) will provide for the development of an Tactile Distributed Interface Subsystem (TDIS) that receives data from any available on-board navigation systems, augments that data with an embedded inertial measurement unit utilizing micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) technology, develops the correct tactile display requirements in real-time, and uses those results to drive the tactors using the included analog output circuits as required. The TDIS proposed by CTI will interface completely with tactors that either exist currently of will be developed as part of this SBIR. CTI’s goal is to utilize existing tactor technologies to the greatest extent possible. Much time, effort, and money has been spent already in the development of tactors, tactor technology, and tactor activation algorithms. Per the stated goals of the SBIR, CTI aims to “identify … and integrate a small, lightweight, multi-frequency tactor”. CTI will incorporate this technology into an integrated tactile distributed system that fully satisfies the TSAS SBIR requirements.