Text to speech conversion in hearing systems
First Claim
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1. A hearing system for a person, comprising:
- input means for providing electrical signals produced from sound,signal processing means for processing said electrical signals for producing audio signals,means for storing digital text representative of text information to be provided to said person and received from a source of the digital text,means for converting the digital text from said text storing means into speech audio signals, andoutput transducer means for converting the audio signals produced by the signal processing means and the speech audio signals produced by the means for converting digital text into a stimulation of said person'"'"'s hearing,wherein said hearing system is sized to fit at least partly within the person'"'"'s ear canal or behind the person'"'"'s ear or be at least partially implanted within the person'"'"'s skull; and
wherein the text converting means comprise a programmable digital signal processor and a program memory with a speech synthesis software for converting the digital text into speech audio signals.
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Abstract
A hearing system for a person, comprising: an input device for providing electrical signals produced from sound, a signal processor for processing said electrical signals for producing audio signals, a digital text storage for storing digital text received from a source of digital text, a converter for converting digital text from said digital text storage into audio signals, and an output transducer for converting audio signals into a stimulation of a person'"'"'s hearing. The hearing system is designed to be worn at least partly within the person'"'"'s ear canal or behind the person'"'"'s ear or is designed to be at least partially implanted within the person'"'"'s skull.
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Citations
36 Claims
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1. A hearing system for a person, comprising:
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input means for providing electrical signals produced from sound, signal processing means for processing said electrical signals for producing audio signals, means for storing digital text representative of text information to be provided to said person and received from a source of the digital text, means for converting the digital text from said text storing means into speech audio signals, and output transducer means for converting the audio signals produced by the signal processing means and the speech audio signals produced by the means for converting digital text into a stimulation of said person'"'"'s hearing, wherein said hearing system is sized to fit at least partly within the person'"'"'s ear canal or behind the person'"'"'s ear or be at least partially implanted within the person'"'"'s skull; and wherein the text converting means comprise a programmable digital signal processor and a program memory with a speech synthesis software for converting the digital text into speech audio signals. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
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32. A method for operating a hearing system which is worn at least partly within a person'"'"'s ear canal or behind a person'"'"'s ear or is at least partially implanted within a person'"'"'s skull, comprising:
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inputting digital text from a source into said hearing system, storing the digital text representative of text information to be provided to said person and received from said source of the digital text within said hearing system, converting the stored digital text into speech audio signals, converting ambient sounds into electrical signals within the hearing system, processing said electrical signals for producing speech audio signals and converting the audio signals converted from ambient sounds and the audio signals converted from the stored digital text into a stimulation of said person'"'"'s hearing; wherein the converting of the stored digital text into audio signals is performed by a programmable digital signal processor and a program memory using speech synthesis software for converting digital text into speech audio signals. - View Dependent Claims (33, 34, 36)
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35. A method for operating a hearing system which is worn at least partly within a person'"'"'s ear canal or behind a person'"'"'s ear or is at least partially implanted within a person'"'"'s skull, comprising:
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inputting digital text from a source into said hearing system, storing the digital text received from said source of the digital text within said hearing system, converting the stored digital text into audio signals, converting ambient sounds into electrical signals within the hearing system, processing said electrical signals for producing audio signals and converting the audio signals converted from ambient sounds and the audio signals converted from the stored digital text into a stimulation of said person'"'"'s hearing further comprising; converting speech to digital text within said hearing system as said digital text source.
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Specification