Performance Assessment of Communication Enhancement Devices TEA HI Threat Headset.

摘要

Hearing protection and communication enhancement devices were designed for military personnel who need to maintain natural hearing while protecting their ears from impulsive and continuous noises like gunfire, explosions, vehicles, and machinery. There were potential advantages for this technology in military applications. Objective performance data provided an assessment of the performance of these devices. The TEA HI Threat headset performance was assessed for the following parameters: continuous noise attenuation; impulsive peak insertion loss; sound localization; and speech intelligibility. The TEA HI Threat headsets reduced the noise level in the ear when the user was exposed to continuous and/or impulsive noise. The devices also reduced spatial aural cues required to accurately localize sounds essential to maintaining situational awareness. The localization performance was degraded in comparison to the open ear performance. The results from the speech intelligibility measurements for the TEA HI Threat headsets were acceptable (i.e. ???80% correct) in low to moderate noise environments, however at 105 dB, the average scores did not meet the acceptable performance criterion.