The U.S. Army Is Rolling Out Superhuman Hearing to Soldiers

Wearable tech also saves troops' hearing from the din of war.

Infantry combat is loud, and gunshots are an occupational hazard of being a soldier. A single gunshot can temporarily blow out a soldier's hearing, reducing situational awareness and the ability to overhear commands. Prolonged gunshot noise exposure over a soldier's career can do irreparable harm to hearing. 

Which is why 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.

In the past, protecting a soldier's hearing has traditionally come with a trade-off: the inability to hear quieter sounds, particularly human voices. Ear protection also deadens sounds to the point where the wearer can't figure out where they're coming from—a necessity when someone is shooting at you and you need to figure out where they are. 

Soldier equipped with TCAPS.

Now, the U.S. Army's PEO Soldier program has come up with the best of both worlds. TCAPS is $2,000 pair of earbuds designed to limit battlefield noise exposure, cutting off noise that reach 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. 

Not only is TCAPS a safety device, it's also an acoustic sensor: The same microphones the system uses to constantly detect and screen noise can be turned up to detect sounds even the naked human ear would have trouble finding.

According to Engadget, about 20,000 TCAPS units have been deployed Army-wide. That's enough to equip about three divisions' worth of combat troops with the $2,000 device. 

Here's a video demonstrating TCAPS produced by PEO Soldier:

Source: Engadget

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