SWITCHING STRUCTURES FOR HEARING ASSISTANCE DEVICE

• US 20080013769A1
• Filed: 06/26/2007
• Published: 01/17/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/16/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Starkey Laboratories Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Starkey Laboratories Incorporated
• Inventors: Roberts, Randall, Peterson, Timothy, Bren, Mark, Sacha, Mike
• Granted Patent: US 8,218,804 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 381/345
• 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 2225/51 Aspects of antennas or their circuitry in or for hearing aids
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2225/61 Aspects relating to mechanical or electronic switches or control elements, e.g. functioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2460/03 Aspects of the reduction of energy consumption in hearing devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/43 Electronic input selection or mixing based on input signal analysis, e.g. mixing or selection between microphone and telecoil or between microphones with different directivity characteristics H04R25/407 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/50 Customised settings for obtaining desired overall acoustical characteristics
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/554 using a wireless connection, e.g. between microphone and amplifier or using Tcoils
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/558 Remote control, e.g. of amplification, frequency
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/603 of mechanical or electronic switches or control elements

Abstract

A hearing aid is provided with a switch that automatically, non-manually, controls a configuration of the hearing aid in the presence of a magnetic field. In an embodiment, the switch in the hearing aid is configured to control a filtering configuration of the hearing aid in the presence of a magnetic field.

Claims

1. A hearing aid comprising:

an input system, the input system including a plurality of filters;

an output system;

a signal processing circuit electrically connecting the input system to the output system; and

a magnetically-actuatable switching circuit between the plurality of filters and the signal processing circuit, the magnetically-actuatable switching circuit connected to the plurality of filters, the magnetically-actuatable switching circuit including at least a first position and a second position, the first position of the switching circuit electrically connecting a first of the filters to the signal processing circuit, the second position of the switching circuit connecting a second of the plurality of filters to the signal processing circuit.

2. The hearing aid of claim 1, wherein the first position and the second position are mutually exclusive.

3. The hearing aid of claim 1, wherein the switching circuit electrically connects both the first filter and the second filter to the signal processing circuit to band pass a signal from the input system to the signal processing circuit.

4. A hearing aid comprising:

an input system to provide an electrical signal;

a plurality of filters to provide multiple filtering configurations; and

a switching circuit having a magnetic sensor, the switching circuit structured to switch to a filtering configuration of the electrical signal based on a magnetic field sensed by the magnetic sensor, each filtering configuration corresponding to a sensed magnetic field strength different from the other filtering configurations.

5. The hearing aid of claim 4, wherein the hearing aid has a default filter configuration corresponding to the magnetic sensor not sensing a magnetic field.

6. The hearing aid of claim 5, wherein the default filter configuration is a low-pass filtering configuration.

7. The hearing aid of claim 4, wherein the plurality of filters includes an active filter.

8. The hearing aid of claim 4, wherein the switching circuit is operable to switch to a band-pass filtering configuration.

9. The hearing aid of claim 4, wherein the switching circuit is operable to switch to a high-pass filtering configuration.

10. The hearing aid of claim 4, wherein the switching circuit is operable to electrically active a filter of the plurality of filters.

11. The hearing aid of claim 4, wherein the switching circuit is operable to electrically remove a filter of the plurality of filters from operation.

12. The hearing aid of claim 4, wherein the switching circuit is responsive to varying changes in the magnetic sensor relative to the magnetic field strength sensed by the magnetic sensor.

13. The hearing aid of claim 4, wherein the magnetic sensor includes one or more of a giant magnetoresistivity (GMR) device, an anisotropic magnetoresistivity (AMR) device, or a spin dependent tunneling (SDT) device.

14. A method comprising:

providing an electrical signal from an input system of a hearing aid; and

switching to a filtering configuration of the electrical signal based on a magnetic field sensed by a magnetic sensor of a switching circuit of the hearing aid, the filtering configuration being one of multiple filtering configurations associated with a plurality of filters of the hearing aid, each filtering configuration having a correspondence to a sensed magnetic field strength different from the other filtering configurations.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein switching to a filtering configuration includes switching from a default filter configuration corresponding to the magnetic sensor not sensing a magnetic field.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein switching from a default filter configuration includes switching from a low-pass filtering configuration.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein switching to a filtering configuration includes switching to a band-pass filtering configuration or to a high-pass filtering configuration.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein switching to a filtering configuration includes electrically activating a filter of the plurality of filters.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein switching to a filtering configuration includes electrically removing a filter of the plurality of filters.

20. The method of claim 14, wherein switching to a filtering configuration includes switching in response to varying changes in the magnetic sensor relative to the magnetic field strength sensed by the magnetic sensor.