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Abstract
Auditory situation awareness (ASA) is essential for safety and survivability in military operations where many of the hazards are not immediately visible. Unfortunately, the Hearing Protection Devices (HPDs) required to operate in these environments can impede auditory localization performance. Promisingly, recent studies have exhibited the plasticity of the human auditory system by demonstrating that training can improve auditory localization ability while wearing HPDs, including military Tactical Communications and Protective Systems (TCAPS). As a result, the U.S. military identified the need for a portable system capable of imparting auditory localization acquisition skills at similar levels to those demonstrated in laboratory environments. The purpose of this investigation was to design and develop a Portable Auditory Situation Awareness Training (PASAT) system capable of reproducing acoustically accurate localization cues similar to a proven laboratory grade system. Extensive research of components and equipment helped ensure optimal performance and packaging of the PASAT system. Selection of these components included a formal decision algorithm developed for optimizing component selection decisions for human-equipment systems. The innovative PASAT system consists of an accordion-style, collapsible frame housing 32-loudspeaker capable of training 360-degrees of azimuth and 60-degrees of elevation operated by a user-controlled tablet computer. Two human factors experiments and a usability study demonstrated the effectiveness of the PASAT system to test and train localization and to detect differences in performance between hearing protection devices.
Keywords
Auditory Situation Awareness; Human-Systems Integration Design; Component Analysis; Decision Analysis,
1.Introduction
1.1.Literature Review
The primary objective of this study was to develop an innovative, portable auditory localization acclimation training system that incorporated an optimized training strategy to train and test service members' ability to localize with both the open ear and with a hearing protection device (HPD), including the U.S. military's Tactical Communication and Protective Systems (TCAPS). TCAPS are electronic powered hearing protection devices that impart signal processing on acoustic signals. A series of auditory localization studies at Virginia Tech led to the development of a test battery and full-scale laboratory training and testing system termed "DRILCOM," after the four major elements of auditory situation awareness: Detection, Recognition/Identification, Localization, and pass-through COMmunications [1]. The DRILCOM system along with localization portion of the test battery demonstrated the ability to measure and train localization acquisition skills. It also proved sensitive...