Method for the automated ascertainment of parameter values for a hearing aid

• US 10,284,965 B2
• Filed: 05/26/2017
• Issued: 05/07/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sivantos Pte. Ltd. (WS Audiology A/S)
• Original Assignee: Sivantos Pte. Ltd. (WS Audiology A/S)
• Inventors: Aschoff, Stefan
• Primary Examiner(s): Albertalli, Brian L
• Application Number:
  US15/606,959
• Publication Number:
  US 20170347205A1
• Time in Patent Office: 711 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/237 Lexical tools
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2225/39 Aspects relating to automatic logging of sound environment parameters and the performance of the hearing aid during use, e.g. histogram logging, or of user selected programs or settings in the hearing aid, e.g. usage logging
• 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 25/30 Monitoring or testing of hearing aids, e.g. functioning, settings, battery power
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/55 using an external connection, either wireless or wired
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/70 Adaptation of deaf aid to hearing loss, e.g. initial electronic fitting

Abstract

A method facilitates the ascertainment of parameter values of a hearing aid for a user-specific auditory situation. For that purpose, blog entries from a wearer of a hearing aid are evaluated in automated fashion and the evaluation is taken as a basis for determining adapted parameter values.

Claims

1. A method of automatically ascertaining parameter values of a hearing aid, the method comprising:

carrying out a computer-linguistic analysis by analyzing a user-specific blog entry in a weblog on a computer-linguistic basis;

reducing results of the computer-linguistic analysis to such results as are directed to a subjective auditory perception of a user of the hearing aid;

associating the reduced results directed to the subjective auditory perception of the user with a specific auditory situation;

extracting user-specific desired changes from the reduced results directed to the subjective auditory perception of the user; and

taking the user-specific desired changes for the specific auditory situation as a basis for ascertaining adaptive parameter values, and offering the adaptive parameter values to the user or an audiologist for adapting parameter values of the hearing aid that are associated with the specific auditory situation.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein a creation of the user-specific blog entry includes storing the parameter values of the hearing aid that are associated with the blog entry.

3. The method according to claim 1, which comprises transferring the blog entry and the parameter values of the hearing aid that are associated with the blog entry to a backend system.

4. The method according to claim 3, which comprises, prior to transferring the blog entry and of the parameter values of the hearing aid that are associated with said blog entry to the backend system, ascertaining whether a blog entry describing an auditory situation is involved.

5. The method according to claim 1, which comprises ascertaining parameter values adapted to the specific auditory situation by comparing the extracted, user-specific desired changes with proposed changes that are stored in a proposal system and that have associated applicable parameter values for a hearing aid.

6. The method according to claim 5, which comprises using a proposal system containing a patient database to ascertain parameter values adapted to the specific auditory situation.

7. The method according to claim 5, wherein the step of comparing the user-specific desired changes with the proposed changes stored in the proposal system additionally comprises taking into consideration the parameter values of the hearing aid that are associated with the blog entry.

8. The method according to claim 1, which comprises visualizing the parameter values of the hearing aid that are associated with the blog entry and/or the adapted parameter values of the hearing aid.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the computer-linguistic analysis comprises analyzing a sentence structure of the blog entry.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the computer-linguistic analysis comprises analyzing a content of the blog entry.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein the weblog is captured in the form of audio signals.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the weblog is captured in the form of voice signals.

13. The method according to claim 11, which comprises processing audio signals captured in the web low by way of a voice recognition module.