Near field communication circuitry used for hearing aid compatibility

• US 9,379,777 B2
• Filed: 05/07/2012
• Issued: 06/28/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/07/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Maenpaa, Ossi E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Wendell, Andrew
• Assistant Examiner(s): TRANDAI, CINDY HUYEN
• Application Number:
  US13/465,322
• Publication Number:
  US 20130295845A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,513 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/00 Near-field transmission systems, e.g. inductive or capacitive transmission systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/26 using coils

Abstract

An apparatus including a coil antenna; and near field communication (NFC) circuitry connected to the coil antenna. The NFC circuitry is configured to create a modulated signal from an input audio signal, and output the modulated signal to the coil antenna.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a coil, where the coil is at least a part of a near field communication antenna; and

near field communication (NFC) circuitry connected to the coil, where the NFC circuitry and the coil form at least part of a hearing aid compatibility (HAC) system of the apparatus,

where the apparatus comprises a near field communication (NFC) system comprising the NFC circuitry and the coil, and where the NFC circuitry forms an amplifier of both the NFC system and the HAC system,

where the NFC circuitry is configured to create a modulated signal from an input analog audio signal, and output the modulated signal to the coil to generate a magnetic field induction signal from the coil, where the magnetic field induction signal comprises data of the input analog audio signal, where the NFC circuitry forms the amplifier as an audio signal amplifier which is configured to use pulse-width modulation (PWM) on the input analog audio signal to produce the modulated signal,

where the HAC system is configured such that in a HAC mode additional rounds/loops of the coil are used than when in a NFC mode to have an impedance for targeting the audio signal amplifier.

2. An apparatus as in claim 1 where the NFC circuitry is a near field communication (NFC) chipset.

3. An apparatus as in claim 1 where the NFC circuitry is configured to amplify the input analog audio signal as the modulated signal.

4. An apparatus as in claim 1 further comprising a first connection of the NFC circuitry to a first feed location of the coil and a second connection of the NFC circuitry to a second feed location of the coil.

5. An apparatus as in claim 1 where the apparatus comprises audio signal circuitry connected to an input of the NFC circuitry to send the input analog audio signal from the audio signal circuitry to the NFC circuitry.

6. An apparatus as in claim 1 comprising means for using the NFC circuitry for a hearing aid compatibility (HAC) system.

7. An apparatus as in claim 1 where the apparatus is at least part of a hand-held communications device.

8. An apparatus as in claim 1 further comprising audio circuitry configured to output the analog audio signal to the near field communication (NFC) circuitry.

9. An apparatus as in claim 8 where the audio circuitry comprises a speech decoder configured to form the analog audio signal from a voice signal, and transmit the analog audio signal directly to the near field communication (NFC) circuitry.

10. An apparatus as in claim 1 where the HAC system is configured such that the impedance for targeting the audio signal amplifier comprises the apparatus being configured to drive the HAC system by the audio signal amplifier.

11. A method comprising:

receiving an analog audio signal by near field communication (NFC) circuitry;

modulating the audio signal by the NFC circuitry; and

outputting the modulated audio signal to a coil to generate a magnetic field induction signal from the coil, where the magnetic field induction signal comprises data of the analog audio signal, where the coil is at least a part of a near field communication antenna, where the NFC circuitry and the coil form at least part of a hearing aid compatibility (HAC) system, where a near field communication (NFC) system is provided comprising the NFC circuitry and the coil, and where the NFC circuitry forms an amplifier of both the NFC system and the HAC system,

where the NFC circuitry provides a pulse-width modulation (PWM) of the analog audio signal to produce a resultant modulated signal, amplifies the resultant modulated signal, and outputs the amplified modulated signal to at least a portion of the coil,

where the HAC system is configured such that in a HAC mode additional rounds/loops of the coil are used than when in a NFC mode to have an impedance for targeting the amplifier.

12. A method as in claim 11 further comprising outputting a non-modulated signal from the NFC circuitry to the coil, where the coil generates a NFC initiator radio frequency field from the coil based upon the non-modulated signal.

13. A method as in claim 11 further comprising outputting a non-modulated signal from the NFC circuitry to an antenna which is connected to the NFC circuitry, where the antenna generates a NFC initiator radio frequency field from the antenna based upon the non-modulated signal.

14. A method as in claim 11 where targeting the amplifier comprises driving the HAC system by the amplifier.

15. A method comprising:

providing pulse-width modulation (PWM) of an analog audio signal by near field communication (NFC) circuitry to produce a resultant modulated signal, where the resultant modulated signal is formed from the analog audio signal received by the NFC circuitry;

sending the resultant modulated signal with amplification by the near field communication (NFC) circuitry from the near field communication (NFC) circuitry to at least one coil, where the coil is at least a part of a near field communication antenna, where the NFC circuitry and the coil form at least part of a hearing aid compatibility (HAC) system, where a near field communication (NFC) system is provided comprising the NFC circuitry and the coil, and where the NFC circuitry forms an amplifier of both the NFC system and the HAC system; and

the amplified resultant modulated signal generating a magnetic field induction signal at the coil, where the NFC circuitry and the coil form part of the HAC system, and where the magnetic field induction signal is a HAC signal comprising data of the analog audio signal, where the HAC system is configured such that in a HAC mode additional rounds/loops of the coil are used than when in a NFC mode to have an impedance for targeting the amplifier.

16. A method as in claim 15 further comprising sending a non-modulated signal from the NFC circuitry to the at least one coil to generate a NFC initiator radio frequency field from the coil based upon the non-modulated signal.

17. A non-transitory program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine for performing operations, the operations comprising:

sending an analog audio signal to near field communication (NFC) circuitry;

providing pulse-width modulation (PWM) of the analog audio signal by the near field communication (NFC) circuitry to produce a resultant modulated signal;

, where the NFC circuitry is configured to form the resultant modulated signal based upon the analog audio signal; and

sending the resultant modulated signal with amplification by the near field communication (NFC) circuitry to a coil to generate a magnetic field induction signal at the coil as part of a hearing aid compatibility (HAC) system,

where the magnetic field induction signal comprises data of the analog audio signal, where the coil is at least a part of a near field communication antenna, where the NFC circuitry and the coil form at least part of the HAC system, where a near field communication (NFC) system is provided comprising the NFC circuitry and the coil, and where the NFC circuitry forms an amplifier of both the NFC system and the HAC system, where the HAC system is configured such that in a HAC mode additional rounds/loops of the coil are used than when in a NFC mode to have an impedance for targeting the amplifier.