High-Performance Hearing Protection and Communication

To address this Air Force need for high-performance hearing protection/communication for use in very high noise levels (up to 150 dB) military fighter aircraft environments, Physical Optics Corporation (POC) proposes to develop a new High-Performance Hearing Protection (HIPHEP) system based on our proprietary high-output and -fidelity direct energy conversion driver (>130 dB SPL output), and an adaptive active noise controller (average 45 dB attenuation), providing a total attenuation of at least 50 dB and up to 75 dB NRR including passive absorption effects. The HIPHEP innovations -- a microsize smart material actuator as an earplug driver -- produces >130 dB high-quality acoustic output with unprecedented flat frequency response, even below 100 Hz, with POC’s complete active noise controller. The HIPHEP on a compact DSP board, consumes <10 mA, enough for more than 16 hr in operations, with POC’s low-frequency pressure suppression MEMS for enhanced communication intelligibility. In Phase I POC will conduct HIPHEP technology design/fabrication/experiments to demonstrate system performance suitable for military environments up to 150 dB and EMI fields up to 200 V/m with risk reduction and cost analysis. In Phase II POC will design, fabricate, and deliver ten affordable (<$1200/unit) HIPHEP protection/communication systems.