HEARING, ERGONOMICS, & ACOUSTICS RESOURCES LLC — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: N181-084

Description

HEAR, LLC will design, develop and test a Portable Auditory Situation Awareness Training system (PASAT) for training Auditory Situation Awareness (ASA) recognition/identification and localization skills in military personnel. PASAT, using a menu-based computer interface, will enable user-friendly setup, calibration, and operation by either trainer or trainee, and provide performance feedback during training exercises on accuracy and response time metrics. Using custom LabVIEW software, training will be enabled with both open ear and various HPDs and TCAPS, with on-screen comparison of results. A computerized automatic gain control innovation will maintain one of at least 3 preselected signal/masking-noise ratios sufficiently above ambient noise encountered in training environments. Options for various military-relevant, pre-calibrated WAV files of signals and noises will be selectable by the trainer/trainee. PASAT will include a 15-degree arcuate separation between signal speakers in azimuth/elevation, with speaker array mounted on a collapsible, portable halo-style frame. Phase I includes a subcontract to Virginia Tech's Auditory Systems Lab to enable its full-scale DRILCOM ASA test system to be used as a springboard resource. The Principal Investigators have extensive experience with ASA testing/training, having pioneered objective measurement of ASA performance in 2007, and thereafter developed instrumentation/protocols for its laboratory measurement and trainee skills acquisition.