Diver Communication System Upgrade Navy SBIR FY2015.2 Sol No.: Navy SBIR FY2015.2 Topic No.: N152-110 Topic Title: Diver Communication System Upgrade Proposal No.: N152-110-0639 Firm: Creare LLC 16 Great Hollow Road Hanover, New Hampshire 3755 Contact: William Audette Phone: (603) 643-3800 Web Site: http://www.creare.com Abstract: Voice communication with military divers is challenged by their extreme operating environment and limited by inadequate performance from their legacy communications equipment. Bottomside, the divers are subject to extreme pressures, mixed breathing gases, and high ambient noise. Clean pickup and delivery of voice would be challenging under these conditions even with ideal communications equipment. Unfortunately, the equipment itself is contributing to the communications difficulty. The legacy components often have inadequate frequency response, the long copper cable tether is subject to corrupting cross talk, and the open-loop nature of 4-wire communications often results in confounding echo and painful audio feedback. Creare proposes to develop its HYDAC upgrade package for the legacy diving communication system. The HYDAC package is a collection of modular upgrades that address the deficiencies of the legacy system, provide forward-looking advanced capabilities, while also maintaining full backward compatibility. Benefits: The Creare HYDAC upgrade provides better speech intelligibility, more robust communications integrity, while maintaining full backward compatibility. The improved communications increases diver safety and increases mission tempo. The backward compatibility allows the system to be purchased and installed as modular units and still interact fully with the wide base of installed legacy equipment. The lower cost and risk of upgrading individual units lowers the risk and eases the transition of the technology. Return