SPECIAL REPORT: ADVANCES IN SOLDIER INTERFACE TECHNOLOGY FOR MODERN MILITARY OPERATIONS
The result is one of the most advanced and versatile, lightweight head-mounted systems to emerge from any future soldier programme
THOR IS A SOPHISTICATED, EASY-TO-USE TACTICAL HEADGEAR SYSTEM OFFERING A VERSATILE AND MODULAR HEAD-MOUNTED SOLUTION FOR A WIDE RANGE OF MILITARY AND SECURITY PERSONNEL FOR USE IN AN EQUALLY WIDE VARIETY OF DEMANDING AND EXTREME BATTLEFIELD, COVERT AND SECURITY SCENARIOS.
to urgently put on a respirator, in which case the bone mic provides better communications picking up conducted sound rather than muffled voice. THOR end users can even choose to have the bone mic only on the headgear system and no boom mic. That said, the bone mic does have the disadvantage that it will, for example, pick up background vibrations, such as in a tracked vehicle, where vibrations from the tracks as well as the engine will vibrate through an individual’s body and skeleton and be picked up by the mic. This is the main reason why the FDF variant of THOR has both mic alternatives as standard. THOR’s bone microphone uses 3rd-generation Savox bone mic technology, which uses a new type of vibration pick-up sensor, providing a greater dynamic in the speech frequency band and, hence, greatly improved audio qualities, especially recognition of the speaker. Additionally, the mechanics, functionality and durability have all been improved in comparison to previous generations of bone-conduction microphone.
Latest Technologies to Improve Individual Soldier Effectiveness The THOR integrated headgear system from Savox is fully equipped with integrated communications and hearing protection. It has integrated ear speakers to convey radio communications to the user, with volume adjustment for hearing levels through buttons integrated into the ear cup. THOR has connectivity options for tactical radios as well as vehicle intercom systems, should the user find themselves, for example, inside an armoured personnel carrier. PTT buttons are also optional with the headgear system. 6 | WWW.DEFENCEINDUSTRYREPORTS.COM
THOR’s integrated hearing protection safeguards the wearer against battlefield/ operational noise levels. The system also has a talk-through feature that gives the user greater situational awareness than a combatant without THOR.
Lessons Learned From the Field In settling on a final design for the THOR system, first-hand feedback from the military played a major part. An issue that became apparent early on related to helmet-mounted NVGs in the field; a number of military personnel who had been deployed to Afghanistan said that NVGs mounted ‘at rest’ on top of the helmet were being destroyed or damaged at a high rate – every time soldiers ran in and out of APCs they were smashing their NVGs on the top of the vehicle doorway. As a result, the Savox design places the NVGs below the impact point of the helmet and out of harm’s way when in their ‘rest’ position. Another issue highlighted in feedback about existing helmet-mounted NVGs, taken into account by Savox with their headgear system integration work, was an instability and wobble factor, which soldiers said caused visual distortion and difficulty seeing. Greater NVG stability was requested and has been key in the Savox design. In fact, when using poorly balanced NVGs users can actually feel unbalanced – the image they are trying to look at actually moves in a different frequency to the body and creates disorientation problems. Improving the ‘positioning and fixing’ of the NVG to the headgear system, as Savox has done, has made it extremely stable and user feedback indicates that this problem has been solved in THOR.