Enhancing Physical Human Evasion of Moving Threats Using Tactile Cues

New human-centric approaches to safety can combine over-head camera views with situational awareness tools to enable humans to avoid rapidly evolving threats such as moving machines or falling debris. This article explores how 360° information can be used to inform humans of potential collisions. Specifically, we quantify how different individual (tactile, audio, and visual) and combined cue modalities affect failure rates and reaction times. Human-subject experiments were conducted in a custom virtual reality environment that simulates objects rapidly moving toward the subject. In order to successfully perform their task, the human subject must physically move their body out of the path of the moving threat before a collision occurs. This exploration of full body physical response differentiates this article from previous related studies. The results of the 18-subject study provide quantified data on a range of cues and cue combinations. The study quantified failure rates and reaction times as a function of index of difficulty (Fitt's Law) and threat directionality. The results confirm the hypothesis that the addition of tactile cues statistically improve performance compared to non-tactile cues with regards to failure rate and reaction time. This demonstrates how sensory cues can improve human physical response to rapid threats.