Concept and Technology Exploration for Transparent Hearing
Abstract
Modern militaries are challenged to physically protect open-field personnel from a great variety of life and effectiveness threats, including chemical, biological, laser, ballistic, and percussive weapons. Many chemical and biological threats require covering all orifices, including the ears, to achieve minimal protection. Additionally, warfighting involves operating in very close proximity to loud equipment, from which the noise can degrade an individual 5 auditory perception, and over time can degrade general performance. Common hearing protection and occlusion isolates the warfighter from the environment, deflating situational awareness, confidence, and effectiveness, thus putting the warfighter at high risk and compromising his ability to detect and assess threats. Often, soldiers are so uncomfortable with the isolation of hearing protection that they will choose to go without hearing protection and expose themselves to painful and harmful noise, which can result in deafness and reduced effectiveness as warfighters. This effort includes a survey of relevant head-borne hear-through auditory systems, a selection of approaches to a transparent hearing solution, implementation of the approaches, and evaluation.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 01, 2003
- Accession Number
- ADA432845
Entities
People
- Barbara Shinn-Cunningham
- Mark Bolas
- Nathaniel Durlach
- Patrick M. Zurek
- William L. Chapin