KOSEN 한인과학기술자네트워크

Advanced Hearing Protection Primary Sponsor: Department of Defense Deadline: 4/11/2001 KEYWORDS TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Biomedical OBJECTIVE: To develop safe and effective techniques for hearing protection in very high level noise environments. DESCRIPTION: Power requirements and launching constraints currently require air crews to work in close proximity to aircraft engines that may produce sound pressure levels above 150dB. Several ground crew locations are at positions where the noise levels are 145-150 dB. Current hearing protection, passive plugs and muffs, provide approximately 30 dB of attenuation for the average user. In order to adequately protect the hearing of ground personnel, 50 dB of attenuation is required. Effective hearing protection must not only provide adequate attenuation, but also must be comfortable to wear and in some instances provide voice communication capability. However, a complete blocking of the noise arriving at the eardrum via the ear canal may be insufficient to protect hearing in 150 dB environments, because of bone conduction pathways: More acoustic energy may reach the cochlea via transmission paths through tissue and bone than via the external auditory canal. PHASE I: Investigate bone and tissue conduction pathways, i.e. flanking paths, to the cochlea and estimate/measure the magnitude of the effects on hearing thresholds. Quantify the magnitude of the bone and tissue conduction path for 150 dB overall sound pressure level 10 Hz-12.5 kHz noise fields. Test and evaluate active noise and active vibration reduction techniques with potential to reduce noise exposure/hearing loss in 150 dB noise fields. Develop methods/techniques to measure air-conducted and bone-conducted noise at the eardrum and/or cochlea and quantify the attenuation performance of hearing protection technologies which may be passive or active and may operate on air-conducted and/or bone/tissue-conducted noise. PHASE II: Develop, demonstrate, and validate a laboratory prototype system for effective protection of human hearing in 150 dB noise level environments. PHASE III DUAL USE APPLICATIONS: The techniques and technologies developed under this effort would be used in commercial aviation, in noisy medical procedures such as MRI, and in other high noise environments such as paint stripping, mining, or building construction. REFERENCES: 1. Clark, W. W. & Bohne, B. A. (1999) Effects of noise on hearing. JAMA 281: 1658-9. 2. Henderson, D., et al. (1976) Effects of Noise on Hearing. New York: Raven Press. 3. The Military Audiology Association. Website: 4. N.I.H. Consensus Development Statement, 1990. (76. Noise and Hearing Loss), Jan. 22-24, 8 (1) 1-24. KEYWORDS: Acoustics, Bioacoustics, Noise attenuation, Hearing Protection, Noise-induced hearing loss. DoD Notice: Between January 2 and February 28, 2001, you may talk directly with the DoD scientists and engineers who authored the solicitation topics, to ask technical questions about the topics. The Topic Author is listed in the box below. For reasons of competitive fairness, direct communication between proposers and topic authors is not allowed after February 28, 2001, when DoD begins accepting proposals under this solicitation. TPOC: Dr. Wiilard Larkin PHONE: 703-696-7793 EMAIL: willard.larkin@afosr.af.mil After February 28, 2001 proposers may still submit written questions about solicitation topics through the SBIR/STTR Interactive Topic Information System (SITIS). If you have general questions about DoD SBIR program, please contact the DoD SBIR Help Desk at (800) 382-4634 or email to SBIRHELP@teltech.com. NOTE: The Solicitations listed on this site are copies from the various SBIR agency solicitations and are not necessarily the latest and most up-to-date. For this reason, you should use the agency link listed below which will take you directly to the appropriate agency server where you can read the official version of this solicitation and download the appropriate forms and rules. The official link for this solicitation is: http://www.acq.osd.mil/sadbu/sbir/sttr01/dod_sttr01.htm. DoD will begin accepting proposals on March 1, 2001. The solicitation closing date is April 11, 2001.