Hearing instrument with off-line speech messages

• US 9,788,128 B2
• Filed: 06/18/2013
• Issued: 10/10/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/14/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GN Hearing A/S (GN Store Nord A/S)
• Original Assignee: GN Hearing A/S (GN Store Nord A/S)
• Inventors: Kirkwood, Brent C., Pedersen, Brian Dam
• Primary Examiner(s): El-Zoobi, Maria
• Application Number:
  US13/921,178
• Publication Number:
  US 20140369536A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,575 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2225/55 Communication between hearing aids and external devices via a network for data exchange
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/55 using an external connection, either wireless or wired

Abstract

A hearing instrument configured for use with a device, the hearing instrument includes: an interface for reception of a message and/or a speech message from the device, wherein the speech message is a converted form of the message and is generated using a text-to-speech processor; a memory for storage of the message and/or the speech message, and a message processor configured for, at a selected time, outputting audio samples of the speech message for transmission to a user of the hearing instrument.

Claims

1. A hearing instrument configured for use with a device, the hearing instrument comprising:

a microphone for generating a microphone output signal;

an interface for reception of a message and/or a speech message from the device, wherein the speech message is a converted form of the message and is generated using a text-to-speech conversion algorithm;

a memory for storage of the message and/or the speech message;

a message processor configured for outputting audio samples of the speech message; and

a speaker configured to provide an audio signal for a user of the hearing instrument based on the microphone output signal and the audio samples of the speech message.

2. The hearing instrument according to claim 1, wherein the hearing instrument comprises a hearing aid.

3. The hearing instrument according to claim 1, wherein the hearing instrument comprises a timer that is synchronized with a timer of the device, and wherein the message processor is configured for automatically outputting the audio samples at a selected time as determined with the timer of the hearing instrument.

4. The hearing instrument according to claim 1, wherein the interface is also for reception of information regarding a selected time from the device.

5. A hearing instrument system comprising the hearing instrument of claim 1, and the device.

6. The hearing instrument system according to claim 5, wherein the device is configured to transmit the message to the hearing instrument upon detection of a connection with the hearing instrument.

7. The hearing instrument system according to claim 5, wherein the device comprises:

a first interface that is configured for connection with a Wide-Area-Network,

a second interface configured for connection with the hearing instrument, and

a central processor configured for controlling reception of information relating to the user through the Wide-Area-Network, and transmission of the message to the hearing instrument based on the information.

8. The hearing instrument system according to claim 7, wherein the time information indicating the selected time is included in the information.

9. The hearing instrument according to claim 1, wherein a duration of a transmission of the message to the hearing instrument is longer than a duration in which the audio samples of the speech message is outputted by the message processor.

10. The hearing instrument system according to claim 5, further comprising a user interface configured to receive a user command to sequentially output two or more messages stored in the memory of the hearing instrument for transmission to a user of the hearing instrument system.

11. The hearing instrument system according to claim 5, further comprising a user interface configured to receive a user command to delete a selected message in the memory of the hearing instrument.

12. The hearing instrument system according to claim 5, further comprising a user interface configured to receive a user command to repeat transmission of a selected message.

13. The hearing instrument system according to claim 5, further comprising a user interface configured to receive a user command to mute a selected message.

16. The hearing instrument of claim 1, wherein the message comprises a device-generated notification.

17. The hearing instrument of claim 16, wherein the device-generated notification comprises a receipt of a new email, SMS, instant message, traffic announcement, or an update in a social or professional network.

18. The hearing instrument of claim 1, wherein the message comprises an email, a SMS, a post in a social or professional network, a blog post, a RSS/Atom feed, a news feed, or an instant message.

26. The hearing instrument of claim 1, wherein the message processor is configured to output the audio samples of the speech message based on time information indicating a selected time.

29. The hearing instrument of claim 1, further comprising a mixer for combining the microphone output signal with the audio samples of the speech message.

30. The hearing instrument of claim 1, wherein the message processor is also configured to provide a first weight for the microphone output signal and a second weight for the audio samples.

33. The hearing instrument according to claim 26, wherein the time information comprises stored information.

34. The hearing instrument according to claim 26, wherein the time information indicates a predetermined future time.

14. A communication method performed by a hearing instrument, comprising:

receiving a message or a speech message from a device, wherein the speech message is a converted form of the message and is generated using a text-to-speech conversion algorithm;

storing the message and/or the corresponding speech message in a memory of the hearing instrument,

generating a microphone output signal by a microphone of the hearing instrument; and

providing an audio signal by a speaker of the hearing instrument for a human based on the microphone output signal and audio samples of the speech message.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein the speech message is stored in the memory of the hearing instrument.

27. The method of claim 14, wherein the message is transmitted from the device to the hearing instrument in a duration that is longer than a duration in which the audio signal based on the audio samples of the speech message is provided for the human.

28. The method of claim 14, further comprising storing time information in the memory of the hearing instrument.

31. The method of claim 14, further comprising combining the microphone output signal with the audio samples of the speech message.

32. The method of claim 14, further comprising applying a first weight for the microphone output signal and applying a second weight for the audio samples of the speech message.

35. The method according to claim 28, wherein the time information indicates a predetermined future time.

19. A hearing instrument configured for use with a device, the hearing instrument comprising:

a microphone for receiving sound and for generating a microphone output signal based on the received sound;

an interface for reception of a message and/or a speech message from the device, wherein the speech message is a converted form of the message and is generated using a text-to-speech conversion algorithm;

a memory for storage of the message and/or the speech message;

a processor configured to apply a first weight to the microphone output signal to obtain a weighted microphone output signal; and

a speaker for providing an audio signal to a user of the hearing instrument, wherein the audio signal is based on the weighted microphone output signal and an audio sample of the speech message.

20. The hearing instrument of claim 19, wherein the processor is also configured to apply a second weight to the audio sample of the speech message to obtain a weighted audio sample, the first weight being different from the second weight.

21. The hearing instrument of claim 19, wherein the processor is configured to apply the first weight so that a volume associated with the microphone output signal will be reduced or muted while the audio sample of the speech message is being presented to the user as a part of the audio signal.

22. The hearing instrument of claim 20, further comprising a mixer for combining the weighted microphone output signal with the weighted audio sample.

23. The hearing instrument of claim 19, wherein the first weight is zero.

24. The hearing instrument of claim 19, wherein the processor is also configured to obtain the speech message from the memory and output the speech message at a predetermined future time.

25. The hearing instrument of claim 19, wherein the hearing instrument comprises a hearing aid configured to compensate for a hearing loss of the user.