US Army Upgrade: 'Superhuman' Hearing System Capable of Reducing Battle, Gunshot Noise, Situational Awareness Enhanced

The United States Army has invented an all-in-one hearing system that enhances the troop's hearing in the field and would also help eliminate the battle noise. According to reports, the system named Tactical Communication and Protective System is now being introduced to all units in the field.

Infantry combat is known to be loud and gunshots are dangers that are related to being a soldier. With a single gunshot, a soldier's hearing can be temporarily blown out, therefore, lessening his situational awareness, including his ability to overhear all succeeding commands. Also, continued exposure to gunshot noise may bring irreparable damage to the soldier's hearing.

Before, one way of protecting the soldier's hearing has usually come with a compromise, the inability to hear sounds that are more quiet, especially the human voices. Protection of their ears also reduces the sounds until such point when the soldier can no longer identify where the noise is coming from, which is crucial when an enemy is shooting at him and the soldier must determine their location, according to Technology Review.

Now, with the US Army's PEO Soldier program, they were able to come up with the best of both worlds. TCAPS is worth $2,000 pair of earbuds built to control the degree of battlefield noise exposure by stopping noise that gets to a set decibel threshold. Although the soldier may still hear gunshots and estimate their location, the noise is lessened to a non-harmful degree.

This capability is due to the microphones that recognize the noise, including the internals that use a sound canceling technology to change it for the soldiers' ears. However, the decibel cap will allow a TCAPS-equipped soldier to still hear voices of people around him, including by radios and other communications equipment. 

US Army's TCAPS is a safety gadget and an acoustic sensor as well: the similar microphone that it uses to constantly recognize and screen noise may also be used to recognize sounds that a naked human ear will find difficulty recognizing. According to reports, 20,000 TCAPS units have already been deployed to  all Army units, enough to equip the three divisions' worth of combat troops with a gadget worth $2,000,  News Week reported.