Improving Situational Awareness in Noisy Environments: A Helmet-Based System for Speech Enhancement, Hearing Protection, and Shock Localization

Soldiers in the field work in an acoustically complex environment. Spoken words of particular interest may be embedded in other less important speech or environmental noise. Loud engine noise and impulsive sounds may also threaten not only the soldier?s awareness of their surroundings, but their hearing as well. Just as importantly, some sounds (including impulsive events), are critical for situational awareness, which the soldier must hear or be made aware of. To address these competing problems, we have introduced the Smart Helmet system which combines hearing protection, speech enhancement and source localization. This report outlines the overall system design, presents lab−testable prototypes, and describes more integrated software models that may be used for further investigation. Areas needing further research are also described.