Active Acoustic and Bone Conduction Noise Cancellation for 150 dB(A) Noise Environments

There is a great need for improved hearing protection equipment with integral communication for high-noise military environments such as flight lines and aircraft carrier flight decks. This need exists in many civilian commercial applications as well.While the addition of active noise control capability to state-of-the-art deep insertion ear pieces is being investigated by more than one group of researchers, the limitations posed by bone conducted sound are not being addressed. The work proposed herewill develop deep insertion earpieces with integrated, multi-reference, active suppression of acoustic and bone conducted sound transmitted to the cochlea.