System and method for locating a hearing aid

• US 9,191,756 B2
• Filed: 12/07/2012
• Issued: 11/17/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/06/2012
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: III Holdings 4, LLC
• Original Assignee: III Holdings 4, LLC
• Inventors: Neumeyer, Frederick Charles, Yancey, Gregory Charles
• Primary Examiner(s): Yun, Eugene
• Application Number:
  US13/708,140
• Publication Number:
  US 20130178162A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,075 Days
• Field of Search: 455/41.2, 455/404.2
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/24 Reminder alarms, e.g. anti-loss alarms
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2225/55 Communication between hearing aids and external devices via a network for data exchange
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2460/07 Use of position data from wide-area or local-area positioning systems in hearing devices, e.g. program or information selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2499/11 Transducers incorporated or for use in hand-held devices, e.g. mobile phones, PDA's, camera's
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/30 Monitoring or testing of hearing aids, e.g. functioning, settings, battery power
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/554 using a wireless connection, e.g. between microphone and amplifier or using Tcoils
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

A smart phone including a computer readable storage medium to store a hearing aid locator application and a processor coupled to the computer readable storage medium to execute the hearing aid locator application to track a last known location of a hearing aid.

Claims

1. A smart phone comprising:

one or more processors; and

a transceiver coupled to the processor and configurable to communicate with a hearing aid through a communication channel; and

a non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing hearing aid locator application that, when executed by the one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to;

establish the communication channel with the hearing aid;

monitor communication channel; and

periodically store data related to the location of the smart phone as the last known location of the hearing aid while the communication channel is open.

2. The smart phone of claim 1, wherein the hearing aid locator application, when executed by the one or more processors, further causes the one or more processors to store the time data with the data related to the location as the last known time of the hearing aid.

3. The smart phone of claim 1, further comprising:

a user interface coupled to the one or more processors to receive inputs from a user and to provide information to the user; and

wherein the hearing aid locator application, when executed by the one or more processors, further causes the one or more processors to;

display the last known location on the user interface.

4. The smart phone of claim 1, wherein the hearing aid locator application, when executed by the one or more processors, further causes the one or more processors to:

store data related to the location in response to receiving data from the hearing aid over the communication channel.

5. The smart phone of claim 1, wherein the hearing aid locator application, when executed by the one or more processors, further causes the one or more processors to:

update the data related to the location in response to losing communicating with the hearing aid.

6. The smart phone of claim 5, wherein the hearing aid locator application, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the one or more processors to:

attempt to re-establish the communication channel with the hearing aid; and

cause the hearing aid to play a tone in response to the communication channel being re-established.

7. The smart phone of claim 1, further comprising:

a speaker coupled to the one or more processors; and

wherein the hearing aid locator application, when executed by the one or more processors, further causes the one or more processors to;

cause the speaker to play tones in response to losing the communication with the hearing aids.

8. The smart phone of claim 7, wherein a rate of the tones is increased as a signal strength of the communication channel increases.

9. The smart phone of claim 1, further comprising a position detecting circuit coupled to the one or more processors to determine the data related to the location of the smart phone.

10. The smart phone of claim 9, wherein the position detecting circuit comprises a global positioning system (GPS).

11. The smart phone of claim 1, further comprising:

a network interface coupled to the processor and configured to communicate with a network; and

wherein the hearing aid locator application, when executed by the one or more processors, further causes the one or more processors to;

provide the last known location to a server through the network.

12. A portable electronic device comprising:

one or more processors;

a user interface coupled to the one or more processors to receive inputs from a user and to provide information to the user;

a transceiver coupled to the processor to communicate with the hearing aid through a communication channel;

a position detecting circuit coupled to the one or more processors to determine a location of the portable electronic device; and

a non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing instructions that when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to;

establish the communication channel with the hearing aid;

monitor the communication channel; and

periodically store the location as a last known location of the hearing aid,

while the communication channel remains open.

13. The portable electronic device of claim 12, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further causes the one or more processors to:

update the location in response to communicating data to or from the hearing aid.

14. The portable electronic device of claim 12, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the one or more processors to:

update the location in response to losing the communicating channel with the hearing aid.

15. The portable electronic device of claim 14, wherein the hearing aid locator application, when executed by the one or more processors, further causes the one or more processors to:

attempt to re-establish the communication channel with the hearing aid; and

cause the hearing aid to play a tone in response to the communication channel being re-established.

16. The portable electronic device of claim 12, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the one or more processors to:

attempt to re-establish the communication channel with the hearing aid in response to losing the communication; and

provide an alert to the user interface if the communication channel is not re-established.

17. The portable electronic device of claim 16, wherein the alert includes the last known location.

18. A method comprising:

establishing a communication channel with a hearing aid at a smart phone;

storing time data and location data in a non-transitory computer readable storage medium of the smart phone in response to establishing the communication channel;

receiving a request for the time data and the location data at a user interface of the smart phone; and

providing the time data and location data to the user interface.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising updating the time data and location data while the communication channel is open.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising updating the time data and location data when the communication channel is closed.