SPEAR LABS LLC — Department of Defense SBIR Phase II: SOCOM224-D006

Description

A dual/company team, SPEAR LLC and HEAR LLC, with deep R&D experience in hearing protection devices (HPD) and successful DoD contract and SBIR accomplishment, has evidenced strong feasibility for all required subsystems of SOCOM “Canine In/Ear Hearing Protection.” The centerpiece of the team’s ‘K9HPD’ is a dynamic membrane earplug, that unlike expandable foam, flanged/polymer, and custom/mold earplugs, is initially smaller in diameter than the ear canal into which it is inserted, depth/limited via a stop/flange, and then via its fingertip actuator, air is transferred from its external reservoir into its internal eartip, expanding the membrane to seal the canal. The highly/complaint membrane affords a low/mass eartip and yields: 1) a large contact patch against the dog’s ear canal, giving high passive attenuation; 2) elasticity for retention during head motion, ear canal (jaw) movement, and g/force; 3) comfort -on insertion and extended wearing. Empirical human studies by the team have demonstrated this, with a ‘pneumatic’ closed/circuit system and ‘semi/pneumatic’ variant, which offer 2 options. Using anthropometric data of target breeds, feasibility for ‘one/size/fits/most’ is good: at less than 4mm in unexpanded state, the eartip will insert into and expand slightly to seal a 5th percentile canal and has dynamic expansion range for a 95th percentile canal (11/13mm diameter). Two thin ‘stent’ ducts through the K9HPD hold the ear canal loudspeaker for ambient sound/command pass/through and for radio communications, and an ear canal microphone enables seal tests and ANC feedback. Electronics are in a low/profile housing on the outside of K9HPD, not extending into the scapha of the pinna. These produce the required 2000/4000 Hz passband as default; but an option enables handler/adjustable, band/specific filtering/gain via tablet/cellphone software, for rapid mission/specific tuning. ANC adds 8/12 dB attenuation below 1000 Hz and is handler/switchable on the housing, for low/frequency exposures in helicopters or tracked vehicles; ANC will also offer AUTO/ON when the dB level exceeds a preset hazard value. Canine Acoustical Test Fixtures will be fabricated to efficiently test attenuation and hear/through fidelity, per ANSI S12.42, prior to refined prototype testing on dogs at 2 universities. The research team includes 3 SPEAR/HEAR experts in passive/ANC HPD design with lead (PI) experience over 30 DoD projects, Professor/Director of Virginia Tech’s (VT) Auditory Systems Lab with 40 years in military/civilian HPDs, Professor in canine hearing at Univ. of Cincinnati FetchLab, veterinarian (D.V.M.) at VT and otolaryngologist (M.D.), earphone/ANC Distinguished Engineer from Bose (recently retired), patent attorney with HPD experience, electronics/fabrication personnel, and 2 commercialization experts. Clear evidence of SPEAR/HEAR innovation with the dynamic membrane earplug exists withtheir U.S. Patents #11,006,198 (2021) and #8,550,206 (2013).