Method for hearing loss compensation in telephony systems based on telephone number resolution
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A hearing loss compensation system for a communication network, comprising:
- an attribute database storing user identification numbers and associated records that identify compensation attributes for hearing impaired users, the attribute database examining telephone numbers in the communication network for matches with the stored user identification numbers; and
a signal processing system compensating audio signals having telephone numbers matching the stored user identification numbers in the attribute database according to the compensation attributes associated with the matching user identification numbers, the compensation attributes controlling the encoding characteristics of the signal processing system so that frequency ranges identified in a matching one of the user identification numbers as being outside a hearing range of an identified one of the hearing impaired users are either discarded or encoded using fewer samples than frequency ranges identified as being within the hearing range of the identified one of the hearing impaired users.
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Abstract
Different hearing impairment compensation parameters are stored in a searchable attribute database indexed by the telephone numbers of hearing impaired users. Calls made to or from the stored telephone numbers have incoming voice samples redirected to signal processing resources that perform customized hearing compensation. The compensation parameters are downloaded from the attribute database to the chosen signal processing resource at call setup time. The signal processing resource then compensates the audio signals of the telephone call for specific user hearing impairment using the downloaded compensation parameters.
80 Citations
19 Claims
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1. A hearing loss compensation system for a communication network, comprising:
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an attribute database storing user identification numbers and associated records that identify compensation attributes for hearing impaired users, the attribute database examining telephone numbers in the communication network for matches with the stored user identification numbers; and a signal processing system compensating audio signals having telephone numbers matching the stored user identification numbers in the attribute database according to the compensation attributes associated with the matching user identification numbers, the compensation attributes controlling the encoding characteristics of the signal processing system so that frequency ranges identified in a matching one of the user identification numbers as being outside a hearing range of an identified one of the hearing impaired users are either discarded or encoded using fewer samples than frequency ranges identified as being within the hearing range of the identified one of the hearing impaired users. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. A hearing loss compensation system for a communication network, comprising:
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an attribute database storing user identification numbers and associated records that identify compensation attributes for hearing impaired users, the attribute database examining telephone numbers in the communication network for matches with the stored user identification numbers; and a signal processing system compensating audio signals having telephone numbers matching the stored user identification numbers in the attribute database according to the compensation attributes associated with the matching user identification numbers, wherein the audio signals are compensated according to the compensation attributes associated with the matching user identification numbers at a first telephone call destination and the compensated audio signals then automatically forwarded to a second telephone call destination at a call forwarding telephone number.
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7. A hearing compensation system for a communication network, comprising:
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an attribute database storing user identification numbers and associated records that identify compensation attributes for hearing impaired users, the attribute database examining telephone numbers in the communication network for matches with the stored user identification numbers; and a signal processing system compensating audio signals having telephone numbers matching the stored user identification numbers in the attribute database according to the compensation attributes associated with the matching user identification numbers, the signal processing system includes a perceptual speech coder that masks frequency subbands outside the hearing range of the identified one of the hearing impaired users associated with the telephone call number. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10)
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11. A method for compensating telephone calls in a communications network for hearing impaired users, comprising:
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storing telephone numbers for the hearing impaired users; storing compensation attributes individually tailored for each one of the hearing impaired users, the compensation attributes identifying audio signal compensation that improves the hearing impaired user'"'"'s ability to hear audio signals; monitoring the communications network at both an first telephone call location associated with one of the hearing impaired users and a second telephone call location associated with unimpaired hearing users for telephone numbers matching the stored telephone numbers for one of the hearing impaired users; and compensating the audio signals of telephone calls having numbers matching the stored telephone numbers according to the tailored compensation attributes for one of the hearing impaired users associated with the telephone number by downloading compensation attributes to one or both of the first telephone call location and the second telephone call location to compensate the audio signals received at the first telephone call location. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13)
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14. A method for compensating telephone calls in a communications network for hearing impaired users, comprising:
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storing telephone numbers for the hearing impaired users; storing compensation attributes individually tailored for each one of the hearing impaired users, the compensation attributes identifying audio signal compensation that improves the hearing impaired user'"'"'s ability to hear audio signals; monitoring the communications network for telephone numbers matching the stored telephone numbers of the hearing impaired users; compensating the audio signals of telephone calls having numbers matching the stored telephone numbers according to the tailored compensation attributes of the hearing impaired user associated with the telephone number; and tailoring per-call bandwidth requirements to the known impaired hearing loss of the users by using perceptual speech coders that transmit only speech information that is within the hearing range of the hearing impaired user.
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15. A method for compensating telephone calls in a communications network for hearing impaired users, comprising:
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storing telephone numbers for the hearing impaired users; storing compensation attributes individually tailored for each one of the hearing impaired users, the compensation attributes identifying audio signal compensation that improves the hearing impaired user'"'"'s ability to hear audio signals; monitoring the communications network for telephone numbers matching the stored telephone numbers of the hearing impaired users; compensating the audio signals of telephone calls having numbers matching the stored telephone numbers according to the tailored compensation attributes of the hearing impaired user associated with the telephone number; and tailoring audio encoding to the known impaired hearing loss of the users by encoding more speech samples for frequency bands in the audio signal that are within the hearing range of the hearing impaired user and encoding fewer speech samples for frequency bands outside the hearing range of the hearing impaired user.
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16. A method for compensating telephone calls in a communications network for hearing impaired users, comprising:
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storing telephone numbers for the hearing impaired users; storing compensation attributes individually tailored for each one of the hearing impaired users, the compensation attributes identifying audio signal compensation that improves the hearing impaired user'"'"'s ability to hear audio signals; monitoring the communications network for telephone numbers matching the stored telephone numbers of the hearing impaired users; and compensating the audio signals of telephone calls having numbers matching the stored telephone numbers according to the tailored compensation attributes of the hearing impaired user associated with the telephone number, wherein compensating the audio signals comprise frequency shaping the audio signals according to a priori audio testing data for the hearing impaired user.
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17. A method for compensating telephone calls in a communications network for hearing impaired users, comprising:
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storing telephone numbers for the hearing impaired users; storing compensation attributes individually tailored for each one of the hearing impaired users, the compensation attributes identifying audio signal compensation that improves the hearing impaired user'"'"'s ability to hear audio signals; monitoring the communications network for telephone numbers matching the stored telephone numbers of the hearing impaired users; and compensating the audio signals of telephone calls having numbers matching the stored telephone numbers according to the tailored compensation attributes of the hearing impaired user associated with the telephone number, wherein compensating the audio signals of telephone calls comprises changing the gain of the audio signals.
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18. A method for compensating telephone calls in a communications network for hearing impaired users, comprising:
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storing telephone numbers for the hearing impaired users; storing compensation attributes individually tailored for each one of the hearing impaired users, the compensation attributes identifying audio signal compensation that improves the hearing impaired user'"'"'s ability to hear audio signals; monitoring the communications network for telephone numbers matching the stored telephone numbers of the hearing impaired users; compensating the audio signals of telephone calls having numbers matching the stored telephone numbers according to the tailored compensation attributes of the hearing impaired user associated with the telephone number; and limiting the gain of the telephone calls to prevent distortion.
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19. A communications system that automatically compensates audio signals in telephone calls, comprising:
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a communications network; a first telephone handset coupled through a first network access device to the communications network and associated with an unimpaired hearing user; a second telephone handset coupled through a second network access device to the communications network and associated with a hearing impaired user; a first signal processing system coupled to the first network access device; a second signal processing system coupled to the second network access device; an audio compensation system coupled to both the first and second network access device and the first and second signal processing system, the compensation system automatically downloading compensation attributes to one or both of the first and second signal processing system for compensating the audio signals received by the second user.
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Specification