Ear protection and hearing device

DETAILED DESCRIPTION In accordance with this invention, an earmuff-type enclosure is fitted with a sound reproducer or earphone.
In addition, a microphone is placed on the outside of the device, and its output is supplied through a bandpass filter, amplifier, and compression device to the sound reproducer.
In this fashion, high amplitude noise frequencies are attenuated with respect to low amplitude voice frequencies, and thus the wearer of the device can hear voice communications of much less intensity than typical noise sounds.
The invention is aided by the fact that noise frequencies typically have a relatively fixed content of frequencies wherein communication frequencies, e.
g.
, voice frequencies, vary in frequency and level to a more considerable extent, whereby the system of the present invention effects a desired discrimination between noise and communication frequencies.
The wearer of the device can also perceive direction of sounds by virtue of the fact that each earmuff contains identical circuits such that when adjusted for the same sound level output, they allow the ears to discriminate between amplitude and phase.