Method, apparatus, and system of providing sensor-based tactile feedback

Abstract

A method, system, and apparatus for providing feedback about firing on blueforce personnel are provided. A blueforce soldier is armed with a weapon that has one or more weapon sensors. The weapon sensors may provide information about a direction of fire and a firing state of the weapon. A blueforce-injury-possibility calculator may determine the direction of fire, the firing state, and an injury zone of the weapon based on the information from the weapon sensors. The blueforce-injury-possibility calculator may receive location information about one or more blueforce personnel. The blueforce-injury-possibility calculator may then determine a blueforce-injury possibility based on the injury zone and the location information. Tactile feedback may be provided to the blueforce soldier based on the blueforce-injury possibility. The tactile feedback may be provided via a tactile-feedback suit.

1 . A method for providing feedback to a blueforce soldier armed with a weapon, comprising:
 determining a state of the weapon;   locating one or more blueforce personnel;   determining a blueforce-injury possibility based on the state of the weapon and the location of the one or more blueforce personnel;   determining feedback based on the determined blueforce-injury possibility; and   providing the feedback to the blueforce soldier.   
   
   
       2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the state of the weapon comprises a state of a safety of the weapon. 
   
   
       3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the state of the weapon comprises a direction of fire of the weapon. 
   
   
       4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein providing the feedback to the blueforce soldier comprises providing tactile feedback to the blueforce soldier. 
   
   
       5 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein providing tactile feedback to the blueforce soldier comprises providing tactile feedback to the blueforce solder about the location of the one or more blueforce personnel. 
   
   
       6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein determining feedback comprises determining a level of feedback to be provided based on a comparison of the blueforce-injury possibility to at least one blueforce-injury possibility threshold. 
   
   
       7 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein determining a level of feedback to be provided comprises determining no feedback is to be provided based on determining the blueforce-injury possibility is less than a first blueforce-injury possibility threshold. 
   
   
       8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein determining a level of feedback to be provided comprises determining tactile feedback is to be provided based on determining the blueforce-injury possibility is greater than a first blueforce-injury possibility threshold. 
   
   
       9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the determined level of tactile feedback to be provided is proportional to the blueforce-injury possibility. 
   
   
       10 . A blueforce-injury possibility calculator, comprising:
 a user interface;   a sensor interface for receiving weapon-state information, wherein the weapon-state information comprises a direction of fire of a weapon and a firing-state of the weapon;   a processor;   data storage; and   machine-language instructions stored in the data storage and executable by the processing unit to perform functions including:
 determining an injury zone of the weapon based on the weapon-state information, 
 locating one or more blueforce personnel, 
 determining a blueforce-injury possibility based on the injury zone and the locations of the one or more blueforce personnel, 
 determining feedback based on the blueforce-injury possibility, and 
 providing the feedback. 
   
   
   
       11 . The blueforce-injury-possibility calculator of  claim 10 , wherein the weapon-state information comprises a direction of fire of the weapon. 
   
   
       12 . The blueforce-injury-possibility calculator of  claim 10 , wherein the weapon-state information comprises a type of weapon. 
   
   
       13 . The blueforce-injury-possibility calculator of  claim 10 , wherein the user interface comprises a tactor. 
   
   
       14 . The blueforce-injury-possibility calculator of  claim 10 , wherein determining a blueforce-injury possibility depends on a mode of the blueforce-injury possibility calculator. 
   
   
       15 . The blueforce-injury-possibility calculator of  claim 14 , wherein the mode of the blueforce-injury-possibility calculator comprises a blueforce-radar mode and an active mode, and
 wherein determining the blueforce-injury possibility comprises: (1) determining a blueforce-injury possibility based on the injury zone while the blueforce-injury-possibility calculator is in the blueforce-radar mode and (2) determining a blueforce-injury possibility based on the injury zone and a firing state of the weapon while the blueforce-injury-possibility calculator is in the active mode.   
   
   
       16 . A system, comprising:
 a weapon comprising at least one weapon sensor;   a location system;   a tactile-feedback suit comprising at least one tactor; and   a blueforce-injury possibility calculator configured to:
 (i) receive weapon-state information from the at least one weapon sensor, 
 (ii) receive locations of blueforce personnel from the location system, 
 (iii) determine an injury zone and a state of the weapon based on the weapon-state information, 
 (iv) determine tactile feedback to be provided based on the injury zone, the state of the weapon, and the locations of blueforce personnel, and 
 (v) provide the tactile feedback via the at least one tactor. 
   
   
   
       17 . The system of  claim 16 , wherein the at least one weapon sensor comprises a weapon-state sensor. 
   
   
       18 . The system of  claim 17 , wherein the weapon-state information from the weapon-state sensor comprises information about a safety of the weapon. 
   
   
       19 . The system of  claim 17 , wherein the at least one weapon sensor comprises at least one global positioning system (GPS) sensor. 
   
   
       20 . The system of  claim 19 , wherein the weapon-state information comprises information about a direction of fire of the weapon from the at least one GPS sensor.