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 find out the how and why of Intel’s sudden appearance. If you want to know more too, you’ll enjoy watching Andrew Bellavia’s recent interview with Darryl Adams, Intel’s Director of Accessibility, entitled “How Intel is Improving Accessibility for People with Hearing Loss.”
In brief, Intel’s interest focuses on improving accessibility, reducing cost by scaling, and improving PC/HA interaction. That last has been a long time in coming and we’ll all be happy when hearing aids and computers communicate seamlessly.
The Patent List for June 2023
| Description | Patent Number | Assignee | Issued |
| Hearing system with heart condition alert and related methods | 11666265 | GN Hearing A/S (Ballerup, DK) | 6/06/2023 |
| System and method for health monitoring by an ear piece | 11666703 | Trilinear Bioventures LLC (Huntsville, AL) | 6/06/2023 |
| Method for detecting voluntary movements of structures in the ear to trigger user interfaces | 11669153 | Earswitch Ltd (Bristol, England, UK) | 6/06/2023 |
| High-frequency broadband airborne noise active noise cancellation | 11670276 | Harman International Industries Inc (Stamford, CT) | 6/06/2023 |
| System and method for providing frequency dependent dynamic leakage for a feed forward active noise cancellation (ANC) | 11670277 | Harman International Industries Inc (Stamford, CT) | 6/06/2023 |
| Synchronization of instability mitigation in audio devices | 11670278 | Bose Corporation (Framingham, MA) | 6/06/2023 |
| Missing data packet compensation | 11670305 | Earlens Corporation (Menlo Park, CA) | 6/06/2023 |
| System and method for non-destructively normalizing loudness of audio signals within portable devices | 11670315 | Dolby Laboratory Licensing Corporation (San Francisco, CA) | 6/06/2023 |
| In-ear detection utilizing earbud feedback microphone | 11671741 | DSP GROUP LTD (no city/state included in patent listing) | 6/06/2023 |
| Hearing aid comprising a feedback control system | 11671767 | Oticon A/S (Smorum, DK) | 6/06/2023 |
| Hearing aid having two interconnected parts | 11671768 | Sivantos Pte Ltd (Singapore, SG) | 6/06/2023 |
| Personalization of algorithm parameters of a hearing device | 11671769 | Oticon A/S (Smorum, DK) | 6/06/2023 |
| Systems and methods for providing personalized audio replay on a plurality of consumer devices | 11671770 | Mimi Hearing Technologies GmbH (Berlin, DE) | 6/06/2023 |
| Configurable hearing device for use with an assistive listening system | 11671771 | Starkey Laboratories Inc (Eden Prairie, MN) | 6/06/2023 |
| Ear-worn electronic device incorporating magnetically coupled feed for an antenna | 11671772 | Starkey Laboratories Inc (Eden Prairie, MN) | 6/06/2023 |
| Hearing aid device for hands free communication | 11671773 | Oticon A/S (Smorum, DK) | 6/06/2023 |
| Impression procedure | 11671774 | Earlens Corporation (Menlo Park, CA) | 6/06/2023 |
| Sensor management for wireless devices | 11671777 | Bose Corporation (Framingham, MA) | 6/06/2023 |
| Acoustic receivers with multiple diaphragms | 11671778 | Knowles Electronics LLC (Itasca, IL) | 6/06/2023 |
| Measurement of facial muscle EMG potentials for predictive analysis using a smart wearable system and method | 11675437 | Bragi GmbH (Munich, DE) | 6/13/2023 |
| Hearing device and method with non-intrusive speech intelligibility | 11676621 | GN Hearing A/S (Ballerup, DK) | 6/13/2023 |
| Howl detection in conference systems | 11677879 | Dolby Laboratory Licensing Corporation (San Francisco, CA) | 6/13/2023 |
| Telepresence system with advanced wireless operations | 11677903 | Plantronics (Santa Cruz, CA) | 6/13/2023 |
| Creative intent scalability via physiological monitoring | 11678014 | Dolby Laboratory Licensing Corporation (San Francisco, CA) | 6/13/2023 |
| Hearing device with printed circuit board assembly | 11678099 | GN Hearing A/S (Ballerup, DK) | 6/13/2023 |
| Wireless audio synchronization | 11678118 | Bose Corporation (Framingham, MA) | 6/13/2023 |
| Hearing device seal modules, modular hearing devices including the same and associated methods | 11678126 | Sonova AG (Staefa, CH) | 6/13/2023 |
| Method for operating a hearing system, hearing system and hearing device | 11678127 | Sivantos Pte Ltd (Singapore, SG) | 6/13/2023 |
| Method and apparatus for a binaural hearing assistance system using monaural audio signals, brent Edwards is inventor | 11678128 | Starkey Laboratories Inc (Eden Prairie, MN) | 6/13/2023 |
| Ear-worn electronic device incorporating antenna with reactively loaded network circuit | 11678129 | Starkey Laboratories Inc (Eden Prairie, MN) | 6/13/2023 |
| Method for setting up a short-range radio connection, and hearing device | 11678130 | Sivantos Pte Ltd (Singapore, SG) | 6/13/2023 |
| Electromagnetic transducer with new specific interface geometries | 11678131 | Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, AU) | 6/13/2023 |
| Calibration method for hearing protection devices | 11678132 | Honeywell International Inc (Charlotte, NC) | 6/13/2023 |
| Earphone | D989043 | New Audio LLC (New York, NY) | 6/13/2023 |
| Hearing device | D989319 | Starkey Laboratories Inc (Eden Prairie, MN) | 6/13/2023 |
| Hearing aid | D989320 | Sivantos Pte Ltd (Singapore, SG) | 6/13/2023 |
| Prevention and/or treatment of hearing loss or impairment | 11679140 | INSTITUT PASTEUR, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) (Paris, FR); Universite Clermont Auvergne (Clermont-Ferrand, FR); Sorbonne Universite (Paris, FR) | 6/20/2023 |
| Medical implant with stimulation leakage current blocking | 11679267 | Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, AU) | 6/20/2023 |
| Binaural rendering for headphones using metadata processing | 11681490 | Dolby Laboratory Licensing Corporation (San Francisco, CA) | 6/20/2023 |
| Ambient-aware background noise reduction for hearing augmentation | 11682376 | Cirrus Logic Inc (Austin, TX) | 6/20/2023 |
| Open-ear headphone | 11683631 | Bose Corporation (Framingham, MA) | 6/20/2023 |
| Method and apparatus for hearing sounds through vibration | 11683633 | Stohr, Luis (Redondo Beach, CA), applicant | 6/20/2023 |
| Method and device for in ear canal echo suppression | 11683643 | Staton Techiya LLC (Delray Beach, FL) | 6/20/2023 |
| Acoustic microphone with integrated magnetic transducer | 11683648 | Knowles Electronics LLC (Itasca, IL) | 6/20/2023 |
| System, method and computer program for interactively assisting a user in evaluating a hearing loss | 11683649 | Sivantos Pte Ltd (Singapore, SG) | 6/20/2023 |
| Antenna configuration for a hearing aid system | 11683650 | Oticon Medical A/S (Smorum, DK) | 6/20/2023 |
| Adaptive solid hearing system according to environment change and noise change | 11683651 | Olive Union Inc (Seoul, KR) | 6/20/2023 |
| Hearing protection and communication apparatus using vibration sensors | 11684516 | Intel Corporation (Santa Clara, CA) | 6/27/2023 |
| Hearing training device | 11684545 | Eyes’on Technology Co Ltd, Asia University (Taichung, TW) | 6/27/2023 |
| Wearable computing device audio interface | 11687317 | International Business Machines Corporation (Armonk, NY) | 6/27/2023 |
| Ear device with dynamic noise attenuation and generation | 11688380 | Turner-Fernback & Deborah Caroline (Berlin, DE), applicants | 6/27/2023 |
| Wearable vibrotactile speech aid | 11688386 | Georgetown University (Washington DC) | 6/27/2023 |
| Hearing apparatus and related methods for evaluation of speech exposure | 11688387 | GN Hearing A/S (Ballerup, DK) | 6/27/2023 |
| Audio systems and methods for voice activity detection | 11688411 | Bose Corporation (Framingham, MA) | 6/27/2023 |
| Mobile device based techniques for detection and prevention of hearing loss | 11688515 | Intel Corporation (Santa Clara, CA) | 6/27/2023 |
| Earbud orientation-based beamforming | 11689841 | Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Redmond, WA) | 6/27/2023 |
| Earloop microphone | 11689836 | Plantronics Inc (Santa Cruz, CA) | 6/27/2023 |
| Earphone without covering an ear canal | 11689837 | Shenzhen Shokz Co Ltd (Shenzhen, CN) | 6/27/2023 |
| Headphone audio controller | 11689844 | Bose Corporation (Framingham, MA) | 6/27/2023 |
| Hearing device and method of operating the hearing device | 11689864 | Sivantos Pte Ltd (Singapore, SG) | 6/27/2023 |
| Modular hearing instrument comprising electro-acoustic calibration parameters | 11689865 | GN Hearing A/S (Ballerup, DK) | 6/27/2023 |
| Hearing device adapted to perform a self-test and a method for testing a hearing device
|
11689866 | Sonova AG (Staefa, CH) | 6/27/2023 |
| Hearing device or system for evaluating and selecting an external audio source | 11689867 | Oticon A/S (Smorum, DK) | 6/27/2023 |
| Machine learning based hearing assistance system | 11689868 | Leong, Mun Hoong (Repulse Bay, HK), applicant | 6/27/2023 |
| Hearing device configured to utilize non-audio information to process audio signals | 11689869 | Oticon A/S (Smorum, DK) | 6/27/2023 |
| Hearing device and method of updating a hearing device | 11689870 | GN Hearing A/S (Ballerup, DK) | 6/27/2023 |
| Earbud tip | D990457 | Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Seattle, WA) | 6/27/2023 |
Holly Hosford-Dunn, PhD, owned and operated a dispensing audiology practice in Tucson and was active in management of HearingHealthMatters.org through 2017. She holds BA degrees in Communication Sciences, Psychology and Economics; MA in Communication Disorders; PhD in Hearing Sciences. Following post-doctoral work at Max Planck Institute (Munich, DE) and Eaton-Peabody Auditory Physiology Lab (Boston), she joined the Stanford medical school faculty as director of audiology. She has authored/edited numerous text books, chapters, journals, and articles and taught Marketing and Practice Management in a variety of academic settings. She continues to consult and write on topics related to hearing health care vis-à-vis consumer demands, professional training, technological advancement, capital investment, industry consolidation, regulatory control, product and service distribution, and strategic pricing.
