Near Field Communication Circuitry Used For Hearing Aid Compatibility

• US 20130295845A1
• Filed: 05/07/2012
• Published: 11/07/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/07/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Corporation
• Inventors: Maenpaa, Ossi E.
• Granted Patent: US 9,379,777 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/41.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/00 Near-field transmission systems, e.g. inductive or capacitive transmission systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/26 using coils

Abstract

An apparatus including a coil antenna; and near field communication (NFC) circuitry connected to the coil antenna. The NFC circuitry is configured to create a modulated signal from an input audio signal, and output the modulated signal to the coil antenna.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a coil antenna; and

near field communication (NFC) circuitry connected to the coil antenna,

where the NFC circuitry is configured to create a modulated signal from an input audio signal, and output the modulated signal to the coil antenna.

2. An apparatus as in claim 1 where the NFC circuitry is a near field communication (NFC) chipset.

3. An apparatus as in claim 1 where the NFC circuitry is configured to amplify the input audio signal as the modulated signal.

4. An apparatus as in claim 1 where the coil antenna is at least a part of a hearing aid compatibility (HAC) antenna.

5. An apparatus as in claim 4 further comprising a connection of the NFC circuitry to a first location of the coil antenna and to another location of the HAC antenna.

6. An apparatus as in claim 4 where the NFC circuitry and the hearing aid compatibility (HAC) antenna form a hearing aid compatibility (HAC) system of the apparatus.

7. An apparatus as in claim 6 where the apparatus comprises a near field communication (NFC) system comprising the NFC circuitry and the coil antenna, and where the NFC circuitry forms a single amplifier of both the NFC system and the HAC system.

8. An apparatus as in claim 1 where the apparatus comprises audio signal circuitry connected to an input of the NFC circuitry to send the input audio signal from the audio signal circuitry to the NFC circuitry.

9. An apparatus as in claim 1 where the NFC circuitry forms an audio signal amplifier using pulse-width modulation (PWM) on the input audio signal to produce the modulated signal.

10. An apparatus as in claim 1 comprising means for using the NFC circuitry for a hearing aid compatibility (HAC) system.

11. An apparatus as in claim 1 where the apparatus is at least part of a hand-held communications device.

12. A method comprising:

receiving an audio signal by near field communication (NFC) circuitry; and

modulating the audio signal by the NFC circuitry.

13. A method as in claim 12 where the NFC circuitry provides a pulse-width modulation (PWM) of the audio signal to produce a resultant modulated signal, amplifies the resultant modulated signal, and outputs the amplified modulated signal to a coil antenna.

14. A method as in claim 13 further comprising outputting a non-modulated signal from the NFC circuitry to the coil antenna, where the coil antenna generates a NFC initiator radio frequency field from the coil antenna based upon the non-modulated signal.

15. A method as in claim 12 further comprising outputting a non-modulated signal from the NFC circuitry to an antenna which is connected to the NFC circuitry, where the antenna generates a NFC initiator radio frequency field from the antenna based upon the non-modulated signal.

16. A method as in claim 12 further comprising audio circuitry sending the audio signal to an input of the NFC circuitry, where the input is an input of a NFC chipset.

17. A method comprising:

sending a modulated signal from near field communication (NFC) circuitry to at least one coil antenna, where the modulated signal is formed from an audio signal received by the NFC circuitry; and

the modulated signal generating a magnetic field at the coil antenna, where the NFC circuitry and the coil antenna form part of a hearing aid compatibility (HAC) system.

18. A method as in claim 17 further comprising sending a non-modulated signal from the NFC circuitry to the at least one coil antenna to generate a NFC initiator radio frequency field from the coil antenna based upon the non-modulated signal.

19. A method as in claim 17 further comprising sending the modulated signal to a first location of the at least one coil antenna, and sending the non-modulated signal to a second different location of the at least one coil antenna.

20. A non-transitory program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine for performing operations, the operations comprising:

sending an audio signal to near field communication (NFC) circuitry, where the NFC circuitry is configured to form a modulated signal based upon the audio signal; and

sending the modulated signal to a coil antenna to generate a magnetic field at the coil antenna as part of a hearing aid compatibility (HAC) system.