Advanced management of an implantable sound management system

• US 10,284,968 B2
• Filed: 01/28/2016
• Issued: 05/07/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 05/21/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cochlear Limited
• Original Assignee: Cochlear Limited
• Inventors: Van Dijk, Bastiaan, Fung, Wilson Kun Hao, Von Huben, Mark Alan
• Primary Examiner(s): Kaufman, Joshua
• Application Number:
  US15/009,240
• Publication Number:
  US 20160345107A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,195 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2225/67 Implantable hearing aids or parts thereof not covered by H04R25/606
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2460/01 Hearing devices using active noise cancellation
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/305 Self-monitoring or self-testing
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/505 using digital signal processing
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 3/005 for combining the signals of two or more microphones specially adapted for hearing aids H04R25/407

Abstract

A hearing prosthesis, including an implantable microphone, and a sound management system, wherein the hearing prosthesis is configured to set an operational parameter of the sound management system based on input from a microphone external to the recipient of the implantable microphone.

Claims

1. A hearing prosthesis, comprising:

an implantable microphone; and

a sound management system configured to receive input from the implantable microphone and output a signal based on the input, wherein

the hearing prosthesis is configured to set at least one operational parameter of the sound management system based on input from a microphone external to the recipient of the implantable microphone, wherein

the hearing prosthesis is configured to automatically adjust an operation of the sound management system to compensate for a change in a transfer function between an accelerometer of the sound management system and the implantable microphone based on input from the microphone external to the recipient of the implantable microphone.

2. The hearing prosthesis of claim 1, wherein:

the hearing prosthesis is configured to compare data based on an output signal of the implantable microphone that is indicative of sound captured by the implantable microphone to data that is based on the input from the microphone external to the recipient;

wherein the input from the microphone external to the recipient is based on sound captured by the microphone external to the recipient;

wherein the setting of the at least one operational parameter of the sound management system is based on the comparison of the output signal of the implantable microphone to the input from the microphone external to the recipient; and

the hearing prosthesis evokes a hearing percept based on the signal outputted based on the input, wherein the signal outputted based on the input is devoid of any content from the microphone external to the recipient.

3. The hearing prosthesis of claim 1, wherein:

the hearing prosthesis is configured to classify an input sound inputted into the implantable microphone from amongst a plurality of separate and distinct classifications and initiate the setting of the at least one operational parameter of the sound management system based on a first classification of the input sound and initiate a different setting of the at least one operational parameter based on a second classification of the input sound.

4. The hearing prosthesis of claim 1, wherein:

the setting of the at least one operational parameter of the sound management system is a frequency based gain regime.

5. The hearing prosthesis of claim 1, wherein:

the hearing prosthesis is configured to automatically calibrate the sound management system based on the input from the microphone external to the recipient of the implantable microphone.

6. The hearing prosthesis of claim 1, wherein:

the sound management system is a noise cancellation system; and

the hearing prosthesis is configured to train the noise cancellation system to cancel noise based on input from the implantable microphone that is based on sound captured by the implantable microphone and input from the microphone external to the recipient based on sound captured by the microphone external to the recipient.

7. The hearing prosthesis of claim 1, further comprising:

an external microphone, wherein the external microphone is the microphone external to the recipient, wherein

the hearing prosthesis is configured to evoke hearing percepts variously entirely based on output from the external microphone or entirely based on output from the implantable microphone; and

the hearing prosthesis is configured to receive a signal based on output from the external microphone such that the signal based on output from the external microphone completely bypasses the implantable microphone.

8. The hearing prosthesis of claim 1, wherein:

the hearing prosthesis is configured to evoke a hearing percept based entirely on the implantable microphone while the hearing prophesies is set with the at least one operational parameter of the sound management system.

9. The hearing prosthesis of claim 1, wherein:

the input from the microphone is received by implantable portions of the hearing prosthesis via a route that is isolated from the sound capture portion of the implantable microphone.

10. The hearing prosthesis of claim 1, further comprising:

the microphone external to the recipient, wherein the microphone is in electromagnetic communication with an implanted component of the hearing prosthesis so as to provide the input from the microphone external to the recipient to the implanted component, and thus enable the hearing prosthesis to set at least one operational parameter of the sound management system based on input from a microphone external to the recipient of the implantable microphone.

11. A method, comprising:

developing first data based on ambient sound captured externally to a recipient; and

controlling an implantable sound capture system based at least in part on the first data, wherein the action of developing first data includes;

comparing data based on an output signal of an implantable microphone of the implantable sound capture system that is based on sound captured by the implantable microphone to a signal based on the ambient sound captured externally to the recipient, wherein the sound captured by the implantable microphone originates from the same source of sound as that which originated the sound captured externally to the microphone, wherein

the implantable sound capture system includes a noise cancellation system;

the action of developing first data includes obtaining pseudo noise cancellation system operational parameters indicative of how the noise cancellation system of the implantable sound capture system should operate to cancel body conducted noise; and

the action of comparing data is included in the action of obtaining pseudo noise cancellation system operational parameters, and

the method further comprises limiting the operation of the noise cancellation system to the pseudo noise cancellation system operational parameters.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein:

the action of controlling the implantable sound capture system includes controlling a noise cancellation system thereof and includes limiting the adaptation of the noise cancellation system based on the first data.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein:

the action of limiting the adaptation of the noise cancellation system includes preventing filters of the system from adapting to have certain coefficients based on the first data.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein:

the action of developing first data further includes;

developing pseudo adaptive filter coefficients based on the comparison.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein:

the action of controlling the implantable sound capture system includes adjusting filters of the sound capture system based on a determination that the implantable sound capture system is receiving a first class of sound as compared to a second, different, class of sound, wherein

the ambient sound used to develop the first data was captured at the same time as an occurrence of the first class of sound.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein:

the action of controlling the implantable sound capture system calibrates the implantable sound capture system using the first data as a calibration reference.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein:

the implantable sound capture system is part of a hearing prosthesis that includes an implanted mechanical actuator that, when actuated, evokes a hearing percept, wherein energy from the actuation is received by the implantable sound capture system as actuator originating body conducted feedback; and

the action of controlling the implantable sound capture system at least one of reduces or eliminates actuator originating body conducted feedback content of an output of the implantable sound capture system.

18. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

operating the implantable sound capture system, as distinct from controlling the implantable sound capture system, based at least in part on the first data, while the implantable sound capture system is controlled based at least in part on the first data.

19. The method of claim 11, wherein:

the implantable sound capture system is part of an implantable prosthesis;

the first data is received by the implantable prosthesis in such a manner that when received the first data is (i) completely free of body conducted noise or (ii) completely based on ambient sound.

20. The method of claim 11, wherein:

the action of developing first data further includes developing pseudo adaptive filter coefficients based on the comparison.

21. A system, comprising:

a noise cancellation sub-system configured to at least partially cancel a body conducted noise component from a first signal that is output of an implantable microphone, wherein

the first signal includes the body conducted noise component and an ambient sound component, and

the system is further configured to at least partially cancel the body conducted noise component using a first algorithm that is based on a second signal that temporally preceded the first signal, wherein the second signal is based on captured sound that is at least one of (i) completely free of body conducted noise or (ii) completely comprised of ambient sound, wherein

the system is configured to utilize a second algorithm, which is different from the first algorithm, to at least partially cancel the body conducted noise component upon a determination about the sound, wherein the second algorithm is based on a third signal that temporally preceded the first signal, wherein the third signal is based on a second captured sound that is at least one of (i) completely free of the body conducted noise or (ii) completely comprised of the ambient sound.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein:

the second signal is completely free of the body conducted noise and is received by an implantable component of the system.

23. The system of claim 21, wherein:

the second signal is completely comprised of the ambient sound.

24. The system of claim 21, wherein:

the noise cancellation sub-system is an adaptive noise cancellation sub-system including adjustable filters, wherein the system is configured to adjust the adjustable filters to cancel the body conducted noise component based on the second signal.

25. The system of claim 21, wherein:

the noise cancellation sub-system is an adaptive noise cancellation sub-system including adjustable filters, wherein the system is configured to adjust the adjustable filters and cancel the body conducted noise component without reliance on a feed-back loop.

26. The system of claim 21, wherein:

the system includes a classifier configured to classify sound captured by the implantable microphone; and

the determination about the sound is a determination that a classification of the sound by the classifier corresponds to a given classification.