Hearing Economics

Magic Leap is an imaginative company, whimsically exploring new/niche AR/VR, as manifest in patent #12055719 (Systems and methods for sign language recognition). The patent starts with this Fig.1 illustration, which has little to do with the patent but is a fun way to grab attention and fire up your imagination. Getting to the purpose (and not shown in Fig 1),

Arm Limited is a British semiconductor company that develops and licenses central processing cores for devices ranging from computer servers to sensors and smartphones. Along with other Big Tech firms, ARM has entered the hearing loss arena with patent #12032155, Method and head-mounted unit for assisting a hearing-impaired user. True to its roots, ARM lends its central processing approach to

Hearing solutions but not hearing aids Bose continues to create solutions destined for licensing in ear-based devices. This month’s crop includes these two patents: 12016662 Measuring respiration with an in-ear accelerometer 12022268 Artificial intelligence (AI) acoustic feedback suppression AT&T’s patent #12020182 (Venue seat assignment based upon hearing profiles) describes a a device (in-ear or various other options) which can: receive

Sonova’s patent #11997457 (Hearing device for providing physiological information, and method of its operation) takes on the entire Hearable/Hearing Aid/Sensor/Wearable space. The patent is long in length and careful consideration of many aspects. For example, Ear devices cover the gamut from CIs to RICs, any/all of which can include Biometric sensors used to measure an organism’s biological characteristics, defined as

What will they think of next? Apple’s patent #11950040 envisions an in-ear device with a volume control feature on the stem, which the user can rotate — up to increase volume, down to decrease. Not exactly a new concept but the patent goes further by enabling volume control with head nods or with head turns — right to increase volume,

Differing aspects of security and protection in ear devices Security and protection conjure thoughts of privacy and theft protection for most of us. But there are many other aspects to consider, as these patents demonstrate. GN’s patent #11924616, Management in a Hearing Device, aims to shield the device from malfeasance or parasitism from outside software by preventing or limiting access

There were lots of interesting and useful patent ideas in February. Here are some that caught our eye: Q (Cue) Ltd in Israel has a patent for silent speech sensing (#11908478) entitled Determining speech from facial skin movements using a housing supported by ear or associated with an earphone. For hearing practitioners unfamiliar with the term (including us at Hearing

ObjectVideo Labs’s patent 11875571, is for hearing aid users who stay at home, but not in the way you’d think. Entitled Smart hearing assistance in monitored property, the patent envisions the house as a wireless blueprint for everyday activities in which: An analysis system can communicate with sensors included in a smart home to improve audio content provided to a

Selective Listening Ups Its Game Magic Leap’s patent #11843931, Efficient rendering of virtual soundfields, proposes different processing methods, depending on the number of sounds in your surround. There’s one method for small numbers of sounds and another for large numbers. The goal is to develop an audio system … that increases the efficiency based on the number of sound sources

You Know I Can’t Hear You When the Water’s Running Hearing Aid Counseling 101 usually includes the caution against magical thinking that hearing aids enable wearers to hear through walls when others are talking or shouting at them from other locations. It’s a communication mismatch where the odds are stacked against the wearer — not only is s/he expected to