Method and apparatus for using hearing assistance device as voice controller

• US 9,940,928 B2
• Filed: 09/24/2015
• Issued: 04/10/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/24/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Starkey Laboratories Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Starkey Laboratories Incorporated
• Inventors: Haubrich, Gregory John, Vajha, Sasidhar, Kindred, Jon S., Johnson, Andrew Joseph, Botz, Alexander
• Primary Examiner(s): Ni, Suhan
• Application Number:
  US14/864,820
• Publication Number:
  US 20170092269A1
• Time in Patent Office: 929 Days
• Field of Search: 381312, 381314-315
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/223 Execution procedure of a spoken command
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/282 based on user interaction within the home receiver circuitry for displaying additional information being controlled by a remote control apparatus H04N21/42204
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/1041 Mechanical or electronic switches, or control elements switches in general H01H
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2225/55 Communication between hearing aids and external devices via a network for data exchange
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2420/07 Applications of wireless loudspeakers or wireless microphones
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/407 Circuits for combining signals of a plurality of transducers
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/505 using digital signal processing
• 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 for communication between one or more remotely controllable devices and a hearing assistance device includes a gateway device. The hearing assistance device detects voice commands issued by its wearer. The gateway device wirelessly communicates with the hearing assistance device, produces one or more control signals based on the voice commands, and routes the one or more control signals to one or more devices selected from the one or more remotely controllable devices according to the voice command.

Claims

1. A system for communication between one or more remotely controllable devices and a hearing aid configured to be worn by a wearer, the one or more remotely controllable devices including at least one of one or more home appliances or one or more automotive devices, the system comprising:

a gateway device including;

a first communication circuit configured to receive a command signal from the hearing aid via a wireless communication link, the command signal representative of a voice command detected from the processed sounds by the hearing aid; and

a control signal generator configured to generate one or more control signals based on the voice command;

one or more automation controllers communicatively coupled to the gateway device and communicatively coupled to the one or more remotely controllable devices, the one or more automation controllers configured to receive the one or more control signals and control the one or more remotely controllable devices using the one or more control signals, the one or more automation controllers including at least one of a home automation controller or an automotive automation controller, the home automation controller configured to control the one or more home appliances, the automotive automation controller configured to control the one or more automotive devices; and

the hearing aid including;

one or more microphones configured to receive sounds and produce one or more microphone signals representative of the sounds;

an audio processor including a voice command detector configured to detect a voice command from the one or more microphone signals and produce the command signal representative of the voice command; and

a second communication circuit configured to transmit the command signal to the gateway device via the wireless communication link.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the voice command detector is configured to detect voice of the wearer and detect the voice command from the detected voice of the wearer.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the voice command detector is configured to authenticate the detected voice command as being from the wearer and produce the command signal in response to the voice command being authenticated.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the control signal generator is configured to authenticate the detected voice command as being from the wearer and generate one or more control signals in response to the voice command being authenticated.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more automation controllers comprise the home automation controller.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more automation controllers comprise the automotive automation controller.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more automation controllers are communicatively coupled to the gateway device via one or more additional wireless communication links.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the gateway device is configured to receive one or more feedback signals indicative of one or more effects of the one or more control signals, to produce one or more notifications based on the one or more feedback signals, and to transmit the one or more notifications to the hearing aid.

9. A method for controlling one or more remotely controllable devices using a hearing aid worn by a wearer, comprising:

receiving sounds using one or more microphones of the hearing aid worn by the wearer;

producing one or more microphone signals representative of the received sounds using the one or more microphones;

detecting a voice command from the one or more microphone signals using an audio processor of the hearing aid;

producing a command signal representative of the voice command using the audio processor;

wirelessly transmitting the command signal from the hearing assistance device to a gateway device using a communication circuit of the hearing assistance device;

generating one or more control signals based on the voice command;

transmitting the one or more control signals to one or more of a home automation controller or an automotive automation controller, the home automation controller controlling one or more home appliances of the one or more remotely controllable devices, the automotive automation controller controlling one or more automotive devices of the cone or more remotely controllable devices; and

controlling the one or more remotely controllable devices using the one or more of the home automation controller or the automotive automation controller.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

detecting voice of the wearer using the hearing aid; and

detecting the voice command from the detected voice of the wearer using the hearing aid.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising authenticating the detected voice command as being from the wearer.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein authenticating the detected voice command as being from the wearer comprises authenticating the detected voice command using biometrics of the wearer.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein authenticating the detected voice command as being from the wearer comprises authenticating the detected voice command using metrics of voice of the wearer.

14. The method of claim 11 wherein authenticating the detected voice command as being from the wearer comprises authenticating the detected voice command using the hearing aid.

15. The method of claim 11 wherein authenticating the detected voice command as being from the wearer comprises authenticating the detected voice command using the hearing aid and the gateway device.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein controlling the one or more remotely controllable devices comprises controlling one or more of a home automation system, an automotive automation system, a factory automation system, and an office automation system.

17. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

receiving one or more feedback signals indicative of one or more effects of the one or more control signals;

producing one or more notifications based on the one or more feedback signals; and

transmitting to one or more notifications to the wearer using the hearing aid.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the receiving one or more feedback signals comprises receiving one or more reminders indicative state of operation of the one or more remotely controllable devices.

19. The method of claim 9, further comprising transmitting the one or more control signals wirelessly from the gateway device to one or more automation controllers, the gateway device configured for generating the one or more control signals based on the voice command, the one or more automation controllers configured for controlling the one or more remotely controllable devices using the one or more control signals.