Toward a tactile language for human-robot interaction: two studies of tacton learning and performance.

Objective: Two experiments were performed to investigate the feasibility for robot-to-human communication of a tactile language using a lexicon of standardized tactons (tactile icons) within a sentence.

Background: Improvements in autonomous systems technology and a growing demand within military operations are spurring interest in communication via vibrotactile displays. Tactile communication may become an important element of human-robot interaction (HRI), but it requires the development of messaging capabilities approaching the communication power of the speech and visual signals used in the military.

The psychometrics of mental workload: multiple measures are sensitive but divergent.

Objective: A study was run to test the sensitivity of multiple workload indices to the differing cognitive demands of four military monitoring task scenarios and to investigate relationships between indices.

Background: Various psychophysiological indices of mental workload exhibit sensitivity to task factors. However, the psychometric properties of multiple indices, including the extent to which they intercorrelate, have not been adequately investigated.