Earplug comfort: From subjective assessment on the field to objective measurement and simulation using augmented artificial heads

Abstract

For several years, lack of comfort has been pointed out as a major reason of earplug poor efficiency as noise control solution. The great complexity of comfort makes it difficult to predict it in the earplugs design phase. It is rather considered in an empirical way by the manufacturers using trial-and-errors approaches based on subjective assessment over a panel of subjects. Furthermore, because comfort is not quantified, Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) practitioners cannot select earplugs ensuring wearer comfort. To address these issues, a major international research project funded by two OHS institutes (IRSST in Canada and INRS in France) and involving several Universities (in Canada and England) started in 2017. The main objectives are to: (1) improve the understanding of earplugs comfort as perceived by field workers with consideration of all comfort components, (2) develop laboratory tools (augmented experimental and virtual artificial heads) to measure physical design variables related to the auditory, physiological, and functional components of comfort and (3) design a battery of hybrid objective/subjective comfort indices to quantify / measure / predict the different components of comfort. The aim of this presentation will be to present the project and first results.