Analysis of Tactors for Wearable Simulator Feedback: A Tactile Vest Architecture

Abstract

<p>Current training simulators for police officers and soldiers lack two critical qualities for establishing a compelling sense of immersion within a virtual environment: a strong disincentive to getting shot, and accurate feedback about the bodily location of a shot. This research addresses these issues with hardware architecture for a Tactical Tactile Training Vest (T3V). In this study, we have evaluated the design space of impact “tactors” and present a T3V prototype that can be viscerally felt. This research focuses on determining the optimal design parameters for creating maximum tactor hitting energy. The energy transferred to the projectile directly relates to the quality of the disincentive. The complete T3V design will include an array of these tactors on front and back of the body to offer accurate spatial feedback. The impact tactor created and tested for this research is an electromagnetic projectile launcher, similar to a solenoid, but lower profile and higher energy. Our best tactor produced projectile energy of approximately 0.08 Joules with an efficiency at just above 0.1%. Users in an informal pilot study described the feeling as "surprising," "irritating," and "startling," suggesting that this level of force is approaching our target level of disincentive.</p>