SafetySystem Safety Emerging Multimodal

OVER THE PAST FEW YEARS, the equipment being developed and fielded is making military systems increasingly dynamic and more cognitively demanding, requiring soldiers to simultaneously monitor multiple displays, operate multiple controls and process large amounts of information. U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force researchers have been exploring advanced control and display technologies to make military systems safer and more effective to use under such challenging conditions. These technologies include spatial auditory displays, skinbased haptic and tactile displays, and automatic speech recognition (ASR) voice input controls. When used by themselves or collectively, displays involving more than one sensory modality (also known as multimodal displays) can enhance soldier safety in a wide variety of applications. Multimodal controls and displays are also found in civilian applications.