New Ear Plugs Protect Against Loud Noises

Researchers at the Trondheim-based company Nacre AS some time ago developed a new system for protecting the ears against loud noises. Their innovation is currently being used in applications varying from the military to the oil industry.

Fro example, Norway’s largest company, Statoil ASA, is currently peddling the product to its employees, who need to work in extremely loud conditions aboard drilling rigs.

The Nacre AS innovation, which draws its roots from work conducted at SINTEF, Scandinavia’s largest independent research organization, is also being distributed to the US military, in addition to other unspecified customers.

Experts say that the QUIETPRO earplug system is the world’s most advanced hearing protection device, capable of filtering out incredibly loud noises, AlphaGalileo reports.

Their development was extremely important for the oil industry, seeing how more than 600 cases of hearing impairment are reported by the Norwegian petroleum industry annually.

The new “offshore” version of the QUIETPRO earplug is a bit different than its predecessors.

It features an external microphone, capable of picking up ambient sounds, and relaying them to a small loudspeaker inside the ear. In the mean time, the sound is processed on board, and the noises are eliminated digitally.

Additionally, the plugs also contain a microphone inside the ear, which captures the words of its wearer from inside the skull. Generally, noise-canceling systems use a mouth piece for the job.

But capturing words with a microphone placed in front of the lips also captures a lot of the ambient noise, which is not something you want to do on an offshore drilling rig.

Capturing speech from inside the head directly is a good way of muffling ambient sounds. Even if they are not eliminated entirely, they are reduced considerably.

“The new hearing protection device enables employees to preserve a lot of energy,” says Statoil noise specialist Asle Melvær.

The expert is the initiator and manager of the Offshore Safety for Hearing and Verbal Communication (SoHot) research & development project.

“Users of the new device do not have to strain to hear what is being said over the radio, and the noise reduction system in the earplug means that the level of sound is adapted to the surrounding environment,” Melvær says.

“On board an oil platform understanding messages transmitted by radio can be a matter of life and death,” he explains further.