Evaluation of a Tactile Navigation Cueing System and Real-Time Assessment of Cognitive State

This paper details an evaluation of a tactile cueing system that was created to enhance the navigation of a complex route. The complexity of the task along with simultaneously challenging cognitive tasks also enabled the real-time assessment of cognitive state in various task load conditions. Honeywell has been working with the US Army's Future Force Warrior program to develop adaptive systems that will effectively manage the available cognitive resources used for information processing by the dismounted Soldier in highly dynamic, information rich environments. The appropriate allocation of cognitive resources is key to managing multiple tasks, focusing on the most important ones, and maintaining overall situation awareness. Non-visual navigation support would offload a typically visual task, such as viewing a paper map or computer-based map display, to a sensory channel that is underutilized, tactile sensation. Both benefits and costs to this type of automation support are explored in detail, where the evaluation supports the premise that strong automated support should only be used in high workload situations where the benefits outweigh the costs.