Hearing Economics

Lookin’ Good and Driving Good Self driving vehicles are a reality now, which has ushered in a great deal of thinking and innovation to ensure safety for those in the car and in the surround. That includes the car being able to hear in varying driving conditions. Not surprisingly, such thinking also extends in a good way to cars driven

Sonova’s patent #11758341 has an intriguing title: Coached fitting in the field.  Whatever the coaching, it seems to involve a hearing device [which] may comprise a plurality of preset hearing programs and at least one configurable hearing program. Regents Of The University Of Minnesota’s patent #11765523, Ultrasonic hearing system and related methods, uses a microphone  and creates modulated ultrasound signals

Apple’s patent #11716567 works the headset comfort angle by eliminating it.  It describes a device worn on the user’s clothing, directing audio to the ears while limiting audibility to others: the privacy of the audio directed to the user can be maintained without requiring the user to wear audio headsets on, over, or in the ears of the user. Apple being

The aptly named MDIdeaFactory Inc has come up with an uncomfortable new application for in-ear devices, melding autonomic response with classic Skinnerian psychology to shape wearers’ behaviors. Negative reinforcement isn’t a new idea but adopting ear calorics for that purpose may explain the MDIdea part of the company’s name. Their patent #11707380, Ear apparatus and methods of use, describes a

Big Tech has been in the hearing device sector for awhile now. Perhaps we shouldn’t have been surprised to see Intel-the-chip-maker pop up as Intel-the-hearing-device-devisor in June with two patents: 11688515 Mobile device based techniques for detection and prevention of hearing loss 11684516 Hearing protection and communication apparatus using vibration sensors But some of us were surprised and wanted to

Fun and Useful Things to Do with Your Earbuds Bragi’s patent #11651238 for an Earpiece advisor offers new and improved ways to provide opportunities for contextual or potentially sponsored content in a manner helpful to users and viewed favorably by users. In case you weren’t aware that you needed such earbud help, Bragi notes that too much advertising can be

Toss our baby out with the bath water…. Iyo Inc, a “secret moonshot startup founded by ex-Google leaders,” doesn’t think much of hearing aids. Their patent #11632648, for an Ear-mountable listening device having a ring-shaped microphone array for beamforming, iterates the many failings of hearing aids as follows (heavily paraphrased): Hearing aids … often fail to accurately reproduce environmental cues

Several patent titles caught the eye in March, stirring the imagination as to how and by whom ear devices may be applied to individuals: IBM 11602287 Automatically aiding individuals with developing auditory attention abilities Starkey 11607170 Detection of physical abuse or neglect using data from ear-wearable devices The March 2023 Patent List   Description Patent Number Assignee Issued Hearing and

Big Tech has had the ear in its sights since AirPods became the big consumer electronics thing. They’re now sighting in on specific features of hearing and hearing loss. As examples: Meta Platform’s patents #11575999 (Systems and methods for hearing assessment and audio adjustment) and  #11589176 (Calibrating an audio system using a user’s auditory steady state response) Apple’s patent #11595766

A bunch of fun and useful patents jump-started 2023 in January. Here’s a sampling. Breath in, Breath out, Watch Your Heart Rate Starkey patent #11540743, Ear-worn devices with deep breathing assistance, describes a method for guiding deep breathing. Starkey patent #11570562, Hearing assistance device fitting based on heart rate sensor, uses heart rate to guide you to “reseat or adjust