Bluetooth transmission facility for hearing devices, and corresponding transmission method

• US 8,666,314 B2
• Filed: 06/26/2007
• Issued: 03/04/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sivantos Gmbh (WS Audiology A/S)
• Original Assignee: Siemens Audiologische Technik GmbH (Siemens AG)
• Inventors: Lotter, Thomas, Reithinger, Jrgen
• Primary Examiner(s): Maung, Nay A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Rivero, Alejandro
• Application Number:
  US11/823,041
• Publication Number:
  US 20080013763A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,443 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 455/41.2
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/554 using a wireless connection, e.g. between microphone and amplifier or using Tcoils

Abstract

A wireless audio transmission, for example from a television to a hearing device, is to be achieved simply and with a low signal delay. For this purpose are proposed a transmission facility with a transmission device for transmitting audio data in a signal conforming to a Bluetooth® communications protocol, a hearing-aid-specific coder which is integrated into the transmission device for the purpose of compressing the audio data before its transmission, and a relay station for converting the Bluetooth® signal from the transmission device into a signal for inductive transmission to the hearing device. In the relay station, no recoding is performed during the conversion. The transmission device transmits in accordance with the Bluetooth® A2DP protocol. The hearing-aid-specific coder has a lower sampling rate than the standard Bluetooth® coder SBC. Encoding delays and processing delays in the relay station can be minimized by this system.

Claims

1. A transmission facility for transmitting audio data to a hearing aid device, comprising:

a wireless transmission device that receives an audio signal;

a coder in the wireless transmission device that encodes the audio signal into an audio data stream comprising a digital encoding and a data rate that are both compatible with a decoder in the hearing aid device, wherein the wireless transmission device transmits the audio data stream wirelessly over a first transmission link in said digital encoding and at the data rate;

a remote control configured to control the wireless transmission device and which is physically separate from the wireless transmission device and the hearing aid device; and

a relay station integrated in the remote control to receive the audio data stream over the first transmission link, and to retransmit the audio data stream in said digital encoding and at the data rate to the hearing aid device over a second transmission link without recoding of the audio data stream.

2. A transmission facility as claimed in claim 1, wherein both the first and second transmission links use an A2DP SBC data communications protocol.

3. A transmission facility as claimed in claim 2, wherein the first transmission link uses radio frequency transmission, and the second transmission link uses inductive transmission.

4. A transmission facility as claimed in claim 1, wherein the coder compresses the audio signal to create the audio data stream at the compatible data rate.

5. A transmission facility as claimed in claim 1, wherein the coder acts as an alternative to an A2DP SBC codec in the wireless transmission device, and encodes the audio data stream according to an A2DP SBC communications protocol at a sampling frequency of less than 44.1 kHz.

6. A transmission facility as claimed in claim 5, wherein an audio bandwidth of the audio data after the encoding is less than 15 kHz.

12. The transmission device of claim 1, wherein the transmission device comprises a transmission device selected from the group consisting of a television, and a sound-reproduction device.

7. A transmission device for transmitting audio data to a hearing aid device according to a A2DP protocol, comprising:

a coder integrated into the transmission device that encodes the audio data to a signal at a lower sampling rate than 44.1 kHz in a format of the hearing aid device;

a remote control comprising a device configured to control the transmission device and which is physically separate from the transmission device and the hearing aid device; and

a relay station integrated in the remote control to receive the signal from the transmission device over a first wireless transmission link at the lower sampling rate in the format of the hearing aid device, and to convert the signal for inductively transmitting to the hearing aid device over a second wireless transmission link at the lower sampling rate in the format of the hearing aid device without recoding of the signal.

8. The transmission device as claimed in claim 7, wherein the audio data is bidirectionally transmitted.

9. The transmission device as claimed in claim 7, wherein an audio bandwidth of the audio data after the encoding is less than 15 kHz.

10. The transmission device as claimed in claim 9, wherein the audio bandwidth is between 8 kHz and 12 kHz.

11. The transmission device as claimed in claim 7, wherein a data transmission rate in the signal is less than 150 kbit/s.

13. A method for transmitting audio data to a hearing aid device according to a A2DP protocol, comprising:

encoding the audio data to a signal by a coder at a lower sampling rate than 44.1 kHz;

providing a remote control configured to control a transmitting device transmitting the audio data, wherein the remote control is physically separate from the transmitting device and the hearing aid device;

integrating a relay station in the remote control;

transmitting the signal over a first wireless transmission link to the relay station at the lower sampling rate in a format of the hearing aid device;

converting the signal in the relay station to an inductive signal without recoding of the signal; and

inductively transmitting to the hearing aid device the converted signal from the relay station over a second wireless transmission link at the lower sampling rate and in the format of the hearing aid device.

14. The method as claimed in claim 13, wherein the audio data is bidirectionally transmitted.

15. The method as claimed in claim 13, wherein an audio bandwidth of the audio data after the encoding is less than 15 kHz.

16. The method as claimed in claim 15, wherein the audio bandwidth is between 8 kHz and 12 kHz.

17. The method as claimed in claim 13, wherein a data transmission rate in the signal is less than 150 kbit/s.