Hearing aid device

• US 7,236,604 B2
• Filed: 07/16/2004
• Issued: 06/26/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/15/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Der-Yang Tien
• Original Assignee: Der-Yang Tien
• Inventors: Tien, Der-Yang
• Primary Examiner(s): Ni; Suhan
• Application Number:
  US10/892,503
• Publication Number:
  US 20050084124A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,075 Days
• Field of Search: 381/60, 381/23.1, 381312-316, 381/321, 381/331
• US Class Current: 381/312
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2225/61 Aspects relating to mechanical or electronic switches or control elements, e.g. functioning
• 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 25/603 of mechanical or electronic switches or control elements

Abstract

A hearing aid device includes a signal transforming unit for converting an analog sound signal received by a signal receiving unit to a digital signal; a memory unit for temporarily storing the digital signal; a sound processing module for reprocessing the sound signal stored in the memory unit via a microprocessing unit according to parameters set by a user; a sound control module for receiving the sound signal processed by the sound processing module and adjusting an output volume via the microprocessing unit; and a signal output unit for receiving and outputting the sound signal adjusted by the sound control module. By such arrangement, a speed, tone and/or volume of an output sound can be controlled using the hearing aid device to thereby help the user to receive and recognize the sound signal.

Claims

1. A hearing aid device comprising:

a signal receiving unit for receiving an external analog sound signal for the hearing aid device;

a signal transforming unit for converting the external analog sound signal received by the signal receiving unit to a digital sound signal;

a memory unit for temporarily storing the digital sound signal converted by the signal transforming unit;

a microprocessing unit;

a sound processing module for processing the digital sound signal stored in the memory unit via the microprocessing unit according to parameters set by a user;

a sound control module for receiving the digital sound signal processed by the sound processing module and adjusting an output volume of the digital sound signal via the microprocessing unit; and

a signal output unit for receiving and outputting the sound signal adjusted by the sound control module,

wherein the sound processing module also adjusts at least one of a speed and a tone of an output sound from said digital sound signal according to the parameters set by the user.

2. The hearing aid device of claim 1, further comprising an input unit for the user to enter data and/or commands for operating and controlling the hearing aid device.

3. The hearing aid device of claim 1, further comprising a data transmitting unit for connecting the hearing aid device to an external device so as to allow signal data to be transmitted between the hearing aid device and the external device.

4. The hearing aid device of claim 3, wherein the data transmitting unit is a wireless data transmitting interface selected from the group consisting of a radio frequency transmitting interface, an infrared transmitting interface, and a Bluetooth transmitting interface.

5. The hearing aid device of claim 3, wherein the data transmitting unit is a wired data transmitting interface selected from the group consisting of a universal serial bus (USB) and an IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) 1394.

6. The hearing aid device of claim 1, wherein the signal receiving unit is a microphone.

7. The hearing aid device of claim 1, wherein the signal transforming unit is one of an analog-to-digital or a digital-to-analog signal converter.

8. The hearing aid device of claim 1, wherein the memory unit is selected from the group consisting of a static random access memory (SRAM), a dynamic random access memory (DRAM), a synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), and a double data rate SDRAM (DDRSDRAM).

9. The hearing aid device of claim 1, wherein the signal output unit is a loudspeaker.

10. The hearing aid device of claim 1, further comprising a text to speech (TTS) system for translating the digital sound data to corresponding digital sound data of other languages.