Acoustically tailored hearing aid and method of manufacture
First Claim
1. A hearing aid arrangement comprising, a housing arranged and designed for insertion in an ear canal, said housing having a tip adapted to face an ear drum when said housing is inserted into said ear canal;
- a receiver carried within said housing and spaced inwardly from said tip;
a bore formed in said housing and positioned between said receiver and said tip, said bore having an outlet at said tip and an inlet, a coupler disposed between said receiver and said inlet, whereby a sound path is created from said receiver via said coupler and said bore toward said ear drum.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An apparatus and method for tailoring the audio frequency response of a hearing aid or other ear piece by altering the physical characteristics of the device to more accurately compensate for a user'"'"'s specific hearing loss attributes. The device has a bore formed within its ear piece shell which provides a passage for the transmission of sound from the speaker or receiver of the device toward the user'"'"'s eardrum. The bore has a custom-designed shape to emphasize desired sound frequencies and therefore produce a predetermined frequency response of sound in combination with any frequency response changes of the device'"'"'s circuitry.
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Citations
26 Claims
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1. A hearing aid arrangement comprising,
a housing arranged and designed for insertion in an ear canal, said housing having a tip adapted to face an ear drum when said housing is inserted into said ear canal; -
a receiver carried within said housing and spaced inwardly from said tip;
a bore formed in said housing and positioned between said receiver and said tip, said bore having an outlet at said tip and an inlet, a coupler disposed between said receiver and said inlet, whereby a sound path is created from said receiver via said coupler and said bore toward said ear drum. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A hearing aid arrangement comprising,
an ear piece shell arranged and designed for insertion in an ear canal, said shell having a tip end adapted to face an ear drum when said shell is inserted into said ear canal, said shell having a bore formed therein at said tip end which extends inwardly from said tip end, said bore having an outlet at said tip end and an inlet, said shell with said bore formed therein by a rapid prototyping process; -
a receiver carried within said ear piece shell; and
a coupler disposed between said receiver and said inlet, whereby a sound path is created from said receiver via said coupler and said bore toward said ear drum. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A method of forming an ear piece shell which includes an outlet bore of a hearing aid device comprising the steps of
selecting a geometry of said outlet bore to produce a preselected frequency response of sound passing therethrough; -
forming said ear piece shell which is arranged and designed for insertion in an ear canal, said shell having a tip adapted to face an ear drum when said shell is inserted into said ear canal, with said outlet bore extending inwardly from said tip and having an outlet at said tip and an inlet;
positioning a receiver within said ear piece shell; and
providing a coupler between said receiver and said inlet. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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26. A hearing aid arrangement comprising,
a housing arranged and designed for insertion in an ear canal, said housing having a tip adapted to face an ear drum when said housing is inserted into said ear canal; -
a receiver carried within said housing and spaced inwardly from said tip; and
a bore formed in said housing and positioned between said receiver and said tip, said bore having an outlet at said tip and an inlet, wherein, said receiver is directly coupled to said inlet, whereby a sound path is created from said receiver via said bore toward said ear drum.
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Specification