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 hear “better” but s/he has no means of evaluating whether it’s reasonable (“normal”) to hear and understand the speaker.
Cochlear implant wearers are in the same boat and Cochlear’s patent #11825271, Hearing Performance and Habilitation and/or Rehabilitation Enhancement Using Normal Things, is here to the rescue, using impeccable logic in the device system to inform the wearer and set expectations:
…[the system] can include features associated with the layout and/or acoustics of a house. … in a scenario where person A is in a basement and the hearing prosthesis recipient is on the second or third floor of a house, and person A is trying to get the recipient’s attention, person A is not shouting loud enough, the system might affirmatively determine that no intervention will be made, because the normal hearing person would likely not be able to hear Person A. (paraphrased from the patent)
The November 2023 Patent List
| Description | Patent Number | Assignee | Issued |
| Trans middle ear-inner ear fluid flow implementations | 11806492 | Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, AU) | 11/07/2023 |
| Implantable stimulating assembly with limited components | 11806529 | Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, AU) | 11/07/2023 |
| Balance compensation | 11806530 | Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, AU) | 11/07/2023 |
| Implantable cochlear system with inner ear sensor | 11806531 | Envoy Medical Corporation (White Bear Lake, MN) | 11/07/2023 |
| Gaming with earpiece 3D audio | 11806621 | Bragi GmbH (Munich, DE) | 11/07/2023 |
| Conversation assistance audio device personalization | 11809775 | Bose Corporation (Framingham, MA) | 11/07/2023 |
| Virtual demonstration of audio system setups | 11809777 | Bose Corporation (Framingham, MA) | 11/07/2023 |
| Ear-wearable devices for control of other devices and related methods | 11812213 | Starkey Laboratories Inc (Eden Prairie, MN) | 11/07/2023 |
| Method to reduce H-field coupling for E-noise and a kind of non-coaxial integrated earbuds | 11812216 | Google LLC (Mountain View, CA) | 11/07/2023 |
| Wearable audio device with inner microphone adaptive noise reduction | 11812217 | Bose Corporation (Framingham, MA) | 11/07/2023 |
| Electronic device using a compound metric for sound enhancement | 11812223 | Starkey Laboratories Inc (Eden Prairie, MN) | 11/07/2023 |
| Hearing device comprising a delayless adaptive filter | 11812224 | Oticon A/S (Smorum, DK) | 11/07/2023 |
| Method, apparatus and system for neural network hearing aid | 11812225 | Chromatic Inc (New York, NY) | 11/07/2023 |
| Hearing device including a sensor and a method of forming same | 11812226 | Starkey Laboratories Inc (Eden Prairie, MN) | 11/07/2023 |
| Focusing methods for a prosthesis | 11812227 | Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, AU) | 11/07/2023 |
| Wearable devices using shape memory polymers | 11812244 | Bose Corporation (Framingham, MA) | 11/07/2023 |
| Pairing system and method for ear-worn devices | 11812246 | Starkey Laboratories Inc (Eden Prairie, MN) | 11/07/2023 |
| Hearing aid | D1004097 | Xiamen Retone Hearing Technology Co Ltd (Xiamen, CN) | 11/07/2023 |
| Individualized adaptation of medical prosthesis settings | 11813460 | Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, AU) | 11/14/2023 |
| Gesture recognition for wearable multimedia device using real-time data streams | 11816269 | Humane Inc (San Francisco, CA) | 11/14/2023 |
| Content and environmentally aware environmental noise compensation | 11817114 | Dolby Laboratory Licensing Corporation (San Francisco, CA) | 11/14/2023 |
| System and method for enhancing speech of target speaker from audio signal in an ear-worn device using voice signatures | 11818523 | Chromatic Inc (New York, NY) | 11/14/2023 |
| Earbuds | 11818528 | Apple Inc (Cupertino, CA) | 11/14/2023 |
| Charging kit for charging one or more rechargeable hearing devices | 11818530 | GN Hearing A/S (Ballerup, DK) | 11/14/2023 |
| MEMS structure with stiffening member | 11818541 | Knowles Electronics LLC (Itasca, IL) | 11/14/2023 |
| Vibro-tactile directionality in bone conduction devices | 11818543 | Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, AU) | 11/14/2023 |
| Acoustic feedback event monitoring system for hearing assistance devices | 11818544 | Starkey Laboratories Inc (Eden Prairie, MN) | 11/14/2023 |
| Method to acquire preferred dynamic range function for speech enhancement | 11818545 | Staton Techiya LLC (Delray Beach, FL) | 11/14/2023 |
| Hearing aid function realization method based on wearable device system and wearable device | 11818546 | Shenzhen Tingduoduo Technology Co. Ltd (Shenzhen, CN) | 11/14/2023 |
| Method, apparatus and system for neural network hearing aid | 11818547 | Chromatic Inc (New York, NY) | 11/14/2023 |
| Method of operating a binaural ear level audio system and a binaural ear level audio system | 11818548 | Widex A/S (Lynge, DK) | 11/14/2023 |
| Hearing aid system and a method for operating a hearing aid system | 11818549 | Sonova AG (Staefa, CH) | 11/14/2023 |
| Hearing instruments with receiver posterior to battery | 11818550 | Starkey Laboratories Inc (Eden Prairie, MN) | 11/14/2023 |
| Method for adapting an otoplastic of a hearing aid, hearing aid, and hearing aid system | 11818551 | Sivantos Pte Ltd (Singapore, SG) | 11/14/2023 |
| Earguard monitoring system | 11818552 | Staton Techiya LLC (Delray Beach, FL) | 11/14/2023 |
| Method and system for use of hearing prosthesis for linguistic evaluation | 11819691 | Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, AU) | 11/21/2023 |
| Cochlear implants having detachable fixation elements and associated systems and methods | 11819692 | Advanced Bionics AG (Staefa, CH) | 11/21/2023 |
| Acoustic output device with antenna | 11819690 | Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, AU) | 11/21/2023 |
| Dielectric comb for MEMS device | 11825266 | Knowles Electronics LLC (Itasca, IL) | 11/21/2023 |
| Advanced scene classification for prosthesis | 11825268 | Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, AU) | 11/21/2023 |
| Feedback elimination in a hearing aid | 11825269 | Oticon A/S (Smorum, DK) | 11/21/2023 |
| Binaural hearing aid system and a hearing aid comprising own voice estimation | 11825270 | Oticon A/S (Smorum, DK) | 11/21/2023 |
| Hearing performance and habilitation and/or rehabilitation enhancement using normal things | 11825271 | Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, AU) | 11/21/2023 |
| Assistive listening device systems, devices and methods for providing audio streams within sound fields | 11825272 | Starkey Laboratories Inc (Eden Prairie, MN) | 11/21/2023 |
| Electronic module for a hearing device | 11825274 | Oticon A/S (Smorum, DK) | 11/21/2023 |
| Adaptive equalization compensation for earbuds | 11825281 | Apple Inc (Cupertino, CA) | 11/21/2023 |
| Discrete binaural spatialization of sound sources on two audio channels | 11825291 | Meta Platforms Technologies LLC (Menlo Park, CA) | 11/21/2023 |
| Ear-worn devices with deep breathing assistance | 11826138 | Starkey Laboratories Inc (Eden Prairie, MN) | 11/28/2023 |
| External and implantable coils for auditory prostheses | 11826576 | Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, AU) | 11/28/2023 |
| Force feedback compensated absolute pressure sensor | 11827511 | Knowles Electronics LLC (Itasca, IL) | 11/28/2023 |
| Wearable speech input-based vision to audio interpreter | 11830494 | Snap Inc (Santa Monica, CA) | 11/28/2023 |
| Wireless charging for earbud and enclosure of earbud | 11831171 | STMicroelectronics Design and Application SRO (Prague CZ) | 11/28/2023 |
| Methods and devices for radio frequency (RF) mitigation proximate the ear | 11832044 | Staton Techiya LLC (Delray Beach, FL) | 11/28/2023 |
| Methods and devices for occluding an ear canal having a predetermined filter characteristic | 11832046 | Staton Techiya LLC (Delray Beach, FL) | 11/28/2023 |
| Acoustic receivers with multiple diaphragms | 11832054 | Knowles Electronics LLC (Itasca, IL) | 11/28/2023 |
| Hearing device system and method for processing audio signals | 11832058 | Sonova AG (Staefa, CH) | 11/28/2023 |
| Hearables and hearing aids with proximity-based adaptation | 11832059 | Semiconductor Components Industries LLC (Scottsdale, CA) | 11/28/2023 |
| Method, apparatus and system for neural network hearing aid | 11832061 | Chromatic Inc (New York, NY) | 11/28/2023 |
| Neural-network based denoising of audio signals received by an ear-worn device controlled based on activation of a user input device on the ear-worn device | 11832062 | Chromatic Inc (New York, NY) | 11/28/2023 |
| Speakerphone hearing device integration | 11832063 | GN Hearing A/S (Ballerup, DK) | 11/28/2023 |
| Hearing device comprising a slidable member | 11832064 | Sonova AG (Staefa, CH) | 11/28/2023 |
| Haptic tinnitus therapeutic system | 11832065 | Bose Corporation (Framingham, MA) | 11/28/2023 |
| Audio processing using distributed machine learning model | 11832072 | Bose Corporation (Framingham, MA) | 11/28/2023 |
| Self-calibrating microphone and loudspeaker arrays for wearable audio devices | 11832082 | Apple Inc (Cupertino, CA) | 11/28/2023 |
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.
