Tactical Earbuds with Advanced Communication and Sensing

Frontier’s Tactical Earbuds with Advanced Communication and Sensing (TE-ACS), provides a mobile, lightweight advanced hearing protection device enabling uncompromised communication and superhuman situational awareness and gunshot and drone sensing (Figure 3). The TE-ACS will utilize Frontier’s innovative signal processing, machine learning algorithm, and wireless communication technologies to improve mission success and speed, lethality, and readiness. The TE-ACS is an adaption of Frontier’s commercial Ear Computer 1 (EC1) Headset (TRL 9 and MRL 8) and Ear Computer 2 (EC2) Earbuds (TRL 6 and MRL 5), which both provide critical frontline workers (construction, manufacturing, heavy industrial) and first responders unprecedented communication, auditory awareness, and hearing protection. The TE-ACS adapts and advances the EC1 and EC2 (1) with communication and hearing protection algorithms for the Air Force tactical operator environment, (2) reliability and durability, (3) gunshot and drone detection sensing. The TE-ACS is currently TRL 4 with 1,500 hours of development and 100 hours of testing. The proposed SBIR Phase II effort will focus on four research and development prototyping phases which will enable the TE-ACS to reach TRL 8 and 30 or more samples to be delivered to Air Force end-users for operational testing and feedback.