Enabling personalized communication with advanced hearing protection devices: Integrating and evaluating concepts of a radio acoustical virtual environment

Noisy industrial environments are challenging for effective communication. To facilitate communication between workers in noisy environments, active systems featuring interpersonal radio communication may be used despite the fact that these systems do not enable users to dynamically address specific individuals or perceive the directionality in speech. A promising approach to these challenges is an emerging technology called radio acoustical virtual environment (RAVE). RAVE aims to improve communication in two ways: (1) allowing users to dynamically address specific individuals based on vocal effort, and (2) transforming speech signals to convey spatial directionality of its origin. To explore its potential, a mockup version of RAVE incorporating key algorithms was developed and evaluated with 18 participants. The evaluation demonstrated RAVE’s potential to improve communication. Additionally, the results offer valuable insights into user interaction and inform future design decisions for active hearing protection devices with integrated communication systems.