Hearing Protection Clarifies Communication

CLEAR 360 PRO uses a design that replicates the way humans naturally respond to audio stimuli. The lightweight collar contains the battery pack, user function buttons, and charging ports.

By Dr. Klaus M. Blache, Univ. of Tennessee Reliability and Maintainability Center (RMC) and Ron Simmons, Bongiovi Acoustics

Over the past several months, I’ve been studying a new smart wearable technology that provides hearing protection, allows speech recognition, and is comfortable to wear. We’ve all been in too many noisy work environments, wearing hearing protection, and only hearing some of the intended communications. What do workers do who battle this frustration every day? Ron Simmons (Bongiovi Acoustics, Port St. Lucie, FL, bongioviacoustics.com) tells us more about the newly developed technology.

Excessive noise exposure affects people’s lives in many ways beyond the obvious. It contributes to hearing loss, tinnitus (ear ringing), loss of situational awareness, and decreased ability to communicate. Noise exposure also affects your general health and wellness. Medical studies show that exposure is linked to high blood pressure, depression, and anxiety. Recent studies even show links to Alzheimer’s and suicide. 

Many who work in high-noise environments do not practice hearing safety. If they do, they’re often compromising. CLEAR 360 PRO wearable aims to solve that problem.

Workplace Hearing Safety

Protecting your hearing in noisy environments is just one issue. Inability to locate sounds and communicate presents other significant health, safety, and productivity issues. Of the top five workplace-related injuries, three are directly related to situational awareness: hazardous noise levels, struck-by accidents, and machinery accidents.

Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent annually on medical costs, work stoppage, and legal claims from accidents, death, and hearing loss. Another big issue is on the revenue side of the equation. Noise-related issues reduce productivity, not just from missing work, but also from reduced efficiency while on the jobsite. Lack of proper communication, extra work breaks to discuss strategy, having to use hand signals, and having to leave the area to communicate are key productivity issues.

Many who work in high-noise environments do not practice hearing safety and, if they do, they’re often compromising. Reasons for noncompliance are usually the 5 Cs: Comfort, Convenience, Cost, Climate, Communication. 

Usually, a major reason for noncompliance is the loss of situational awareness and communication when using most hearing-protection products. People don’t want to lose the ability to accurately locate sounds around them such as voice commands, backup warning tones, alarms, and falling objects.

Solving the problem

Dr. Stan Phillips, board-certified Otolaryngologist and a member of the National Hearing Conservation Association and Ron Paulson, a safety-industry veteran who has been on the front lines of developing, implementing, and delivering workplace safety solutions with Grainger, have joined forces with the team at Bongiovi Acoustic Labs (BAL). BAL has patented audio technologies that focus on digital audio processing, spatial audio, and speech intelligibility. Currently employed in FDA-approved telemedicine applications, FAA-approved aviation solutions, and automotive and consumer electronics applications,  these solutions are now being leveraged into a workplace safety and communication solution called CLEAR 360 PRO.

The design team has combined audio and medical expertise to solve hearing safety. They started with a simple premise, said Dr. Phillips. “How can you protect your hearing and still accurately locate important sounds in a noisy environment? Can you simultaneously have clear communication, either face to face or via Bluetooth-connected devices, without leaving your operating environment? Additionally, can you develop a form factor that people will wear in extreme work environments, with hardhats and safety glasses?” He added, “the best form of hearing protection is usually the one that people will actually wear.”

CLEAR 360 PRO is a combination of advanced acoustic hardware design and audio processing software, field tested in harsh operating environments, from summertime road construction in high heat to oil platforms in extreme cold, to factory floors and railroad yards. It was also tested by extreme hunting and tactical shooting experts.

The result is a smart wearable that provides the holy grail of features in one product—hearing protection, situational awareness, and patented speech intelligibility for clear communication. It is lightweight (2.5 oz.), has an 18-hr. battery life, and fast recharge. It features five unique, user selected listening settings for optimized use in specific environments, including speech-intelligibility mode, super-hearing mode, natural mode, media mode, and mute mode (to eliminate outside noise and take calls in high-noise environments). The system meets and exceeds all NRR and impact noise testing standards and all testing was done by independent, third-party labs.

Using specially designed foam tips that fit securely in the ear canal, the patented technologies take over. Surrounding the foam tips is a small housing that duplicates the human ear with tiny microphones. This design replicates the way humans naturally respond to audio stimuli. Audio-processing algorithms add the ability to manipulate or enhance a variety of audio frequencies, powering the user-selected listening modes. All outside stimuli are limited to a maximum of 85 dB, the NIOSH-recommended safety standard. A small lightweight collar contains the battery pack, user function buttons, and charging ports.

According to Ron Paulson, the CLEAR 360 PRO represents a new era of hearing protection and communication wearables. “This design checks all of the boxes when it comes to safety and productivity when operating in high-noise environments, and the long-term benefits to your general health and welfare are becoming more obvious every day.” EP

To find more information, click here.  

Ron Simmons is the Managing Director at Bongiovi Acoustics, Port St. Lucie, FL. Contact him at inquiries@clear360products.com.