Hearable System for Impact and Blast

Service members need head protection that goes beyond the impact protection provided by their helmets. Traumatic brain injury (TBI) can last years with severe consequences. Repeated mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBI) can affect performance and build to permanent damage. Monitoring impact and blast exposure will enable the military to protect service members’ health by evaluating the effectiveness of protective equipment and by structuring training to reduce injuries. Hearing is another aspect of head health that has suffered from inadequate protection. Tinnitus and hearing loss are the top two service-connected disabilities for U.S. military Veterans. Effective hearing protection is essential for service members, who rely on their hearing for safety, communications, and situational awareness. Permanent or even temporary hearing damage affects performance, endangers lives, and reduces quality of life. Current hearing protection is inadequate due to issues with comfort, fit, and ease-of-use, which affect compliance and cause reductions in field performance compared to laboratory ratings. Inadequate hearing protection can also impair communications and situational awareness, which impacts mission performance and safety. An opportunity exists for an in-ear device that provides improved hearing protection, clear communications and enhanced situational awareness while also monitoring exposure to blast and impact events. Paxauris proposes a Head Health Hearable system comprising an innovative comfortable deepinsert earplug that is comfortable, easily fitted and removed, reusable, cost-effective, and instrumented with sensors to measure head response to impact and blast and a processor to compute exposure risk damage metrics. In Phase I we demonstrated the feasibility of our concept. In Phase II we will mature our hearable design, fabricate prototype systems and proceed through laboratory qualification tests and human subject verification tests. At the end of Phase II, we will deliver prototypes to the Army. In Phase III we will transition our system to a hearable product ready for acquisition and sales.