Hearing aid system, method, and recording medium

• US 10,117,032 B2
• Filed: 03/22/2016
• Issued: 10/30/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/22/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Gordon, Michael S., Kozloski, James R., Kundu, Ashish, Malkin, Peter K., Pickover, Clifford A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ni, Suhan
• Application Number:
  US15/076,784
• Publication Number:
  US 20170280257A1
• Time in Patent Office: 952 Days
• Field of Search: 381312-331
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2225/41 Detection or adaptation of hearing aid parameters or programs to listening situation, e.g. pub, forest
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2225/55 Communication between hearing aids and external devices via a network for data exchange
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/50 Customised settings for obtaining desired overall acoustical characteristics
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/505 using digital signal processing
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/558 Remote control, e.g. of amplification, frequency

Abstract

A hearing aid method, system, and non-transitory computer readable medium, include a cognitive state analysis circuit configured to analyze a cognitive state of a user, a context analysis circuit configured to analyze a context of the user, and an audio characteristic controller configures to control an audio characteristic of a hearing aid based on a joint assessment of the cognitive state of the user and the context of the user.

Claims

1. A hearing aid system, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory, the memory storing instructions to cause the processor to perform;

a cognitive state analysis circuit configured to analyze a cognitive state of a user;

a context analysis circuit configured to analyze a context of the user; and

an audio characteristic controller configured to control an audio characteristic of a hearing aid based on a joint assessment of a combined factor calculated by weighing together the cognitive state of the user and the context of the user,

wherein the context of the user and the cognitive state of the user are independent of each other, and

wherein the cognitive state includes at least one of;

a cohort condition; and

a cognitive level.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the context includes at least one of:

a real-time assessment of another person speaking;

an identity of the another person prior to the another person speaking;

electronic calendar information;

a real-time assessment of eye focus of the user;

interaction between the user and another user of a second hearing aid; and

eye focus of the user.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the audio characteristic includes at least one of:

volume;

frequency shaping;

noise cancellation; and

playback.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the audio characteristic output by the audio characteristic controller is stored in a database, and

wherein the audio characteristic controller controls the audio characteristic based on a stored control.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the cognitive state is determined based on at least partially an accelerometer and a Global Positioning System (GPS) in the hearing aid.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a voice controlling circuit configured to control the audio characteristic controller to perform a particular audio characteristic control based on an input voice command from the user.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising an audio control sending circuit configured to send the controlled audio characteristic to an audio characteristic controller of a second hearing aid.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the audio control sending circuit sends the controlled audio characteristic to a hearing aid network controller configured to send the controlled audio characteristic to the second hearing aid.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the audio characteristic controller learns to control the audio characteristic based on a stored control in a database.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the cognitive state comprises functions of measures of the user'"'"'s total behavior collected over a period of time from information of the user within a lower dimensional feature space.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein a reduction of a set of behavioral measures over the period of time to a set of feature nodes and vectors, corresponding to the behavioral measures'"'"' representations in the lower dimensional feature space, is used to identify an emergence of the cognitive state over the period of time.

12. A hearing aid method, comprising:

analyzing a cognitive state of a user;

analyzing a context of the user; and

controlling an audio characteristic of a hearing aid based on a joint assessment of a combined factor calculated by weighing together the cognitive state of the user and the context of the user,

wherein the context of the user and the cognitive state of the user are independent of each other, and

wherein the cognitive state includes at least one of;

a cohort condition; and

a cognitive level.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the context includes at least one of:

a real-time assessment of another person speaking;

an identity of the another person prior to the another person speaking;

electronic calendar information;

a real-time assessment of eye focus of the user;

interaction between the user and another user of a second hearing aid; and

eye focus of the user.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the audio characteristic includes at least one of:

volume;

frequency shaping;

noise cancellation; and

playback.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the audio characteristic is output by the controlling and is stored in a database, and

wherein the controlling controls the audio characteristic based on a stored control.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium recording a hearing aid program, the program causing a computer to perform:

analyzing a cognitive state of a user;

analyzing a context of the user; and

controlling an audio characteristic of a hearing aid based on a joint assessment of a combined factor calculated by weighing together the cognitive state of the user and the context of the user,

wherein the context of the user and the cognitive state of the user are independent of each other, and

wherein the cognitive state includes at least one of;

a cohort condition; and

a cognitive level.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable recording medium of claim 16, wherein the context includes at least one of:

a real-time assessment of another person speaking;

an identity of the another person prior to the another person speaking;

electronic calendar information;

a real-time assessment of eye focus of the user;

interaction between the user and another user of a second hearing aid; and

eye focus of the user.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable recording medium of claim 16, wherein the audio characteristic includes at least one of:

volume;

frequency shaping;

noise cancellation; and

playback.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable recording medium of claim 16, wherein the audio characteristic is output by the controlling and is stored in a database, and

wherein the controlling controls the audio characteristic based on a stored control.