Integrated Tactical Technologies(iT2) has created new communication capabilities for soldiers that combine handsfree tooth microphones with electronics-embedded apparel.
The Molar Mic is a hands-free radio that is held in the mouth where it picks up sound and sends it through the jaw bone and skull to the nerves behind the ear, enabling the wearer to pick up voice communication with no headset. The original design – which has been tested by soldiers that were deployed to Afghanistan – would transfer the outgoing sound to a radio transceiver and then to a smaller concealed radio.
iT2 – which has been formed through the acquisition of Sonitus Technologies and a partnership with the garment manufacturer Bluewater Defense – has taken the Molar Mic technology and joined it with a suite of electronics that will be embedded in an actual uniform, removing the need for a separate radio. This combination of technologies has created an entirely new capability – a sensor suit – which can wirelessly transmit the data to the cloud.
According to the company, iT2’s human/machine interface is:
- intrinsically part of the user and the user experience;
- multimodal, capable of serving numerous vital purposes;
- extendable and compatible with existing systems;
- intelligent, secure, and reliable in any scenario; and,
- producible in quantities great enough to make them commercially viable.
“It has sensing. It has computing power on the body. It has the ability for different interfaces: Molar Mic is one. [Augmented Reality] glasses is another, and haptic signaling [mimicking touch] through the textile,” Molar Mic founder, Peter Hadrovic, said. “Think of this as a base layer for communication, especially our core, on-the-body wireless field…When high bandwidth data is required, what our system is able to do is turn on and off.”