Damper for hearing aid
First Claim
1. A hearing aid comprising:
- a. a housing having an interior and an exterior;
b. a microphone disposed in the interior of said housing and having at least one sound inlet tube to receive sound from the exterior of said housing;
c. an electronic damping circuit for damping electrical signals representative of sound received by said microphone, said electronic damping circuit having a frequency response characterized by a generally flat portion and an inverse peak, said electronic damping circuit comprising at least one switched capacitor filter for defining the inverse peak;
d. a damper control circuit connected to provide at least one capacitor bank in said at least one switched capacitor filter, said at least one switched capacitor filter of said electronic damping circuit being responsive to said at least one capacitor bank to vary the filter characteristics of said inverse peak;
e. a programming interface for controlling the capacitance of said capacitor bank; and
f. an earphone for transducing electrical signals that have been damped by said electronic damping circuit into sound representative of the sound received by said microphone, said earphone having a sound outlet tube for conducting sound to the exterior of said housing, said earphone having a frequency response including a generally flat portion and at least one undamped peak, said at least one undamped peak occurring over a frequency range that is at least partially dependent on the length of said outlet tube, said inverse peak of said electronic damping circuit occurring over a frequency range generally corresponding to the frequency range of said undamped peak thereby to provide a hearing aid output signal that is generally unaffected by undesirable characteristics of said undamped peak.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A hearing aid is set forth that includes one or more hearing aid components that introduce an undesired undamped peak into the frequency response of the hearing aid. An electronic damping filter is utilized to compensate for the undamped peak. The electronic damping filter has a notch filter response that includes an inverse peak across the frequency range of the undamped peak thereby electronically damping the frequency response so that the hearing aid output is generally unaffected by the undesired characteristics of the inverse peak.
The electronic damping filter may be programmable to vary the magnitude and/or shift the frequency of the inverse peak. A method is set forth that exploits this programmability and allows the same circuit topology to be used in two different hearing aids respectively having two different undamped peaks. A further method allows handling two or more peaks.
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Citations
70 Claims
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1. A hearing aid comprising:
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a. a housing having an interior and an exterior; b. a microphone disposed in the interior of said housing and having at least one sound inlet tube to receive sound from the exterior of said housing; c. an electronic damping circuit for damping electrical signals representative of sound received by said microphone, said electronic damping circuit having a frequency response characterized by a generally flat portion and an inverse peak, said electronic damping circuit comprising at least one switched capacitor filter for defining the inverse peak; d. a damper control circuit connected to provide at least one capacitor bank in said at least one switched capacitor filter, said at least one switched capacitor filter of said electronic damping circuit being responsive to said at least one capacitor bank to vary the filter characteristics of said inverse peak; e. a programming interface for controlling the capacitance of said capacitor bank; and f. an earphone for transducing electrical signals that have been damped by said electronic damping circuit into sound representative of the sound received by said microphone, said earphone having a sound outlet tube for conducting sound to the exterior of said housing, said earphone having a frequency response including a generally flat portion and at least one undamped peak, said at least one undamped peak occurring over a frequency range that is at least partially dependent on the length of said outlet tube, said inverse peak of said electronic damping circuit occurring over a frequency range generally corresponding to the frequency range of said undamped peak thereby to provide a hearing aid output signal that is generally unaffected by undesirable characteristics of said undamped peak. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A hearing aid comprising:
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a. a microphone for transducing sound waves into electrical signals, said microphone having a frequency response including a generally flat portion and at least one undamped peak, said at least one undamped peak occurring over a frequency range; b. a electronic damping circuit for electronically damping said at least one undamped peak, said electronic damping circuit having a frequency response characterized by a generally flat portion and an inverse peak, said inverse peak occurring over a frequency range generally corresponding to the frequency range of said undamped peak thereby to provide an electrical signal that is generally unaffected by undesirable characteristics of said undamped peak, said electronic damping circuit comprising at least one switched capacitor filter for defining the inverse peak, said at least one switched capacitor filter being responsive to at least one capacitor bank; c. a programming interface for varying the capacitance of the capacitor bank to thereby vary the filter characteristics of the at least one switched capacitor filter; d. an earphone for transducing damped electrical hearing aid signals into sound representative of the sound received by said microphone; and e. a housing for housing at least the microphone and the electronic damping circuit, the housing being shaped to conform to an ear of a hearing aid wearer. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. A hearing aid comprising:
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a. a hearing aid component having a frequency response including a generally flat portion and at least one undamped peak, said at least one undamped peak occurring over a frequency range; b. an electronic damping circuit for damping undesirable frequency response characteristics resulting from the presence of said at least one undamped peak, said electronic damping circuit having a frequency response characterized by a generally flat portion and an inverse peak, said inverse peak occurring over a frequency range generally corresponding to the frequency range of said undamped peak, said electronic damping circuit comprising at least one switched capacitor filter for defining the inverse peak, the characteristics of said switched capacitor filter being determined by one of a variable resistor and a capacitor bank; c. a programming interface for varying at least one of the resistance of the variable resistor and the capacitance of the capacitor bank to thereby vary the filter characteristics of the at least one switched capacitor filter; and d. a housing for housing at least the hearing aid component and the electronic damping circuit, the housing being shaped to conform to an ear of a hearing aid wearer. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35)
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36. A hearing aid comprising:
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a. a housing having an interior and an exterior; b. a microphone disposed in the interior of said housing and having at least one sound inlet tube to receive sound from the exterior of said housing; c. an electronic damping circuit for damping electrical signals representative of sound received by said microphone, said electronic damping circuit having a frequency response characterized by a generally flat portion and an inverse peak, said electronic damping circuit comprising at least one filter for defining the inverse peak; d. a damper control circuit connected to vary the filter characteristics of said inverse peak of said electronic damping circuit; e. a programming interface for controlling the damper control circuit; and f. an earphone for transducing electrical signals that have been damped by said electronic damping circuit into sound representative of the sound received by said microphone, said earphone having a sound outlet tube for conducting sound to the exterior of said housing, said earphone having a frequency response including a generally flat portion and at least one undamped peak, said at least one undamped peak occurring over a frequency range that is at least partially dependent on the length of said outlet tube, said inverse peak of said electronic damping circuit occurring over a frequency range generally corresponding to the frequency range of said undamped peak thereby to provide a hearing aid output signal that is generally unaffected by undesirable characteristics of said undamped peak. - View Dependent Claims (37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46)
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47. A hearing aid comprising:
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a. a microphone for transducing sound waves into electrical signals, said microphone having a frequency response including a generally flat portion and at least one undamped peak, said at least one undamped peak occurring over a frequency range; b. a electronic damping circuit for electronically damping said at least one undamped peak, said electronic damping circuit having a frequency response characterized by a generally flat portion and an inverse peak, said inverse peak occurring over a frequency range generally corresponding to the frequency range of said undamped peak thereby to provide an electrical signal that is generally unaffected by undesirable characteristics of said undamped peak, said electronic damping circuit comprising at least one filter for defining the inverse peak; c. a programming interface for varying filter characteristics of the at least one filter; d. an earphone for transducing damped electrical hearing aid signals into sound representative of the sound received by said microphone; and e. a housing for housing at least the microphone and the electronic damping circuit, the housing being shaped to conform to an ear of a hearing aid wearer. - View Dependent Claims (48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59)
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60. A hearing aid comprising:
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a. a hearing aid component having a frequency response including a generally flat portion and at least one undamped peak, said at least one undamped peak occurring over a frequency range; b. an electronic damping circuit for damping undesirable frequency response characteristics resulting from the presence of said at least one undamped peak, said electronic damping circuit having a frequency response characterized by a generally flat portion and an inverse peak, said inverse peak occurring over a frequency range generally corresponding to the frequency range of said undamped peak, said electronic damping circuit comprising at least one filter for defining the inverse peak; c. a programming interface for varying the filter characteristics of the at least one filter; and d. a housing for housing at least the hearing aid component and the electronic damping circuit, the housing being shaped to conform to an ear of a hearing aid wearer. - View Dependent Claims (61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70)
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Specification