Abstract
Military personnel work in unpredictable noise environments, which require flexible types of hearing protection (i.e., tactical hearing protection systems) in order to maintain mission effectiveness and situation awareness while reducing the risk of hearing loss. Acquisition decisions need to be made relative to accurate and complete measures of the total performance capabilities of tactical hearing protection systems and their effect on the user. Understanding the noise attenuation performance of tactical hearing protection systems has been a priority in order to protect the user from excessive noise exposure. However, active electronic tactical hearing protection systems have been designed to allow for enhanced communication and situation awareness, while at the same time protecting the auditory system from both impulsive and continuous noise. The Air Force Research Laboratory conducted a multifactorial assessment on currently available tactical hearing protection systems to determine the overall impact of these devices on performance and to enable users to make data-driven, informed acquisition decisions. The assessments included the following measurements: continuous noise attenuation, impulsive peak insertion loss, auditory localization, and speech intelligibility. The methods and results will be presented as well as a discussion on how the results promote an informed device selection.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
