Hearing aid with added functionality

• US 10,708,699 B2
• Filed: 03/23/2018
• Issued: 07/07/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 05/03/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bragi GmbH
• Original Assignee: Bragi GmbH
• Inventors: Boesen, Peter Vincent
• Primary Examiner(s): Joshi, Sunita
• Application Number:
  US15/933,927
• Publication Number:
  US 20180324535A1
• Time in Patent Office: 837 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2225/31 Aspects of the use of accumulators in hearing aids, e.g. rechargeable batteries or fuel cells
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2460/13 Hearing devices using bone conduction transducers
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/305 Self-monitoring or self-testing
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/407 Circuits for combining signals of a plurality of transducers
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/55 using an external connection, either wireless or wired
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/602 of batteries
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/606 acting directly on the eardrum, the ossicles or the skull, e.g. mastoid, tooth, maxillary or mandibular bone, or mechanically stimulating the cochlea, e.g. at the oval window
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/70 Adaptation of deaf aid to hearing loss, e.g. initial electronic fitting

Abstract

A sound processing method for a hearing aid in embodiments of the present invention may have one of more of the following steps: (a) receiving a command from a user to begin an upload and/or download of a file, (b) initiating communications to commence the upload and/or download of the file, (c) selecting the file to upload and/or download to a memory on the hearing aid, (d) downloading and/or uploading the file into or out of the memory, (e) executing the file loaded into memory, (f) asking the user if they wish to download and/or upload another file to/from the memory, and (g) continuing normal hearing aid operations if the user does not wish to execute the file in the memory.

Claims

1. A hearing aid earpiece, comprising:

a hearing aid earpiece housing;

a processor disposed within the hearing aid earpiece housing for processing sound signals based on settings to compensate for hearing loss of an individual according to a hearing loss profile;

at least one microphone for receiving sound signals to be processed, the at least one microphone operatively connected to the processor;

at least one speaker for outputting sound signals to a user after processing of the sound signals, the at least one speaker within the hearing aid earpiece housing;

a memory disposed within the hearing aid earpiece housing and operatively connected to the processor;

a user interface operatively connected to the processor to allow the individual to communicate with the hearing aid;

wherein the hearing aid earpiece is configured to allow the individual to download and store files in the memory, the files comprising audio files including MP3 files and program files for executing on the processor to play the audio files including the MP3 files; and

wherein the hearing aid earpiece is adapted to allow the individual to instruct the hearing aid earpiece to download the files from a computing device and store the files within the memory.

2. The hearing aid earpiece of claim 1 further comprising a rechargeable battery enclosed within the hearing aid earpiece housing.

3. The hearing aid earpiece of claim 2 further comprising a recharging interface operatively connected to the rechargeable battery to allow the rechargeable battery enclosed within the hearing aid earpiece housing to recharge.

4. The hearing aid earpiece of claim 1 further comprising a communications interface operatively connected to the processor to allow the hearing aid earpiece to communicate with another computing device.

5. A sound processing method for a hearing aid earpiece having the steps, comprising:

receiving through a user interface of the hearing aid earpiece a command from a user to begin download of a file to the hearing aid earpiece;

initiating communications to commence the download of the file to the hearing aid earpiece;

selecting through the user interface of the hearing aid earpiece the file to download to a user designated partition within a memory on the hearing aid earpiece; and

downloading the file into the user designated partition within the memory of the hearing aid earpiece, wherein the file is an MP3 audio file.