September 2016 Patents

Proliferating patents prompt a switch to monthly lists, commencing today with a list of patents awarded in September by the US Patent office.  The lengthening list is once again due to entry of new players and consumer electronics giants, complementing and competing with our own Big 6.  

Samsung’s Hearable Vision

Top of this month’s list is Samsung’s patent #9426591 comprising a “portable terminal,” “sound detector” and “body area network.”  Check out the feature image, above, from that patent then take a wild guess as to what the portable terminal might be.  Perhaps a mobile phone?

Those things in the ears could be hearing aids that talk wirelessly to each other.  Or, per the patent, they could be a universal sound detector consisting of a “sensing unit which senses first hearable data … and second hearable data” from a unit in the other ear.  

Supporting methodology comes from other Samsung patents, such as #9374647 (Method and apparatus using head movement for user interface, 6/21/2016), which uses audio signals to estimate head movement for three-fold purposes:

1. detect interaural time and latency differences, enabling creation of  aforementioned”first and second hearable data”;
2. detect and characterize sound environments such as those in Fig 6a (quiet), 6b (music), 6c (single sided communication in noise);
3. enable hands-free device control via gestures (e.g., head nods) in response to changes detected in #2 which prompt Siri-like queries (e.g., “Would you like to change to the music mode?” and “It is recommended to change to the driver conversation mode. Would you like to change to the driver conversation mode?“)

But it’s patent #9420381 (Multimedia playing apparatus and method for outputting modulated sound according to hearing characteristic of user, 8/16/2016) that specifies Samsung’s vision of hearable sound, devices you might call Hearables, and that 70-80% of people who could benefit from amplification but don’t.  The patent lays the groundwork and then goes to town on it.

Groundwork

Demographics: “The number of people with hearing loss has increased…those who have partial hearing loss and feel difficulty in hearing sounds of a frequency band, or those who have hearing loss in one ear, are also increasing in number. “

The Market: “People with hearing loss tend not to go to the hospital until their hearing loss have proceeded to make very large inconveniences in their everyday lives. Even if they go to the hospital and are diagnosed with hearing loss, such people are likely to live without using hearing aids due to psychological resistance and/or inconveniences in wearing the hearing aids.”

A Hearable System to Cover all the Bases

• Multimedia playing apparatus (TV, PC, projector, DVD, video game, or other device) reproduce sounds 
• Sound output unit “acquire(s) hearing characteristics of a user … representing a hearing threshold” for clicks, tone pips or bursts, phonemes, syllables or words.
• User interface (mouse, keyboard, touch pad, remote controller) records whether the user hears the sound.
• Processor calculates frequency-specific hearing loss level, determines output level for each sound, including digitizing, amplifying, filtering, noise reduction , and frequency-specific compression. (paraphrased from patent) 
• Memory (hard drive, ROM, RAM, flash, card) stores hearing characteristics and output level of sounds from multimedia apparatus.  
• Communication interface (LAN, Internet, WAN, PAN, USB) can “transmit acquired hearing characteristics of the user to an external device.”

In a Samsung World …

No need for audiologists or fitting software or hearing aids-as-we-know them in the Samsung vision.  But what about protecting the consumer?  Samsung’s got that covered too. The patent language says it best:

By using the multimedia playing apparatus, the user may recognize easily whether the hearing loss of the user becomes worse, whether the hearing ability of the user is recovered after a surgery of a hearing organ, a proceeding degree of the hearing loss according to aging, and a proceeding degree of a sudden sensorineural hearing loss caused by sudden noise, with reference to the history of the hearing characteristics of the user that is stored in the memor. Additionally, the user may perform a hearing test easily, conveniently, and regularly. (USPTO #942038)

Editor’s note:  The Patent Series is updated monthly now, and every two months in the past.  Click links for patents approved in Jul/Aug 2016,  May/Jun 2016, Mar/Apr 2016, Jan/Feb 2016,  Nov/Dec 2015, Sept/Oct 2015,  Jul/Aug 2015, May/Jun 2015,  Mar/Apr 2015, Jan/Feb 2015,  Nov/Dec 2014,  Sep/Oct 2014,  July/Aug 2014,  May/Jun 2014,  Mar/Apr 2014,  Jan/Feb 2014, Nov/Dec 2013, September/October 2013, Jul/Aug 2013, May/Jun 2013, Mar/Apr 2013, Jan/Feb 2013, Nov/Dec 2012

The List