Safe hearing device for telephone users wins collaboration award

The commercial success of ‘Soundshield’, a device that protects hearing centre and emergency services operators around the world, has been recognised by the Cooperative Research Centre Program’s 2012 STAR Award.

The device protects telephonists from acoustic shriek injury caused by sudden exposure to loud noises, which can result in painful ears, hearing loss, vertigo and even anxiety and depression. Soundshield was developed and commercialised through a collaboration between Polaris Communications, an Australian supplier of headset devices into the contact centre industry, and the HEARing Cooperative Research Centre.

HEARing CRC engineers worked closely with Polaris to assist the integration of the HEARing CRC’s shriek rejection algorithm into the commercial Soundshield platform, enabling them to manufacture the device locally and supply it to Australian and overseas markets. The CRC’s understanding of acoustic protection and the incorporation of several sound‐protection algorithms into the device helped Polaris gain a strong competitive advantage in the emerging industry.

“Our sound protection knowledge combined with Polaris’s engineering skills enabled the production of the world’s first commercially viable acoustic shock protection device, creating manufacturing jobs in Australia and export potential,” Assoc Prof Robert Cowan explained. Since 2000, the HEARing CRC has worked with Polaris to give them a complete understanding of acoustic shock, including why and how it occurs. The Soundshield has been installed at more than 120,000 call centres, including Telstra, the Australian Tax Office, Centrelink and other Australian companies. The HEARing CRC’s collaboration with Polaris is one of the ways its research is preventing lost productivity resulting from hearing loss in Australia and internationally.

The CRC STAR Award recognises the efforts of CRCs for their high level of achievement with small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to drive and deliver new innovation. It also promotes the broader CRC Program’s objective of building the innovation, research and development capacity of SMEs.