Improving Situational Awareness in Noisy Environments: A Helmet-Based System for Speech Enhancement, Hearing Protection, and Shock Localization

Abstract

Soldiers in the field work in an acoustically complex environment. Spoken words of particular interest may be embedded in other less important speech or environmental noise. Loud engine noise and impulsive sounds may also threaten not only the soldier?s awareness of their surroundings, but their hearing as well. Just as importantly, some sounds (including impulsive events), are critical for situational awareness, which the soldier must hear or be made aware of. To address these competing problems, we have introduced the Smart Helmet system which combines hearing protection, speech enhancement and source localization. This report outlines the overall system design, presents lab−testable prototypes, and describes more integrated software models that may be used for further investigation. Areas needing further research are also described.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 2010
Accession Number
ADA555582

Entities

People

  • Andreas Freibert
  • Fan Zhang
  • Karl Wiklund
  • Simon Haykin

Organizations

  • McMaster University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Human Systems
  • Sensors

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acoustics
  • Automatic Gain Control
  • Central Processing Units
  • Circuit Boards
  • Computational Complexity
  • Control Systems
  • Data Processing
  • Detection
  • Digital Signal Processing
  • Direction Finding
  • Engine Noise
  • Hearing Protection
  • National Security
  • Noise Reduction
  • Signal Processing
  • Situational Awareness
  • Speech Transmission

Readers

  • Auditory Neuroscience/Auditory Physiology.
  • Speech Processing/Speech Recognition.
  • Systems Analysis and Design