Wireless sound transmission system and method

• US 9,247,355 B2
• Filed: 02/12/2010
• Issued: 01/26/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/12/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sonova AG (Sonova Holding AG)
• Original Assignee: Sonova AG (Sonova Holding AG)
• Inventors: El-Hoiydi, Amre
• Primary Examiner(s): KIM, PAUL
• Application Number:
  US13/577,969
• Publication Number:
  US 20120308034A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,174 Days
• Field of Search: 381/77, 700/94
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0671 using different delays between antennas
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0817 with multiple receivers and antenna path selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0822 according to predefined selection scheme
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2225/55 Communication between hearing aids and external devices via a network for data exchange
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/554 using a wireless connection, e.g. between microphone and amplifier or using Tcoils
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/558 Remote control, e.g. of amplification, frequency

Abstract

A system providing sound to a user, having at least one audio signal source; a transmission unit with a digital transmitter which transmits audio signals via a wireless digital audio link as audio data packets, each packet having a start frame delimiter, audio data and a frame check sequence; at least one receiver unit having at least two digital receivers connected to a common processing unit and an antenna, and including a demodulator and a buffer, and a mechanism for stimulating the hearing of the user. Each receiver receives, verifies and buffers the audio data packets, and the processing unit reads an audio data packet from the buffer of one of the receivers. If the packet is correctly received by the receiver, the buffer of the other receivers is flushed, and if the packet has been incorrectly received, the audio data packet from the buffer of another receiver is read.

Claims

1. A system for providing sound to at least one user, comprising:

at least one audio signal source for providing audio signals;

a transmission unit comprising a digital transmitter for applying a digital modulation scheme in order to transmit the audio signals from the audio signal source via a wireless digital audio link;

at least one receiver unit for reception of audio signals from the transmission unit via the digital audio link, comprising at least two digital receivers, each being connected to a common processing unit and an antenna and including a demodulator and a buffer;

means for stimulating hearing of the at least one user according to audio signals supplied from the processing unit;

wherein the wireless link is adapted for transmitting the audio signals as audio data packets, each packet comprising a start frame delimiter (SFD), audio data and a frame check sequence (CRC), wherein each receiver is adapted for receiving, verifying and buffering each of the audio data packets, and wherein the processing unit is adapted to read an audio data packet from the buffer of one of the receivers and, if the packet has been correctly received by that receiver, to flush the buffer of the other of the at least two receivers and, if the packet has not been correctly received by that receiver, to read the audio data packet from the buffer of another one of the at least two receivers.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the receiver unit is adapted to send an interrupt request from at least one of the receivers to the processing unit to indicate when a packet has been received.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the transmission unit is adapted to transmit each data packet in a separate slot of a TDMA frame.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the transmission unit is adapted to transmit a particular audio packet at least twice in subsequent TDMA slots.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the transmission unit is adapted to transmit each slot at a different frequency according to a frequency hopping sequence.

6. The system of claim 3, wherein the transmission unit is adapted to transmit, in a first slot of each frame, a beacon packet which contains information for hopping frequency synchronization.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein each receiver unit is adapted to read the beacon packets in same manner as the audio packets from the buffers of the receivers.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the transmission unit is adapted to receive in a second slot of each frame control data from the receiver unit(s) requested by the transmission unit.

9. The system of claim 6, wherein each beacon packet includes at least one of information relevant for an audio stream from the group comprising a description of encoding format, a description of audio content, a gain parameter, surrounding noise level;

information relevant for multi-talker network operation, and control data for at least a specific one of the receiver units.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the transmission unit comprises means for compressing the audio data prior to transmission.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the transmission unit is adapted to encode the audio data using ADPCM.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the digital transmitter is for using at least one of PSK, FSK, ASK or combined amplitude and phase modulations.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the audio signal source is a microphone arrangement integrated into or connected to the transmission unit for capturing a speaker'"'"'s voice.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the transmission unit comprises an audio signal processing unit (22, 44, 46) for processing the audio signals captured by the microphone arrangement prior to being transmitted.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the transmission unit is adapted to establish the digital audio link at a carrier frequency in a 2.4 GHz ISM band.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the transmission unit is adapted for being connected to an external audio device from the group comprising a mobile phone, an FM radio, a music player, a telephone and a TV device, as the audio signal source.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the transmission unit is for being connected via a digital audio link to an external transmission unit comprising a microphone for capturing a speaker'"'"'s voice as the audio signal source.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one receiver unit is a neck-worn device comprising a transmitter for transmitting audio signals via an inductive link to an ear-worn device, comprising the stimulation means.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one receiver unit is connected to or integrated within at least one audience loudspeaker serving as the stimulation means.

20. The system of claim 1, wherein the transmission unit is for broadcast transmission of the audio signals.

21. A system for providing sound to at least one user, comprising:

at least one audio signal source for providing audio signals;

a transmission unit comprising a digital transmitter for applying a digital modulation scheme in order to transmit the audio signals from the audio signal source via a wireless digital audio link;

at least one receiver unit for reception of audio signals from the transmission unit via the digital audio link, comprising at least one digital receiver;

means for stimulating hearing of the at least one user according to audio signals supplied from the receiver unit;

wherein the wireless link is adapted for transmitting the audio signals as audio data packets, each packet comprising a start frame delimiter (SFD), audio data and a frame check sequence (CRC), wherein the transmission unit comprises a first antenna and a second antenna spaced apart from the first antenna, and wherein the transmitter is adapted to transmit a certain audio data packet via the first antenna only and to transmit subsequently a repeated copy of the same audio data packet via the second antenna only.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the at least one receiver unit is connected to or integrated into an ear-worn device, comprising the stimulation means.

23. A method for providing sound to at least one user, comprising the steps of:

providing audio signals from at least one audio signal source to a transmission unit comprising a digital transmitter (28) for applying a digital modulation scheme;

transmitting audio signals via a digital wireless audio link from the transmission unit to at least one receiver unit comprising at least two digital receivers, each being connected to a common processing unit (74) and an antenna and including a demodulator and a buffer;

stimulating hearing of the at least one user according to audio signals supplied from the processing unit;

wherein the audio signals are transmitted as audio data packets in TDMA frames, each packet comprising a start frame delimiter (SFD), audio data and a frame check sequence (CRC), wherein each receiver receives, verifies and buffers the audio data packets, and wherein an audio data packet is read from the buffer of one of the receivers and, if the packet has been correctly received by that receiver, the buffer of the other of the at least two receivers is flushed and, if the packet has not been correctly received by that receiver, the audio data packet is read from the buffer of another one of the at least two receivers.

24. A method for providing sound to at least one user, comprising the steps of:

providing audio signals from at least one audio signal source to a transmission unit comprising a digital transmitter for applying a digital modulation scheme, a first antenna and a second antenna spaced apart from the first antenna;

transmitting audio signals via a digital wireless audio link from the transmission unit to at least one receiver unit comprising at least one digital receiver;

stimulating hearing of the at least one user according to audio signals supplied from the receiver unit;

wherein the audio signals are transmitted as audio data packets in TDMA frames, each packet comprising a start frame delimiter (SFD), audio data and a frame check sequence (CRC), and wherein a certain audio data packet is transmitted by the transmitter via the first antenna only and subsequently a repeated copy of the same audio data packet is transmitted by the transmitter via the second antenna only.