VISION-AIDED HEARING ASSISTING DEVICE

• US 20140307879A1
• Filed: 04/10/2014
• Published: 10/16/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/11/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: National Central University
• Original Assignee: National Central University
• Inventors: WANG, Jia-Ching, LIN, Chang-Hong, SHIH, Chih-Hao
• Granted Patent: US 9,280,914 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 381/56
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 21/009 Teaching or communicating with deaf persons G09B21/04 takes precedence; deaf and dumb persons G09B21/00
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 21/10 Transforming into visible information

Abstract

The present invention discloses a vision-aided hearing assisting device, which includes a display device, a microphone and a processing unit. The processing unit includes a receiving module, a message generating module and a display driving module. The processing unit is electrically connected to the display device and the microphone. The receiving module receives a surrounding sound signal, which is generated by the microphone. The message generating module analyzes the surrounding sound signal according to a present-scenario mode to generate a related message related with the surrounding sound signal. The display driving module drives the display device to display the related message.

Claims

1. A vision-aided hearing assisting device comprising:

a display device;

a microphone configured to sense surrounding sound so as to generate a surrounding sound signal; and

a processing unit electrically connected to the display device and the microphone, the processing unit comprising;

a receiving module configured to receive the surrounding sound signal;

a message generating module configured to analyze the surrounding sound signal according to a present-scenario mode to generate a related message related with the surrounding sound signal; and

a display driving module configured to drive the display device to display the related message.

2. The vision-aided hearing assisting device of claim 1, wherein the processing unit further comprises:

a sound-source direction processing module configured to analyze at least one sound-source direction of the surrounding sound,

wherein the message generating module inserts information about the at least one sound-source direction into the related message, such that the display device driving module drives the display device to display the information of the at least one sound-source direction in the related message.

3. The vision-aided hearing assisting device of claim 1, wherein the processing unit further comprises:

a sound-source type processing module configured to analyze at least one sound-source type of the surrounding sound;

wherein the message generating module inserts information about the at least one sound-source type into the related message, such that the display device driving module drives the display device to display the information of the at least one sound-source type in the related message.

4. The vision-aided hearing assisting device of claim 1, wherein the message generating module comprises:

a warning notice element configured to compare the surrounding sound signal with a plurality of emergency response models when the present-scenario mode is a warning mode,

wherein, when the surrounding sound signal matches one of the emergency response models, the warning notice element generates a warning notice message corresponding to the matched emergency response model, to be embedded into the related message.

5. The vision-aided hearing assisting device of claim 4 further comprising:

at least two vibration units electrically connected to the processing unit,

wherein the processing unit further comprises;

a sound-source direction processing module configured to analyze at least one sound-source direction of the surrounding sound; and

a vibration-unit driving module configured to drive the vibration unit corresponding to the at least one sound-source type or at least one sound-source direction, to generate vibration.

6. The vision-aided hearing assisting device of claim 1, wherein the message generating module comprises:

a speech recognition element configured to translate a surrounding speech signal from the surrounding sound signal into a speech content, and generate the related message according to the speech content.

7. The vision-aided hearing assisting device of claim 6, wherein the message generating module further comprises:

a keyword extracting element configured to extract at least one keyword from the speech content for generating the related message.

8. The vision-aided hearing assisting device of claim 1, wherein the message generating module comprises:

a sentiment analyzing element configured to analyze a surrounding speech signal from the surrounding sound signal to generate information about present sentiment of a neighboring person, and to embed the information about the present sentiment of the neighboring person into the related message.

9. The vision-aided hearing assisting device of claim 8, wherein the message generating module further comprises:

a cadence analyzing element configured to analyze cadence information from a surrounding speech signal from the surrounding sound signal, wherein the sentiment analyzing element generates the cadence information of speech of the neighboring person and embeds the cadence information into the related message.

10. The vision-aided hearing assisting device of claim 1, wherein the message generating module comprises:

a voice-parameter analyzing element configured to analyze at least one voice parameter from a surrounding speech signal from the surrounding sound signal, and to embed the at least one voice parameter into the related message.