Tactical Body Worn RF Antenna Vest

The effectiveness of team-oriented tactical operations by SOF is greatly enhancedby the ability to tightly coordinate the actions of team members. In particular,advances in miniature commercial computer display technologies show promise forproviding a powerful tool for disseminating information to team members. Thisdisplay capability, coupled with advances in personal digital assistants (PDAs) formanaging information and in wireless networking for disseminating that information,could be combined to form a powerful instrument for enhancing situational awarenessand coordinating the activities of SOF personnel. Trident proposes to develop sucha system, a SOF Tactical Information Display (STID), that combines wrist- andhead-mounted miniature display devices with Bluetooth short-range wirelesscommunications links for interfacing to other personal electronic equipment.Trident, working with Digital System Resources, Inc., will evaluate availableminiature display technologies to select the best solution in terms of imagequality, power consumption, and ruggedness. Trident will develop a control unitaround the display that will process and format for display data received over theBluetooth link. Trident will also develop an interface for other equipment thatcan be used to send data (imagery, text, sensor data, etc.) to the STID. The SOF Tactical Information Display would provide a valuable tool for providingsituational awareness to battlefield personnel. The data networking capabilitiesof its Bluetooth interface would allow input from a wide range of personalelectronics, and would support resource sharing and short-range audiocommunications among personnel. A display module of this type would also haveutility in any number of situations requiring hands-free access to multimediainformation, as well as teleconferencing and training applications.