WIRELESS BEACON SYSTEM TO IDENTIFY ACOUSTIC ENVIRONMENT FOR HEARING ASSISTANCE DEVICES

• US 20090208043A1
• Filed: 02/18/2009
• Published: 08/20/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/19/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Starkey Laboratories Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Starkey Laboratories Incorporated
• Inventors: Woods, William S., Solum, Jeffrey Paul
• Granted Patent: US 8,705,782 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 381/315
• 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 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 beacon device adapted to wirelessly communicate with a hearing assistance device, the beacon device comprising a sensor to sense a signal related to determination of an acoustic environment, a memory to store information relating to the signal, a processor in communication with the memory and the sensor, the processor adapted to process the information, a wireless transmitter in communication with the memory and an antenna coupled to the wireless transceiver to transmit information to the hearing assistance device.

Claims

1. A beacon device adapted to wirelessly communicate with a hearing assistance device, the beacon device comprising:

a sensor to sense a signal related to determination of an acoustic environment;

a memory to store information relating to the signal;

a processor in communication with the memory and the sensor, the processor adapted to process the information;

a wireless transmitter in communication with the memory; and

an antenna coupled to the wireless transceiver to transmit information to the hearing assistance device.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the processor is adapted to generate an environment code based at least in part on the signal.

3. The device of claim 1, adapted to attach to a consumer device that generates acoustic noise and configured to transmit one or more acoustic environment codes when the consumer device is powered on.

4. The device of claim 3, wherein the wireless transmitter is configured to terminate transmission of the one or more acoustic environment codes when the consumer device is powered off.

5. The device of claim 1, wherein the sensor is a magnetic sensor.

6. The device of claim 1, wherein the sensor is a giant magneto restrictive sensor.

7. The device of claim 1, wherein the sensor is an anisotropic magneto restrictive sensor.

8. The device of claim 1, wherein the sensor is a microphone.

9. The device of claim 1, wherein the sensor is a micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) sensor.

10. A method of controlling operation of a hearing assistance device, the method comprising:

storing one or more acoustic environment codes in a beacon device, the one or more acoustic environment codes identifying one or more acoustic environments;

transmitting an acoustic environment code of the one or more acoustic environment codes to a hearing assistance device; and

adjusting an operational mode of the hearing assistance device based on the acoustic environment code.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein transmitting the acoustic environment code comprises transmitting the acoustic environment code at uniform intervals.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising receiving a first acoustic environment code when the beacon device enters a first acoustic environment identified by the first acoustic environment code.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising processing one or more sensor signals to identify an acoustic environment about the beacon device.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein adjusting the operational mode of the hearing assistance device comprises switching between a first microphone and a second microphone.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein switching between a first microphone and a second microphone comprises switching between a directional microphone and an omni-directional microphone.

16. The method of claim 10, further comprising receiving from a sensor of the beacon device a signal indicative of an acoustic environment about the beacon device.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein receiving includes receiving from a giant magneto restrictive sensor of the beacon device a signal indicative of an acoustic environment about the beacon device.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein receiving includes receiving from an anisotropic magneto restrictive sensor of the beacon device a signal indicative of an acoustic environment about the beacon device.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein receiving includes receiving from a micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) sensor of the beacon device a signal indicative of an acoustic environment about the beacon device.

20. The method of claim 16, processing the sensor signal and correlating the acoustic environment code of the one or more acoustic environment codes with the processed sensor signal.