Method for augmenting hearing

• US 9,344,815 B2
• Filed: 02/11/2014
• Issued: 05/17/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/11/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mimi Hearing Technologies GmbH
• Original Assignee: Symphonic Audio Technologies Corp.
• Inventors: Selig, Aaron Alexander, Srinivasan, Varun
• Primary Examiner(s): AL AUBAIDI, RASHA S
• Application Number:
  US14/178,067
• Publication Number:
  US 20140314261A1
• Time in Patent Office: 826 Days
• Field of Search: 381/60, 381312-331, 381/341, 600/25, 600/559, 607 56- 57, 455/3.06
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2560/0242 adapted to measure environmental factors, e.g. temperature, pollution
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/123 subjective methods
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6898 Portable consumer electronic devices, e.g. music players, telephones, tablet computers
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72454 according to context-related or environment-related conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72478 for hearing-impaired users
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2225/41 Detection or adaptation of hearing aid parameters or programs to listening situation, e.g. pub, forest
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2225/55 Communication between hearing aids and external devices via a network for data exchange
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2225/83 Aspects of electrical fitting of hearing aids related to problems arising from growth of the hearing aid user, e.g. children
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2460/03 Aspects of the reduction of energy consumption in hearing devices
• 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 25/50 Customised settings for obtaining desired overall acoustical characteristics
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/554 using a wireless connection, e.g. between microphone and amplifier or using Tcoils
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/70 Adaptation of deaf aid to hearing loss, e.g. initial electronic fitting
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 29/008 Visual indication of individual signal levels visual indication of stereophonic sound image H04S7/40

Abstract

One variation of a method for augmenting sound includes: at a mobile computing device and a connected audio output device, outputting a tone in a hearing test; based on a response to the tone entered by a user, generating a hearing profile for the user and corresponding to the mobile computing device and the audio output device; receiving an audio signal; qualifying the audio signal as a particular audio type from a set of audio types; selecting, from a set of sound profiles, a particular sound profile corresponding to the particular audio type; at the mobile computing device, transforming the audio signal into a processed audio signal according to the particular sound profile and the hearing profile of the user; and outputting the processed audio signal at the connected audio output device.

Claims

1. A method for augmenting sound, comprising:

at a mobile computing device and a connected audio output device, outputting a tone in a hearing test, wherein outputting the tone includes outputting a first audible tone comprising a first frequency, recording a first volume adjustment for the first audible tone by the user, outputting a second audible tone comprising a second frequency, recording a second volume adjustment for the second audible tone by the user;

based on a response to the tone entered by a user, generating a hearing profile for the user and corresponding to the mobile computing device and the connected audio output device, wherein generating the hearing profile comprises selecting a particular hearing model from a set of hearing models based on a difference between the first volume adjustment and the second volume adjustment, each hearing model in the set of hearing models comprising a hearing test result corresponding to a previous patient, generating the hearing profile for the user based on the particular hearing model result, and associating the hearing profile with an identifier of the mobile computing device, associating the hearing profile with an identifier of the connected audio output device, and storing the hearing profile in an account assigned to the user;

receiving an audio signal at the mobile computing device;

qualifying the audio signal as a particular audio type from a set of audio types;

selecting, from a set of sound profiles, a particular sound profile corresponding to the particular audio type;

at the mobile computing device, transforming the audio signal into a processed audio signal according to both the particular sound profile and the hearing profile of the user; and

outputting the processed audio signal at the connected audio output device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein transforming the audio signal into the processed audio signal comprises retrieving the hearing profile from the account assigned to the user upon collection of the identifier of the mobile computing device and collection of the identifier of the connected audio output device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the audio signal comprises receiving an analog signal from a microphone arranged in the connected audio device comprising a set of headphones, and wherein outputting the processed audio signal comprises outputting the processed audio signal through a speaker arranged in the set of headphones.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein qualifying the audio signal as the particular audio type comprises identifying the audio signal as an audio component of a phone call between the mobile computing device and a secondary device, wherein transforming the audio signal into the processed audio signal comprises attenuating a portion of the audio signal corresponding to a voice of the user and amplifying a portion of the audio signal received from the secondary device according to the particular sound profile.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising transcribing the audio signal into a stream of text and displaying the stream of text on the mobile computing device substantially in real-time within the audio signal.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising accessing an age and a gender of the user, wherein selecting the particular sound profile comprises selecting the particular sound profile previously elected by a second user of an age and a gender similar to the age and the gender of the user.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein identifying the age and the gender of the user comprises retrieving the age and the gender of the user from an online social networking system.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising identifying a location of the user, upon retrieving the location from a global positioning system sensor of the mobile computing device, wherein selecting the particular sound profile comprises selecting the particular sound profile corresponding to the particular audio type for a location type comprising the location of the user.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein transforming the audio signal into the processed audio signal comprises applying a first equalizer setting specified by the particular sound profile and a second equalizer setting specified by the hearing profile of the user to the audio signal.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising detecting an audio type of a sound output from the audio device, receiving an audio output adjustment from the user, generating a sound profile for the audio type based on the audio output adjustment from the user, and storing the sound profile with the set of sound profiles.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising detecting an ambient noise condition, wherein receiving the audio output adjustment comprises receiving a volume adjustment from the user during output of the sound output from the connected audio output device, and wherein generating the sound profile for the audio type comprises generating the sound profile for the audio type based on the volume adjustment and associating the sound profile with the ambient noise condition, wherein selecting the particular sound profile comprises matching the audio type and the ambient noise condition of the sound profile to the audio signal.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving an audio output adjustment from the user during playback of the processed audio signal and modifying the particular sound profile based on the audio output adjustment.

13. A method for augmenting sound, comprising:

at a mobile computing device and a connected audio output device, outputting a tone in a hearing test, wherein outputting the tone includes outputting a first audible tone comprising a first frequency, recording a first volume adjustment for the first audible tone by the user, outputting a second audible tone comprising a second frequency, recording a second volume adjustment for the second audible tone by the user;

at a computing system, generating a hearing profile associated with a user, wherein generating the hearing profile comprises selecting a particular hearing model from a set of hearing models based on a difference between the first volume adjustment and the second volume adjustment, each hearing model in the set of hearing models comprising a hearing test result corresponding to a previous patient, generating the hearing profile for the user based on the particular hearing model result, and associating the hearing profile with an identifier of a mobile computing device of the user, associating the hearing profile with an identifier of a connected audio output device in communication with the mobile computing device, and storing the hearing profile in an account assigned to the user;

at the connected audio output device, receiving the hearing profile from the mobile computing device upon collection of the identifier the mobile computing device and collection of the identifier from the connected audio output device;

receiving an audio signal from the mobile computing device;

qualifying the audio signal as a particular audio type from a set of audio types;

selecting, from a set of sound profiles, a particular sound profile corresponding to the particular audio type;

transforming the audio signal into a processed audio signal according to both the particular sound profile and the hearing profile of the user; and

outputting the processed audio signal at an output of the connected audio output device in near real-time with reception of the audio signal at the mobile computing device.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein receiving the hearing profile from the mobile computing device comprises wirelessly downloading the hearing profile from the mobile computing device.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein receiving the audio signal from the mobile computing device comprises receiving the audio signal over an audio output jack within the mobile computing device.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein outputting the processed audio signal comprises substituting the audio signal for the processed audio signal at the output of the connected audio output device in communication with an external audio output device.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein qualifying the audio signal as the particular audio type comprises selecting the particular audio type from a set of audio types comprising music, speech, and ambient noise.

18. A method for augmenting sound, comprising:

at a mobile computing device and a connected audio output device, outputting a tone in a hearing test wherein outputting the tone includes outputting a first audible tone comprising a first frequency, recording a first volume adjustment for the first audible tone by the user, outputting a second audible tone comprising a second frequency, recording a second volume adjustment for the second audible tone by the user;

based on a response to the tone entered by a user, generating a hearing profile for the user and corresponding to the mobile computing device and the connected audio output device, wherein generating the hearing profile comprises selecting a particular hearing model from a set of hearing models based on a difference between the first volume adjustment and the second volume adjustment, each hearing model in the set of hearing models comprising a hearing test result corresponding to a previous patient, generating the hearing profile for the user based on the particular hearing model result, and associating the hearing profile with an identifier of the mobile computing device, associating the hearing profile with an identifier of the connected audio output device, and storing the hearing profile in an account assigned to the user;

receiving an audio signal at the mobile computing device;

qualifying the audio signal as a particular audio type from a set of audio types;

identifying a location of the user, upon retrieving the location from a global positioning system sensor of the mobile computing device;

selecting, from a set of sound profiles, a particular sound profile corresponding to the particular audio type, wherein selecting the particular sound profile comprises selecting the particular sound profile corresponding to both the particular audio type and a location type comprising the location of the user;

at the mobile computing device, transforming the audio signal into a processed audio signal according to both the particular sound profile and the hearing profile of the user; and

outputting the processed audio signal at the connected audio output device in near real-time with reception of the audio signal at the mobile computing device.