Physical Optics Corporation — Department of Health and Human Services SBIR Phase II: NIOSH

Description

PROJECT SUMMARY ABSTRACT Occupational noise is a widespread risk factor strongly linked to critical health hazards such as hearing losspsychiatric disordersincreased blood pressureand harmful biochemicalimmune systemand birth weight effectsIn the United Statesevery year more thanmillion workers are exposed to hazardous noise levelsincludingof mine workersOne in four of these workersormillion Americanswill develop permanent hearing lossNoise related hearing loss has been listed as one of the most prevalent occupational health concerns for more thanyearsFour out of five mine workers have a hearing impairment when they reach retirement ageExisting noise dosimeters are expensive and cannot effectively alert users when a noise hazard occurs because they either lack a noise hazard indicator within the user s visual field or they do not have an indicatorTo address this problemPhysical Optics CorporationPOCproposesin Phase IIto advance the development of our new Light Alerting Personal Noise DosimeterLANDsystemwhich was prototyped and proven feasible in Phase IThe LAND is an inexpensivesmartphone based noise dosimeter with an alerting feature that fills the existing gap in prevention of noise related hearing impairment loss in the U SworkforceLAND alerts a worker of a noise hazard via vibration and light signals placed in the worker s visual fieldthus the alerts cannot be missed by workers at any time during their workdayLAND provides accurate measurement of noise parameters inside and or in proximity of the ear and performance of hearing protection devices in real timeIn additionLANDfor the first timeprovides users with information about the maximal time they can spend in hazardous areaUse of commercial smartphone will make LAND affordable for widespread acceptanceThese advantages make the LAND commercially attractiveLAND is designed to meet Mine Safety and Health AdministrationMSHAelectrical safety regulations for coal mine environmentsThe potential markets for the proposed LAND include the mining and construction industriestransportation and military sectorsas well as barsrestaurantsand concert hallsAs a resultPOC s proposed research will significantly and positively impact the hearing conservation programIn Phase IPOC successfully demonstrated the feasibility of the LAND system with a scaled down prototype culminating in third party testing at Odin MetrologyIncThousand OaksCALAND is flexible and convenient in useIt accurately measures noise exposureprovide efficient hazard alertsand have small sizeweightpowerand costWe also determined the market for the LANDThe goal of Phase II is to develop and demonstrate a full scale prototype system that is completely safe for mine useSuccessful development of this technology will result in an entirely new low cost noise dosimeter system that will provide both noise measurement and real time user alertingthus it can be widely adopted to address this pervasive problempreventing hearing loss and other environmental noise related afflictions while reducing the cost of conducting noise surveys and hearing conservation programs