Patent ID: 8229740

Claim:
A hearing protector for providing enhancement of a sound signal of interest and protection from at least one other sound for a wearer of the hearing protector in an environment that includes high level noise in addition to the sound signal of interest comprising: at least two fixed microphones adapted to work together to provide a directional microphone array arranged to be pointed in the wearer's look direction for receiving the sound signal of interest and generating sound signals corresponding to sounds detected at the array, a processor to process the sound signals generated by said directional microphone array to enhance the sound signal of interest relative to a signal generated by the high level noise and generate a corresponding enhanced signal, at least one speaker operatively connected to the processor for presenting sound based on the enhanced signal to the wearer, and at least one passive sound suppressor arranged to be located adjacent each ear of a wearer to suppress the high level noise reaching the ear drums of the wearer, said suppressor able to provide passive sound suppression of at least 15 dB.