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The Military Technology

The US Army Is Rolling Out Superhuman Hearing to Soldiers (popularmechanics.com) 117

Posted by msmash from the innovation-trickling-down dept.
An anonymous reader writes: The U.S. Army has developed an all-in-one hearing system that not only boosts the hearing of troops in the field, it also acts to cut down the noise of battle. The system, known as Tactical Communication and Protective System (TCAPS), is currently rolling out to units in the field. TCAPS is $2,000 pair of earbuds designed to limit battlefield noise exposure, cutting off noise that reaches a set decibel threshold. The wearer can still hear gunshots and estimate their direction, but the noise is dampened to a non-damaging level thanks to microphones that detect the noise, and internals that use sound canceling technology to modify it for a wearer's ears. At the same time, the decibel cap allows TCAPS-equipped soldiers to hear the voices of others around him, including through radios and other communications equipment.
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The US Army Is Rolling Out Superhuman Hearing to Soldiers More

The US Army Is Rolling Out Superhuman Hearing to Soldiers

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  • So... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Yvan256 ( 722131 ) on Tuesday June 07, 2016 @02:43PM (#52269167) Homepage Journal

    It's a pair of Bose QuietComfort 35, army edition?

    • Or similar. There are several brands of form-fitted ear plugs that boost sounds below a certain dB threshold, and cut sounds above a certain dB threshold... $200-$400

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by Hognoxious ( 631665 )

        That's retail, I assume, and per pair?

        So extrapolating based on hammers & toilet seats they'll set Uncle Sam back by 6 grand a set.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by plover ( 150551 )

          You could at least have read The Fine Summary above, which actually has "$2000 pair" as the first words of the link to The Fine Article. No extrapolation necessary.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by HiThere ( 15173 )

            Actually you do need to extrapolate. Presumably that $2000/pair was the price for a evaluation lot, and if they bought a much larger batch the price would be lower. Of course, given military procurement practices that's not guaranteed.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by sycodon ( 149926 )

              Maybe that includes a Camo finish.

            • Ever priced hearing aids? $2K/pair for something with similar features is quite reasonable.

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by HiThere ( 15173 )

                If you mean "That's the common price", then I must accept your assertion. If you mean "That's a reasonable price in quantity", then I can't.

                If you had a shoe custom made to fit your foot, it would also be quite expensive. But when you buy them in a standard size, it costs a lot less. Presumably the army would be buying enough that they would be ordering standard sizes rather than doing custom fitting.

                • Sure they would buy in bulk, and they wouldn't have to do an audiology exam of every soldier and program the hearing devices specifically for them, and that would save money. On the other hand, my hearing aids aren't MIL-SPEC, and I don't know what the Army requirements are. They doubtless expect to use them in lots of situations where I'd expect mine to fail or be unmaintainable.

          • Re:So... (Score:5, Funny)

            by Hognoxious ( 631665 ) on Tuesday June 07, 2016 @03:22PM (#52269483) Homepage Journal

            You could at least have read The Fine Summary above

            [looks at userID]

            Stop using grandpa's account, you little hooligan!

          • You could at least have read The Fine Summary above, which actually has "$2000 pair" as the first words of the link to The Fine Article. No extrapolation necessary.

            Figure cost-overruns and add 60% for lobbying costs and bribes. Maybe another 35-40% for hookers and blow and flying high-ranking government officials to the live demonstrations of the prototype in Bangkok, Amsterdam and Las Vegas, you'll get over $6000 per before you know it. Of course, they will be assembled in China to keep costs down though

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by plover ( 150551 )

              I look at that in reverse. A pair of Bose noise canceling earbuds comes in at about $300 retail, so the total of lobbying, bribes, hookers, blow, and Congressional junkets must approach about $1700 per pair.

              Still not bad money if you can get it.

            • Part of the cost for many military procurements stems from the requirement that components and assembly either be completely domestic or, at most, are sourced from allied nations.

              It is significantly harder for an adversary to taint your equipment if none of the parts have ever been within their territory.

        • Re:So... (Score:5, Informative)

          by i.r.id10t ( 595143 ) on Tuesday June 07, 2016 @03:21PM (#52269477)

          Yup, quick google search for "electronic ear plug"

          A buddy who spent 3 years in Afghanistan as a contractor (K9 handler) used 'em and bought a few extra sets for the soldiers he was serving with, very useful for both guard duty and house clearing. His biggest issue was keeping both the plugs and his ear holes clean - as you can imagine any little bit of grit or dirt makes them uncomfortable to wear.

          • Yea, I've been thinking about buying some, there are two types, ones musicians use that always keep the db level low and range ones that really only work when there are loud sudden noises.

            • Not sure if any of the plug types are like this but there are some very slim profile muff types that not only reduce the loud, but amplify the quiet. Very nice on a range so you can clearly hear range commands, etc. And handy when you are hunting, since you can preserve stereo hearing...

    • Basically; we had these in the Marine Corps. They sucked. Army has more money, so maybe they'll be able to/willing to devote more money into the development and make them not suck.

      Still an extra piece of gear to keep track of and take care of and inventory and pack and carry...not worth it.

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by swb ( 14022 )

        And something else that takes exotic batteries to run.

        You'd think you'd get a huge amount of the value out of a pair of fairly generic in-ear earplugs, which take no batteries and can get wet/lost/abused for little cost.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Anonymous Coward

          What would make you think they aren't using those now? We've had those in use for decades.

          Problem is they dampen all sound, while these only stop the sound you don't want.

        • When the batteries die they just become normal ear plugs.
    • Except it also boosts the sound of quiet things, so you can hear far away.

    • The QC35 [androidpolice.com] has the following issues.
      1. Are headphones that are incompatable with helmets.
      2. Not waterproof or rugedized in any way.
      3. Are Bluetooth and therefore easily jammed.
      4. There are no specs on how well they cancel very loud noises.

      The QC35 are just expensive noise cancelling headphones and nothing like the earbuds described.

  • It's also how they send the mind control beams into the soldiers too!

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

  • As a parent... (Score:5, Funny)

    by myowntrueself ( 607117 ) on Tuesday June 07, 2016 @02:51PM (#52269233)

    of a toddler, I would like to have a pair of these.

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward

      of a toddler, I would like to have a pair of these.

      As a parent...

        of two toddlers and a newborn, I would like to have a vasectomy on my pair.

    • As your neighbor, so would I.

    • Perhaps you should keep guns away from your toddler? Just saying ;)

    • Get earplugs. These are comfortable [amazon.com], blend in so people don't notice you are wearing them, block some sound, but you can still hear conversations through them (and when the kids go to bed, you can take them out). I like my nephews but these earplugs save my sanity.

      • Get a pair of reusable Surefire's and it'll work even better. They reduce sounds over 80db and mostly pass through things under that.

  • Nothing new (Score:4, Interesting)

    by mr.gson ( 458099 ) on Tuesday June 07, 2016 @02:56PM (#52269275)
    Noise canceling aside, military superhuman hearing devices have been around for a long time, and the old ones look cooler [douglas-self.com], too.

  • an army of superhumans! (Score:5, Funny)

    by shadowrat ( 1069614 ) on Tuesday June 07, 2016 @03:05PM (#52269369)
    I hear they are also equipping the troops with other super human abilities. The technology uses advanced materials to protect the soldier's feet and lower leg from damaging temperatures and surfaces that would injure a normal human foot while still allowing the user to sense when they are standing on the ground. This advanced superhuman enhancement is definitely not just called boots.

    • Not to mention the superhuman ability to launch projectiles at many times the rate and speed of a normal human.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Superhuman sight goes by the name of binoculars. And superhuman farting is known as rocket launchers. Superhuman running with the help of exoskeletons known as "cars" is also quite hot.

      I mean, all of this is superhuman advertising for which I have the working title "bullshitting".

  • I'm not interested and not impressed unless it can help soldiers do that. That could enable our soldiers to use the ringtone and not miss a call while enemy prisoners wonder how they knew they got a call since they didn't hear it vibrate.

  • About time. (Score:5, Informative)

    by Lumpy ( 12016 ) on Tuesday June 07, 2016 @03:12PM (#52269419) Homepage

    So many friends came back with massive hearing damage. the M16A4 is loud as hell and every single vet comes back with horrible tinnitus at best and major hearing damage to DEAF at worst.

    we need to tell NATO to fuck themselves and issue supressors to all troops along with these hearing protection devices.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by wcrowe ( 94389 )

      I was issued ear plugs back in the early 80's. Do they not do that any more?

      Additionally, I think suppressors eventually wear out, do they not?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Even with a suppressor, the 5.56 nato is still not hearing safe using m855 ball rounds. They're in the neighborhood of 140-150db, and the best supressors on the market only drop it by 30db.. one fire fight and the troops ears will ring for life.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Lumpy ( 12016 )

        30 from the supressor and another 30 from the hearing protection IS effective. and that is what we need to be doing.

  • So basically they are smart earplugs?

    Hopefully will cut down on the veterans with permanent hearing loss.

  • Probably not noise cancelling since it needs much of the info in the environment to retain position info. More likely a compression algorithm that instead of looking like an upside down hockey stick (with input volume on x axis and output on y), it does a combination of adjustable upward compression [wordpress.com] on lower volumes and downward compression/brickwall limiting on higher volumes. This will attenuate loud events and boost background sound. Positional data would come from stereo mic pair, one on each ear, which
  • Is it official now? Have we given up on explaining that dampening something makes it wet? Dampened != Damped.

    • You might want to read the actual dictionary definition [dictionary.com].

      The creative energy that had made it the center of European literature before the war was dampened.

      I don't think creative energy can get wet/

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by drakaan ( 688386 )

        That's an answer to my question that makes me very sad. Apparently, the misuse has become common enough in this context that it's now in the dictionary, so the answer to my question is "yes, we've given up".

        The article was talking about acoustic vibrations (sound). Lessening vibration is called damping. Dampening has connotations related to emotion that do not apply in the same way, but the words are similar enough and dampen misused enough that now it doesn't matter, apparently.

        Comparative graph for u [google.com]

  • Active headphones for shooters (Score:4, Insightful)

    by mrr ( 506 ) on Tuesday June 07, 2016 @04:19PM (#52269911)

    I have a $50 pair of "active headphones for shooters" that muffle gunshots, let me hear conversations, and even let me plug in my phone to listen to MP3s while I'm shooting. These sound like a slightly more advanced version of that (especially if they can indicate the direction of gunfire), but $2k?!?

    • These sound like a slightly more advanced version of that (especially if they can indicate the direction of gunfire), but $2k?!?

      Yeah, but these are olive drab. That makes the price go way up.

    • I always love the "I could buy one for less" comments. Sure I could buy a Saturday Night Special for less than a Glock but I would get better performance out of and be much more comfortable depending on the Glock.
      Here [earplugstore.com] is a selection of ear buds that go up to $2,400. These also didn't have to go through the military approval process.

    • Reduce the volume of the Carl Gustav you're firing?

    • I've used active headphones with sound dampening on the target range for several years now. They are much better than earplugs or earmuffs, and I can dial up the volume to eavesdrop on every conversation within about 30 yards without loss of protective dampening. The microphones provide limited stereo: they are forward facing so sounds behind me are muffled.

      The high price of the Army earbuds can be justified partly by the cost of developing the miniaturization and better stereo (omnidirectional mics). Also

  • In other words, they're using noise-dampening hunting headphones, just like may hunters have been using for years.

    • Except they amplify sounds in some situations.

    • No.

      Active headphones do not fit under helmets. Since the mics on active headphones are forward-facing, they limit situational awareness to just what you happen to be looking at.

      But pooh-poohers just gotta pooh, eh?

  • The (Score:3)

    by JustOK ( 667959 ) on Tuesday June 07, 2016 @05:55PM (#52270647) Journal
    The enemy can now encrypt their communications BY TALKING VERY LOUDLY
  • I thought they were talking about some sort of cutting edge tech. Nope. Just active hearing pro. The Australian army has used 3M Peletors for years - I don't think they are issued to individuals, but the Q-Stores hold them for use on ranges and they're included (2 pair) in the newer Carl Gustuv 84mm recoiless rifle trunks too.

    Guys buy their own knock-offs from Amazon [amazon.com] so that they don't have to use ear-plugs while doing fire and movement (as they're not usually handed out for this). I hate the plug style

    • The problem with conventional foam style earplugs is that they muffle hearing when loud stuff isn't happening. So you have to remove them, and hopefully stick them in when a firefight starts.

      The idea with actives like this would be that you could stick them in when you're getting ready to leave the FOB, and remove them when you return.

      The expense might be providing more DBs of protection, last an extended period on a battery, or even that they're rated to not emit radiation that would allow others to track

      • Absolutely. I forgot to mention the points you bought up.

        Not being able to hear instruction is really frustrating in training too when you're not really sure what you're supposed to do.

        An advantage of the earplug style is that you could probably have your SPR and/or radio headset over the top of the earplug.

        It takes ages to get foam plugs into my ears (I have to roll them to get them small enough first, then use two hands to get them in) so under the pump I have no chance of using them.

        The amount of batt

  • Active ear muffs for shooters have been around for a long time, I bought my first pair in about 1998. With separate controls for each ear, you can tell the direction of sounds to some extent, not as good as bare ears, but not bad. There are a few options now under ~$50 retail, but the problem is they would not easily fit under a helmet.

    Ear bud based active protection is also available off the shelf, Etymotic, a hearing aid company, makes one with a NRR 40 with 5X amplification, GSP15 GunSportPro, that re

  • Reactive ear plugs have been around since the 1980s in a niche market for competitive target shooters. They react to sudden high decibel levels in a microsecond saving your ears from concussive sound. The pricier ones have a frequency notch filter that only allows human vice frequencies through.
        The price has reduced over the decades and I guess someone is budgeting for general issue of an item that is long overdue in the field.

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