The added value of radio-acoustic virtual environment

As hearing protection devices (HPDs) also attenuate voice, workers tend to remove them to talk to each other, disabling their protection. Radio-acoustic virtual environment (RAVE) proposes an ideal situation, where workers can communicate in noisy environments while being protected. The voice is recorded with in-ear microphones (IEM), denoised, and transmitted within a certain communication radius determined by the talker's vocal effort. The audio is played at a comfortable level with directionality. Many articles addressed elements necessary for RAVE, such as voice activity detection [N. Lezzoum et al., in IEEE JCE, 2014, pp. 737–744], wearer induce disturbances detection [F. Bonnet et al., in JERGON, 2019, pp. 102862], and communication radius [R. Bouserhal et al., in JSLHR, 2017, pp. 3393–3403]. This pioneering research integrated them and tested a mock-up version of RAVE in live scenarios. In groups of three, twenty-one participants completed manual tasks that required communication. They used RAVE's mock-up and a broadcasting push-to-talk device, with and without noise presence, totaling four scenarios. Participants completed a questionnaire after each scenario, and their speech and motion were recorded. This research contributed with a mock-up version of RAVE with improved signal treatment for real-time purposes. Our results confirm RAVE's added value and illustrates its potential.