Portable Auditory Situation Awareness Training Tool (PASAT)

This Phase II project will refine and validate HEAR LLC's extant prototype Portable Auditory Situation Awareness Training system (PASAT) as a tool for training military personnel and workers to localize and recognize-identify auditory signals. PASAT will double as a means for assessing the effects of hearing protection devices (HPDs) and Tactical-Communications-and-Protective-Systems (TCAPS) on wearers' auditory situation awareness, including the training burden imposed by these devices. PASAT will be optimized for deployment by trainees in office or barracks environments. Human factors usability analysis/experimentation will be applied toward PASAT interface optimization, and a trainee-trainer user manual and instructional video will be developed. In-laboratory and in-field experimentation will be applied to ascertain training benefits, including transfer-of-training to the field environment. After PASAT has been evaluated and optimized, it will be reproduced and distributed to Navy training sites for the U.S. Marines, SEALS and ground warfighters of other military branches, as well to an civilian industrial-construction site, for beta testing. The ultimate objective for PASAT is to provide a beneficial testing and training tool for instilling auditory situation awareness skills with the open ear and HPDs and TCAPS, offering a mission-critical capability which does not currently exist in the military or in civilian industry.