Blog

Paxauris Presents at 2022 MHSRS

Paxauris was selected to present our work titled “Earplug Acceleration Measurement for Monitoring Impact and Blast Exposure” at the 2022 Military Health System Research Symposium held September 12-15.

Thank you, interns!

A huge thank you to Yacqub, Carlos and Brian on the last day of their Summer Internship at Paxauris! Thank you for all of your contributions through the summer and we wish you well at you return to ASU for your next semester of classes.

Read more about their experiences at Paxauris.

Paxauris Awarded DHA STTR Phase II

Comfortable, Easy-To-Fit, Deep-Insert Earplug

Effective hearing protection is essential for service members who work in hazardous noise environments and for whom permanent or even temporary hearing damage affects performance, endangers lives, and reduces quality of life. Various devices have been developed to attenuate high levels of impulse and continuous noise while allowing low-level sounds to pass through. However, issues with comfort, ease-of-use, fit, and performance prevent widespread adoption and cause reductions in field performance compared to laboratory ratings. Furthermore, amplification of internal bone-conducted sounds in occluded ear canals increases discomfort and can mask other sounds, affecting communications and situational awareness. Paxauris’s innovative deep-insert earplug addresses these issues. It is easily inserted and removed, remains comfortable when worn for long durations, and creates a reliable acoustic seal deep in the ear canal. This deep seal maximizes attenuation while minimizing the occlusion effect. The result is a high-performance, reusable earplug that achieves a consistent, comfortable fit without the need for custom ear molds. In Phase I we demonstrated the feasibility of the Paxauris earplug by modifying our design for high-volume manufacture, fabricating production representative prototypes, and demonstrating the earplug’s performance on a biofidelic acoustic test fixture while also demonstrating fit, usability, and durability. An important aspect of our results is that due to our earplug’s innovative design, which makes it simple to insert correctly and hard to insert incorrectly, we do not expect significant degradation in performance between laboratory and field attenuation ratings. In Phase II we will further mature the design though an iterative development cycle before conducting qualification testing on production-representative prototype earplugs in our acoustic test facility using a biofidelic head simulator in the first year and following this with human-subject verification testing in the second year. We plan to conduct a field trial of the earplugs in a Phase II Enhancement. In Phase III we will commercialize the earplugs for military and civilian markets.

View award information at https://www.sbir.gov/node/2173531

Paxauris Awarded Navy SBIR Phase II

Health Monitoring Hearable

Warfighters train and work in dangerous environments with extreme levels of impulse noise, continuous noise, cold, heat, humidity, altitude, and acceleration, while under stress and during strenuous activity. Continuous monitoring of potentially harmful exposure will enable the military to take action to protect warfighters’ health and improve their readiness by evaluating the effectiveness of protective equipment and by structuring training and operations to avoid damaging overexposure. Paxauris proposes a Health Monitoring Hearable system for wireless in-ear noise dosimetry and biometric monitoring. In Phase I we proved the feasibility of our concept and approach. In Phase II we will prototype and test our system in the laboratory, on human subjects, and in the field. At the end of Phase II, we will deliver production-ready prototypes to the Navy. In Phase III we will ready our system for military acquisition and commercial sales.

View award information at https://www.sbir.gov/node/2179323

Paxauris Awarded DHA STTR Phase I

Hearable System for Impact and Blast

In addition to providing hearing protection and communications, earplugs provide an attractive platform for measuring head response to impact and blast events. Sensors embedded in deep-insert earplugs can accurately measure head kinematics due to their close coupling to the skull in the bony region of the ear canal. However, this region is extremely sensitive, and the stiff earplug material required to fix an accelerometer in place would be intolerable. Paxauris has innovated a comfortable deep-insert earplug that is easily fitted and removed. It is reusable, cost-effective, and may be instrumented with miniature high-bandwidth accelerometers and gyroscopes to accurately measure head response. In this project we will develop a hearable system for monitoring impact and blast that is based on our innovative earplug technology. We will demonstrate the feasibility of our concept by prototyping an instrumented version of our earplug and testing it in an impact test facility and in a shock tube. In Phase II we will mature our hearable system and proceed through laboratory tests to field tests. At the end of Phase II, we will deliver production-ready prototypes to the Army. In Phase III we will transition our system to a hearable product ready for acquisition and sales.

View award information at https://www.sbir.gov/node/2173571

Paxauris Awarded DHA STTR Phase I

Comfortable, Easy-To-Fit, Deep-Insert Earplug

Effective hearing protection is essential for service members who work in hazardous noise environments and for whom permanent or even temporary hearing damage affects performance, endangers lives, and reduces quality of life. Various devices have been developed to attenuate high levels of impulse and continuous noise while allowing low-level sounds to pass through. However, issues with comfort, ease-of-use, fit, and performance prevent widespread adoption and cause reductions in field performance compared to laboratory ratings. Furthermore, amplification of internal bone-conducted sounds in occluded ear canals increases discomfort and can mask other sounds, affecting communications and situational awareness. Paxauris’s innovative deep-insert earplug addresses these issues. It is easily inserted and removed, remains comfortable when worn for long durations, and creates a reliable acoustic seal deep in the ear canal. This deep seal maximizes attenuation while minimizing the occlusion effect. The result is a high performance, reusable earplug that achieves a consistent, comfortable fit without the need for custom ear molds. In Phase I we will demonstrate the feasibility of the Paxauris earplug by modifying our design for high-volume manufacture, fabricating production representative prototypes, and demonstrating the earplug’s performance on acoustic test fixtures while also demonstrating fit, usability, and durability.

View award information at https://www.sbir.gov/node/1918949

Paxauris Awarded Navy SBIR Phase I

Health Monitoring Hearable

Warfighters train and work in dangerous environments with extreme levels of impulse noise, continuous noise, cold, heat, humidity, altitude, and acceleration, while under stress and during strenuous activity. Continuous monitoring of potentially harmful exposure will the enable the military to take action to protect warfighters’ health and improve their readiness by evaluating the effectiveness of protective equipment and by structuring training and operations to avoid damaging overexposure. Paxauris proposes a Health Monitoring Hearable system for wireless in-ear noise dosimetry and biometric monitoring. In Phase I we intend to prove the feasibility of our concept and approach. Phase II we will prototype and test our system in the laboratory, on human subjects, and in the field. At the end of Phase II, we will deliver production-ready prototypes to the Navy. In Phase III we will ready our system for military acquisition and commercial sales.

View award information at https://www.sbir.gov/node/1924047