Health Monitoring Hearable

With noise-induced hearing damage being the most prevalent disability among Veterans, accurate, everyday noise monitors are needed. This is possible with an in-ear dosimeter, which offers benefits over traditional free-field or body-worn dosimeters because in-ear dosimeters measure actual noise exposure, including the as-worn attenuation provided by the subject’s hearing protection. Furthermore, impulse sounds may be accurately captured with microphones that have lower dynamic range and bandwidth requirements than those needed for freestream or body-worn dosimeters because the hearing protection moderates the peak levels and frequency characteristics of impulse sound waves.To meet this need, Paxauris has developed a General Hearing and Operational Safety Tracking (Ghost™) hearable system that provides transparent hearing protection while recording in-ear noise exposure. The hearables link to a head-mounted monitor through a near-field NFMI connection to eliminate pressure points and snag hazards. They may be fitted with foam eartips, but we are working to adapt them for compatibility with custom eartips and with our Fluid™ eartips for comfort, ease of use, and more consistent performance. However, there are challenges to the use of in-ear dosimeters. The microphone must be integrated into an eartip that is comfortable and easy to use. The sound level measured by the ear-canal microphone should be related to the level at the eardrum and to the free-field, which is the level on which current permissible exposures are based. If the hearing protection device provides communications or a transparent hear-through mode, then any coupling between the microphone and speaker must be addressed. Consideration should also be given to artifacts induced by knocks or cable noise and to the effect of the wearer’s voice or other body noises. In previous phases we proved the feasibility of our concept and approach, prototyped the system, and verified its performance in tests in our laboratory with a biofidelic head simulator, before delivering a set of hearable systems to the Navy. In the Sequential Phase II proposed here, we will refine the hearable system design and algorithms to address lessons learned in previous phases, incorporating solutions for speaker–microphone interference, own voice and other artifacts from wearer-induced and motion-induced disturbances, in-ear communication, reduced housing profile, and user-specific calibration. The updated system will be built, validated through human subject testing, and delivered as ten production-ready prototypes, advancing the technology to TRL 6.In Phase III we will commercialize the Ghost™ system for military acquisition and commercial sales.