Sonitus to continue ATAC development

Sonitus Technologies has received Phase II of a contract continue development of its ATAC personal communication system for the US Air Force.

Known as Molar Mic by the air force, ATAC fits a miniaturised traditional headset into a device that clips to the user’s back teeth.

Sonitus will complete development of the Molar Mic for purposes of transition to fielding and deployment upon successful conclusion of the first segment of the contract. Field-testing of prototypes by military personnel from all of the major service branches with extensive field experimentation has been carried out. Testing included multiple scenarios, with and without personal protective equipment, all with extreme noise and without loss of communication.

Sonitus Technologies uses a patented audio interface and near-field magnetic induction technology. It creates a wireless audio interface by embedding both a tiny microphone for talking and a speaker-transducer for hearing in a compact custom-fit mouth-piece that snaps comfortably around the user’s back teeth. This allows the user to both talk and hear without external devices attached to the head. The placement on the teeth uses the body itself to block external noise when speaking and leverages the user’s teeth and jawbone to create a new auditory path for hearing. The result is an unobstructed head and face, clear communication, higher comfort, enhanced situational awareness and the ability to add or remove personal protective equipment without breaking communication.