HEARING AID AND COMPUTING DEVICE FOR PROVIDING AUDIO LABELS

• US 20110200214A1
• Filed: 02/08/2011
• Published: 08/18/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/12/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: III Holdings 4, LLC
• Original Assignee: Audiotoniq, Inc
• Inventors: Knox, John Michael Page, Eisenberg, Andrew Lawrence, Landry, David Matthew, Ibrahim, Samir
• Granted Patent: US 8,582,790 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 381/314
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/00 Speech synthesis; Text to speech systems
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2021/065 Aids for the handicapped in understanding
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2225/39 Aspects relating to automatic logging of sound environment parameters and the performance of the hearing aid during use, e.g. histogram logging, or of user selected programs or settings in the hearing aid, e.g. usage logging
• 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 25/50 Customised settings for obtaining desired overall acoustical characteristics

Abstract

A hearing aid includes a microphone to convert audible sounds into sound-related electrical signals and a memory configured to store a plurality of hearing aid profiles. Each hearing aid profile has an associated audio label. The hearing aid further includes a processor coupled to the microphone and to the memory and configured to select one of the plurality of hearing aid profiles. The processor applies the one of the plurality of hearing aid profiles to the sound-related electrical signals to produce a shaped output signal to compensate for a hearing impairment of a user. The processor is configured to insert the associated audio label into the shaped output signal. The hearing aid also includes a speaker coupled to the processor and configured to convert the shaped output signal into an audible sound.

Claims

1. A hearing aid comprising:

a microphone to convert audible sounds into sound-related electrical signals;

a memory configured to store a plurality of hearing aid profiles, each hearing aid profile having an associated audio label; and

a processor coupled to the microphone and to the memory and configured to select one of the plurality of hearing aid profiles, the processor to apply the one of the plurality of hearing aid profiles to the sound-related electrical signals to produce a shaped output signal to compensate for a hearing impairment of a user, the processor configured to insert the associated audio label into the shaped output signal; and

a speaker coupled to the processor and configured to convert the shaped output signal into an audible sound.

2. The hearing aid of claim 1, wherein the audio label comprises an audio recording of a label for the one of the plurality of hearing aid profiles.

3. The hearing aid of claim 1, wherein:

the memory stores a text-to-speech converter executable by the processor to convert text into an audio signal; and

the processor executes the text-to-speech converter to convert a text label associated with the hearing aid profile into the audio label in response to the selecting of the one of the plurality of hearing aid profiles.

4. The hearing aid of claim 1, wherein each audio label comprises a recorded sound file of a short duration which uniquely identifies an associated hearing aid profile of the plurality of hearing aid profiles.

5. The hearing aid of claim 1, further comprising a transceiver configured to selectively communicate with a computing device through a communication channel.

6. The hearing aid of claim 5, wherein the memory further stores instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

receive a trigger indicating a change in an acoustic environment of the hearing aid;

identify one or more hearing aid profiles from the plurality of hearing aid profiles that substantially match parameters associated with the trigger;

retrieve an audio label for each of the one or more hearing aid profiles;

generate an audio menu including a list of options, each option related to one of the one or more hearing aid profiles and having an associated audio label; and

provide the audio menu to the speaker.

7. The hearing aid of claim 5, wherein the memory stores instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to:

receive an audio menu including one or more user selectable options corresponding to one or more hearing aid profiles;

provide the audio menu to the speaker.

8. The hearing aid of claim 7, wherein the memory further includes instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to:

receive a hearing aid profile from the communication channel; and

apply the hearing aid profile to produce the shaped output signal.

9. A computing device comprising:

a memory configured to store a configuration utility, a plurality of hearing aid profiles, and a respective plurality of audio labels, wherein each audio label is associated with one of the plurality of hearing aid profiles as a title;

a transceiver configurable to communicate with a hearing aid through a communication channel; and

a processor coupled to the memory and the transceiver and adapted to execute the configuration utility to select one of the plurality of hearing aid profiles from the memory to update a current hearing aid profile of the hearing aid in response to a triggering event, the processor to provide the associated audio label as a first output signal and to provide the selected one of the plurality of hearing aid profiles as a second output signal for communication to the hearing aid through the communication channel.

10. The computing device of claim 9, further comprising a speaker configured to receive the first output signal and to reproduce the first output signal as an audible sound indicating a change of the current hearing aid profile of the hearing aid.

11. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the first output signal is communicated to the hearing aid through the communication channel for reproduction as an audible sound by the hearing aid.

12. The computing device of claim 11, wherein:

the first and second output signals are communicated to the hearing aid through the communication channel; and

the second output signal is communicated to the hearing aid before the first output signal.

13. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the audio label comprises a recorded sound file.

14. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the memory includes a text-to-speech converter that, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to convert a text label into the audio label comprising a sound file and to associate the sound file with the selected one of the plurality of hearing aid profiles.

15. A computing device comprising:

a memory configured to store one or more audio labels and one or more hearing aid profiles, each of the one or more hearing aid profiles includes an associated text label, the memory including a configuration utility executable by a processor;

a transceiver configured to communicate with a hearing aid through a communication channel; and

the processor adapted to execute the configuration utility to select one of the one or more hearing aid profiles to selectively update the hearing aid and to generate an audio label associated with the one of the one or more hearing aid profiles based on the text label, the processor to communicate the audio label and the one of the one or more hearing aid profiles to the hearing aid through the communication channel.

16. The computing device of claim 15, wherein the processor generates the audio label using the text label and the text to audio converter.

17. The computing device of claim 15, wherein the processor generates the audio label by recording an audio file of a user'"'"'s voice.

18. The computing device of claim 15, wherein the memory further includes instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

receive a trigger indicating a change in an acoustic environment of the hearing aid;

identify a set of hearing aid profiles from the one or more hearing aid profiles that substantially match parameters associated with the trigger;

retrieve an audio label for each hearing aid profile of the set of hearing aid profiles;

generate an audio menu including a list of options based on the associated text labels for the set of hearing aid profiles, each option related to one of the set of hearing aid profiles and having an associated audio label; and

send the audio menu to the hearing aid.

19. The computing device of claim 18, wherein the memory further includes instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

receive a user selection related to one of the list of options; and

provide the related one of the one or more hearing aid profiles to the hearing aid in response to receiving the user selection.

20. The computing device of claim 15, wherein the memory stores a text-to-speech converter that, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to:

receive a text label associated with a hearing aid profile;

convert the text label to an audio label; and

provide the audio label to the speaker.