MULTISENSOR HEARING ASSIST DEVICE FOR HEALTH

• US 20130343585A1
• Filed: 09/20/2012
• Published: 12/26/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/20/2012
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies General IP PTE Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Broadcom Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bennett, James D., Walley, John
• Application Number:
  US13/623,545
• Publication Number:
  US 20130343585A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 381/315
• CPC Class Codes: A61J 1/00 Containers specially adapted for medical or pharmaceutical purposes capsules or the like for oral use A61J3/07; specially adapted for surgical or diagnostic appliances or instruments A61B50/30; containers for radioactive substances G21F5/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2225/43 Signal processing in hearing aids to enhance the speech intelligibility
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2225/55 Communication between hearing aids and external devices via a network for data exchange
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2460/03 Aspects of the reduction of energy consumption in hearing devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2460/13 Hearing devices using bone conduction transducers
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/554 using a wireless connection, e.g. between microphone and amplifier or using Tcoils
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

A hearing assist device is associated with an ear of a user. Health characteristics of the user are measured by sensors of the hearing assist device. The measured health characteristics may be analyzed in the hearing assist device, or transmitted from the hearing assist device for remote analysis. Based on the analysis, alerts, instructions, and other information may be displayed to the user in the form of text or graphics, or may be played by the hearing assist device in the form of sound/voice. Medical personnel may be alerted when problems with the user are detected by the hearing assist device. The user may provide verbal commands to the hearing assist device. The hearing assist device may be configured to filter sounds, and may be configured for a personal hearing frequency response of the user. The hearing assist device may be configured for speech recognition to recognize commands.

Claims

1. A hearing assist device that is mounted in association with an ear of a user, the user being supported by a second device, the hearing assist device comprising:

a medical sensor configured to both sense a characteristic of the user and to generate a sensor output signal;

processing logic configured to construct sensor data based at least in part on the sensor output signal;

a transceiver configured to wireless communications with the second device, the wireless communications to the second device comprising the sensor data, and the wireless communications from the second device comprising at least one command.

2. The hearing assist device of claim 1, further comprising:

at least one additional medical sensor configured to sense a corresponding characteristic of the user and generate a corresponding sensor output signal.

3. The hearing assist device of claim 1, further comprising:

a rechargeable battery; and

a charging circuit configured to receive a radio frequency signal and generate a charge current that charges the rechargeable battery based on the received radio frequency signal.

4. The hearing assist device of claim 1, further comprising:

a speaker;

wherein the processing logic is configured to generate an audio signal at least relating to the processed sensor data; and

wherein the speaker is configured to broadcast sound into the ear of the user generated based on the audio signal.

5. The hearing assist device of claim 4, wherein the sound includes at least one of a tone, a beeping sound, or a voice that includes at least one of a verbal instruction to the user, a verbal warning to the user, or a verbal question to the user.

6. The hearing assist device of claim 1, further comprising:

a microphone configured to receive environmental sound and generate an audio signal based on the received environmental sound;

wherein the processing logic is configured to selectively favor one or more frequencies of the audio signal to generate a modified audio signal; and

wherein the speaker is configured to receive the modified audio signal and broadcast sound generated from the modified audio signal into the ear of the user.

7. The hearing assist device of claim 6, wherein the processing logic is configured to selectively favor the one or more frequencies of the environmental sound to perform at least one of noise cancelation or hearing loss compensation.

8. The hearing assist device of claim 6, further comprising:

a microphone configured to receive a voice of the user and generate an audio signal based on the received voice;

wherein the processing logic is configured to generate an information signal based on the audio signal; and

wherein the transceiver is configured to transmit the generated information signal to the second device.

9. The hearing assist device of claim 1, further comprising:

a near field communication (NFC) coil coupled to the transceiver.

10. A method in a hearing assist device that is mounted in association with an ear of a user, comprising:

receiving medical sensor data based on sensor information determined by at least one medical sensor of the hearing assist device;

transmitting a first communication related to the generated medical sensor data to a second device;

receiving a second communication that is generated based on the first communication; and

performing a function identified by the second communication.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein said receiving a second communication comprises:

receiving additional sensor data determined by the second device.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the second device is a supporting local device that relays information of the first communication to a remote third device, the method further comprising:

analyzing the medical sensor data at the remote third device.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

analyzing the medical sensor data in the hearing assist device.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the second communication is a command relating to sensor data capture, and the command relating to sensor data capture relates to at least one of a sensing configuration or a hearing assist device configuration.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the second communication defines audio playback, the second communication includes audio data for the audio playback, and the audio playback is configured to prompt for user input.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein the supporting device is configured to contact a third party via a third party device.

17. A hearing assist device that is mounted in association with an ear of a user, comprising:

a medical sensor configured to sense a characteristic of the user and generate a sensor output signal;

processing logic configured to generate processed sensor data based on the sensor output signal; and

a speaker configured to receive a voice audio signal related to the processed sensor data, and broadcast voice from the speaker into the ear of the user based on the received voice audio signal.

18. The hearing assist device of claim 17, further comprising:

a transceiver configured to wirelessly transmit the processed sensor data to a second device, and wirelessly receive voice information included in the voice audio signal from the second device in response to the transmitted processed sensor data.

19. The hearing assist device of claim 17, further comprising:

storage configured to store a plurality of voice segments;

wherein the processing logic is configured to select a voice segment from the storage and generate the voice audio signal based on the selected voice segment.

20. The hearing assist device of claim 19, wherein the processing logic is configured to modify at least one frequency characteristic of the voice audio signal according to a hearing frequency response of the user.