METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR WIRELESS COMMUNICATION BETWEEN A TELEPHONE AND A HEARING AID

• US 20130208932A1
• Filed: 03/15/2013
• Published: 08/15/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Widex A/S (WS Audiology A/S)
• Original Assignee: Widex A/S (WS Audiology A/S)
• Inventors: NORGAARD, Peter Magnus, KROMAN, Morten, HELLINGHUS, Jan
• Granted Patent: US 9,877,120 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 381/315
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/24 Arrangements for testing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/60 including speech amplifiers
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/7246 by connection of exchangeable housing parts
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/552 Binaural
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/554 using a wireless connection, e.g. between microphone and amplifier or using Tcoils
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/70 Adaptation of deaf aid to hearing loss, e.g. initial electronic fitting

Abstract

The present invention relates to a system comprising a telephone (10) and a hearing aid (40). The analog signal to the loudspeaker (11) of the telephone (10) is picked up and digitalized at the telephone where after it is wirelessly transmitted to the hearing aid (40) using a radio transceiver at the telephone (10), coupling with a radio at the hearing aid. The sound from the telephone (10) is hereby transmitted directly to the hearing aid without relying on the acoustic coupling between the telephone speaker (11) and the hearing aid microphones and may further be transmitted to both left and right hearing aid at the same time. The invention provides a telephone, a hearing aid and a method of communicating with a hearing aid.

Claims

1. A telephone adapted for communicating with a hearing aid, said telephone comprising a telephone loudspeaker, an electrical signal line for exciting the loudspeaker, a radio transceiver adapted for communicating with a hearing aid radio unit, and an interface circuit, said interface circuit having an analogue to digital converter, said interface circuit being connected to obtain an electrical signal from said electrical signal line and being adapted for converting said electrical signal into a digital signal by the analog to digital converter and for transmitting said digital signal to the hearing aid, using said radio transceiver.

2. The telephone according to claim 1, wherein the interface circuit is further connected to the telephone microphone.

3. The telephone according to claim 1, wherein the activation of the telephone when placing or receiving a call enables the radio transceiver for communication with a hearing aid.

4. The telephone according to claim 1, wherein a bias voltage for the telephone microphone enables the radio transceiver.

5. The telephone according to claim 1, wherein the telephone is adapted for adjusting one or more parameters of the hearing aid via said radio transceiver.

6. The telephone according to claim 1, wherein the interface circuit is adapted to receive and process data from said hearing aid, and wherein the interface circuit is adapted to convert data from the hearing aid into an analogue signal and to superimpose the analogue signal onto the microphone signal of the telephone.

7. The telephone according to claim 1, wherein the telephone is adapted to initiate a test of the acoustic parameters of a contralateral hearing aid.

8. A hearing aid comprising a radio circuit adapted for communication with a telephone, said telephone having a telephone loudspeaker, an electrical signal line for exciting the loudspeaker, a radio transceiver adapted for communicating with said hearing aid radio circuit, and an interface circuit, said interface circuit being connected to obtain an electrical signal from said electrical signal line and being adapted for converting said electrical signal into a digital signal by an analog to digital converter and for transmitting said digital signal to the hearing aid using said radio transceiver, wherein parameters of the hearing aid can be adjusted by tones sent over a telephone network to said telephone and from there to the hearing aid radio circuit.

9. The hearing aid according to claim 8, adapted for communicating with the telephone via DTMF tones sent over the radio circuit.

10. The hearing aid according to claim 8, adapted for tuning electrical components of the hearing aid upon detection of a predetermined tone signal.

11. The hearing aid according to claim 8, adapted for tuning an antenna of the radio circuit.

12. The hearing aid according to claim 8, adapted for initiating a test of the acoustic properties upon detection of a predetermined tone signal.

13. The hearing aid according to claim 12, adapted for relaying a control signal to a contralateral hearing aid, when detecting a request to measure the acoustic properties.

14. A method for adjusting parameters of a hearing aid comprising:

selecting a first telephone, said first telephone having a telephone loudspeaker, an electrical signal line for exciting the loudspeaker, a radio transceiver, and an interface circuit;

obtaining by said interface circuit an electrical signal from said electrical signal line;

converting said electrical signal into a digital signal by an analog to digital converter;

transmitting said digital signal to the hearing aid using said radio transceiver;

sending a tone sequence from said first telephone to the hearing aid;

determining by said hearing aid whether the tones contain an adjustment code for adjusting said parameters of the hearing aid; and

, in the affirmative, adjusting the parameters of the hearing aid.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein the tones are generated at a computer, or at a second telephone, and transmitted to said first telephone via a telecommunications network.

16. The method according to claim 14, wherein the tone sequence is decoded to generate a bit sequence, said decoding being performed in said first telephone.

17. The method according to claim 14, wherein the tone sequence is decoded to generate a bit sequence, said decoding being performed in the hearing aid.

18. The method according to claim 14, wherein the hearing aid relays the wireless signal from the telephone to a contralateral hearing aid.

19. A method for communicating between a telephone and a hearing aid, the telephone having a telephone loudspeaker, and an electrical signal line for exciting the loudspeaker, comprising the steps of:

providing in the telephone a radio transceiver and an interface circuit;

connecting the interface circuit to the electrical signal line for obtaining an electrical signal from the electrical signal line;

converting the electrical signal into a digital signal;

and transmitting by the radio transceiver the digital signal to the hearing aid.

20. The method according to claim 19, comprising receiving in the interface circuit data from a hearing aid via a radio link, and superimposing a signal received from the hearing aid onto the telephone microphone signal.