When it comes to imagining hearing devices in the patent world, the range is broad, both in terms of goals and body regions.
It’s a Simple Ear-Thing
“Simplified Hearing Aid” is the title of USPTO patent #9,724,241 by Japanese inventor/owner Ogura. The device (see feature image), which hearkens back to ear trumpets and the “Ear Resonator” (USPTO patent #4556122) is configured to function without an electrical power supply.
Instead, it relies on a “sound collector having such a shape [which] offers an improved sound collection effect.” With a nod to Zwislocki, the design inserts “…into the external auditory meatus, the edge of the insertion end reaches the vicinity of the osseous portion of external auditory meatus. …allow[ing] the user to utilize the bone condition and clearly hear a sound even if it is small.”
It’s a Complicated Brain-Thing
Oticon’s USPTO #9743197 departs the ear and journeys into the brain, aiming to enhance suppression of “non-wanted auditory percepts” in working memory by selectively increasing alpha wave activity. Hearing aids of this type are multi-taskers, delivering amplification and neural entrainment in a single package.
The rationale states that “Understanding speech in real world situations, require the involvement of the working memory, which has been linked to alpha activity. … age-related decline in alpha activity together with individual differences might result in subjects being unable to generate enough alpha activity to successfully suppress irrelevant information and thereby overcome difficult listening situations.”
It’s a T-Shirt Thing
Figure 1. A wearable hearable design in USPTO #9723403
For those on the go and in the milieu, with or without hearing loss, USPTO #9723403 is a Hearable/Wearable attached to the shoulders and sewn into the seams of a garment (Fig 1). Whether the t-shirt is washable or dry-clean only is not specified, but the device design is as follows:
“…a bidirectional microphone system that can be incorporated into a wearable garment, calibrate directionality and time delay at an individual microphone level, and process a high definition digital audio output of a user’s voice in high ambient noise environments.”
The List
|
Description |
Patent Number |
Assignee |
Issued |
|
Auditory sensitivity adjustment device |
Kumagawa, Yosuke (Kanagawa, JP) |
8/01/2017 |
|
|
Hearing and speech impaired electronic device control |
Shovkoplias, Yuri (Kharkiv, UA) |
8/01/2017 |
|
|
Antenna unit |
Oticon A/S (Smorum, DK) |
8/01/2017 |
|
|
Wearable directional microphone array apparatus and system |
Wave Sciences, LLC (Charleston, SC) |
8/01/2017 |
|
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Multi-microphone method for estimation of target and noise spectral variances for speech degraded by reverberation and optionally additive noise |
Oticon A/S (Smorum, DK) |
8/01/2017 |
|
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Binaural hearing aid system with feedback suppression |
GN Hearing A/S (Ballerup, DK) |
8/01/2017 |
|
|
Method for signal processing in a binaural hearing device and binaural hearing device |
Sivantos Pte. Ltd. (Singapore, SG) |
8/01/2017 |
|
|
Performance based in situ optimization of hearing aids |
GN Hearing A/S (Ballerup, DK) |
8/01/2017 |
|
|
Hearing assistance devices and user interfaces for use with same |
Advanced Bionics AG (Staefa, CH) |
8/01/2017 |
|
|
Headpieces and implantable cochlear stimulation systems including the same |
Advanced Bionics AG (Staefa, CH) |
8/01/2017 |
|
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Systems and methods for facilitating post-implant acoustic-only operation of an electro-acoustic stimulation (“EAS”) sound processor |
Advanced Bionics AG (Staefa, CH) |
8/01/2017 |
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Systems and methods for detecting a compliance state of a current source included in a cochlear implant |
Advanced Bionics AG (Staefa, CH) |
8/01/2017 |
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|
Radio frequency (“RF”) power level management systems and methods for use in a cochlear implant system |
Advanced Bionics AG (Staefa, CH) |
8/01/2017 |
|
|
Systems and methods for measuring a current output by a current generation circuit included in a cochlear implant |
Advanced Bionics AG (Staefa, CH) |
8/01/2017 |
|
|
Backup sound processor with multi-user functionality |
Advanced Bionics AG (Staefa, CH) |
8/01/2017 |
|
|
Simplified hearing aid |
Ogura, Moritakai (Kanagawa, JP) |
8/08/2017 |
|
|
Wearable earbuds having a reduced tip dimension |
Logitech Europe S.A. (Lausanne, CH) |
8/08/2017 |
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Acoustic feedback event monitoring system for hearing assistance devices |
Starkey Laboratories, Inc. (Eden Prairie, MN) |
8/08/2017 |
|
|
Method for operating a hearing device capable of active occlusion control and a hearing device with user adjustable active occlusion control |
Sonova AG (Staefa, CH) |
8/08/2017 |
|
|
Antenna system for a hearing aid |
GN Hearing A/S (Ballerup, DK) |
8/08/2017 |
|
|
Hearing aid fitting device, hearing aid, and hearing aid fitting method |
Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. (Osaka, JP) |
8/08/2017 |
|
|
Hearing device with model control and associated methods |
GN Hearing A/S (Ballerup, DK) |
8/08/2017 |
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|
Power and data transfer in hearing prostheses |
Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, NSW, AU) |
8/08/2017 |
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|
Malleable implantable medical device |
Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, NSW, AU) |
8/15/2017 |
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|
Magnetic stimulation in tissue-stimulating prostheses |
Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, NSW, AU) |
8/15/2017 |
|
|
Deep electrode insertion fitting in cochlear implant patients with residual hearing |
Med-El Elektromedizinische Geraete GmbH (Innsbruck, AT) |
8/15/2017 |
|
|
Audio processing compression system using level-dependent channels |
Starkey Laboratories, Inc. (Eden Prairie, MN) |
8/15/2017 |
|
|
Method for evaluating a useful signal and audio device |
Sivantos Pte. Ltd. (Singapore, SG) |
8/15/2017 |
|
|
Audio control using auditory event detection |
Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corp (San Francisco, CA) |
8/22/2017 |
|
|
Method, device and system for increasing a person’s ability to suppress non-wanted auditory percepts |
Oticon A/S (Smorum, DK) |
8/22/2017 |
|
|
Systems and methods for hearing assistance device antenna |
Starkey Laboratories, Inc. (Eden Prairie, MN) |
8/22/2017 |
|
|
Parallel antennas for standard fit hearing assistance devices |
Starkey Laboratories, Inc. (Eden Prairie, MN) |
8/22/2017 |
|
|
Implantable stimulating assembly arrangements |
Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, NSW, AU) |
8/29/2017 |
|
|
Automatic determination of the threshold of an evoked neural response |
Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, NSW, AU) |
8/29/2017 |
|
|
Optimizing operational control of a hearing prosthesis |
Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, NSW, AU) |
8/29/2017 |
|
|
System and method for neural cochlea stimulation |
Advanced Bionics AG (Staefa, CH) |
8/29/2017 |
|
|
Wireless audio signal monitor output for hearing implant system |
Med-El Elektromedizinische Geraete GmbH (Innsbruck, AT) |
8/29/2017 |
|
|
General purpose device to assist the hard of hearing |
International Business Machines Corp (Armonk NY) |
8/29/2017 |
|
|
Hearing device with low-energy warning |
Oticon A/S (Smorum, DK) |
8/29/2017 |
|
|
Hearing aids with adaptive beamformer responsive to off-axis speech |
Starkey Laboratories, Inc. (Eden Prairie, MN) |
8/29/2017 |
|
|
Hearing device with sound source localization and related method |
GN Hearing A/S (Ballerup, DK) |
8/29/2017 |
|
|
Methods and apparatuses for setting a hearing aid to an omnidirectional microphone mode or a directional microphone mode |
GN Hearing A/S (Ballerup, DK) |
8/29/2017 |
|
|
Binaural hearing system and method |
Oticon A/S (Smorum, DK) |
8/29/2017 |
|
|
Sound tube for an earpiece, sound tube arrangement, earpiece with such a sound tube or sound tube arrangement and hearing device with such an earpiece |
Sonova AG (Staefa, CH) |
8/29/2017 |
