Earhealth monitoring system and method III
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A system configured to be inserted in an ear canal of an ear and configured to monitor a sound pressure level (SPL) dose at the ear comprising:
- an ambient sound microphone (ASM) positioned at an entrance to the ear canal and configured to receive an ambient acoustic signal from an ambient environment external to the ear canal;
an ear canal receiver (ECR) positioned within the ear canal, the ear canal receiver configured to receive an input signal and to generate an acoustic signal within the ear canal; and
a logic circuit operatively connected to the ambient sound microphone and the ear canal receiver, the logic circuit configured to simultaneously determine a first SPL response and a second SPL response within a time period Δ
t including a plurality of samples, the first SPL response measured from the ambient acoustic signal received by the ambient sound microphone, the second SPL response determined from at least one of the input signal or the acoustic signal generated by the ear canal receiver, the logic circuit configured to combine the first SPL response and the second SPL response for the time period Δ
t as a current SPL dose and to combine the current SPL dose with a previous SPL dose to form a total SPL dose.
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Abstract
A system for monitoring sound pressure levels at the ear includes an ambient sound microphone (ASM) for receiving ambient sounds and an ear canal receiver (ECR) for producing audio signals as a function of ambient sound received at the ambient sound microphone and a sound signal received from an associated personal audio device. A logic circuit is operatively associated with the ASM and ECR and calculates a total SPL_Dose experienced by the ear for periods Δt. The logic circuit may select an action parameter in response to the Total SPL_Dose.
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Citations
13 Claims
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1. A system configured to be inserted in an ear canal of an ear and configured to monitor a sound pressure level (SPL) dose at the ear comprising:
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an ambient sound microphone (ASM) positioned at an entrance to the ear canal and configured to receive an ambient acoustic signal from an ambient environment external to the ear canal; an ear canal receiver (ECR) positioned within the ear canal, the ear canal receiver configured to receive an input signal and to generate an acoustic signal within the ear canal; and a logic circuit operatively connected to the ambient sound microphone and the ear canal receiver, the logic circuit configured to simultaneously determine a first SPL response and a second SPL response within a time period Δ
t including a plurality of samples, the first SPL response measured from the ambient acoustic signal received by the ambient sound microphone, the second SPL response determined from at least one of the input signal or the acoustic signal generated by the ear canal receiver, the logic circuit configured to combine the first SPL response and the second SPL response for the time period Δ
t as a current SPL dose and to combine the current SPL dose with a previous SPL dose to form a total SPL dose. - View Dependent Claims (2, 5, 6, 7)
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- 3. The system of 1, further comprising a readable memory operatively coupled to the logic circuit, one or more action parameters being stored in the readable memory, the logic circuit comparing the total SPL dose to a threshold value, and if the total SPL dose is greater than the threshold value, the logic circuit reads at least one of the one or more action parameters from the readable memory.
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8. A method of monitoring a sound pressure level (SPL) dose at an earpiece comprising:
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measuring an ambient acoustic signal from an ambient environment external to an ear canal of an ear via an ambient sound microphone (ASM) of the earpiece positioned at an entrance to the ear canal; simultaneously determining a first SPL response (SPL1) and a second SPL response (SPL2) within a time period Δ
t including a plurality of samples, the first SPL response measured from the ambient acoustic signal received by the ambient sound microphone, the second SPL response determined from at least one of an input signal received by an ear canal receiver (ECR) of the earpiece positioned within the ear canal or an acoustic signal emitted by the ear canal receiver responsive to the input signal;combining the first SPL response and the second SPL response for the time period Δ
t as a current SPL dose; andcalculating a total SPL dose by combining the current SPL dose with a previous SPL dose. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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Specification