Amidst all the crowd-funded Hearable hype, with Nanoplug coming unplugged and others sure to follow, the Big 6 and a few well-seasoned companies and visionaries continue to quietly and efficiently amp up technology for ear-level applications. Today’s lengthy list of new patents in the last half of this post shows the Big 6 firmly in the saddle, at a fast gallop, well ahead of the competition.
A few big consumer electronics companies are tinkering with ways to connect to hearing aids and those who wear them. Samsung’s patent #8938082 is for an “Apparatus Having Hearing Aid.” Home Box Office has a patent (#8943021) for a “System and Method for Assistive Caption, Video Description, and Audio Distribution.” The patent trolls are nibbling at the fringes: A Pasadena company called One-E-Way, Inc. has requested a cease and desist order against the sale of wireless headsets to 13 manufacturers and distributors, including Sennheiser and GN Netcom.
Among the visionaries, academic/entrepreneur Diane van Tasell, PhD, Senior Scientist at Ear Machine, is inventor of record for US patent #8968209 (Methods and Systems for Hearing Tests), issued to Unitedhealth Group last week. Self-starter Zounds Hearing logged another patent in early February (#8948246, Method for Calibrating a Hearing Aid).
The real news is growth in Big 6 technology activity. Figure 1 compiles{{1}}[[1]]Individual manufacturer graphs in Fig 1 are taken from patentbuddy.com.[[1]] growth of patent applications (red) and patents awarded (green) for each of the Big 6 over the last 10 years. The figure is included here as a visual of the exponential growth pattern of patent activity in all 6 companies. It’s hard to read the actual numbers on the axes, for which I apologize but can’t do better. But it’s the pattern that counts, not the quantity.
The Bi-Monthly List of USPTO Patents
Description |
Patent Number | Assignee | Issued |
| Hearing Aid with Cover and Programming Socket | 8923537 | Oticon A/S (Smorum, Denmark) | 12/30/2014 |
| Systems and Methods for Providing a Pre-Stimulation Visual Cue Representation of a Cochlear Implant Stimulation Level | 8923979 | Advanced Bionics AG (Staefa, CH) | 12/30/2014 |
| Two-Piece Sound Processor System for Use in an Auditory Prosthesis System | 8923541 | Advanced Bionics AG (Staefa, CH) | 12/30/2014 |
| Method and Apparatus for Selecting Right and Left Circuit Configurations of Hearing Assistance Devices | 8929559 | Starkey Laboratories Inc. (Eden Prairie, Minn.) | 1/06/2015 |
| Output Phase Modulation Entrainment containment for Digital Filters | 8929565 | Starkey Laboratories Inc. (Eden Prairie, Minn.) | 1/06/2015 |
| Method and Apparatus for Audio Processing | 8929560 | J. Craig Oxford (Nashville, Tenn.) and D. Michael Shields (St. Paul, Minn.) | 1/06/2015 |
| Method for Tuning a Hearing Device Using a Percentile Analysis, and Tuning Device | 8929576 | Siemens Medical Instruments Pte. Ltd. (Singapore) | 1/06/2015 |
| Hearing Aid and a Method of Detecting and Attenuating Transients | 8929574 | Widex A/S (Lynge, Denmark) | 1/06/2015 |
| Monitoring Device and Method for Wireless Power transmission in a Monitoring Device | 8929813 | Widex A/S (Lynge, Denmark) | 1/06/2015 |
| Audio Processing in a Portable Listening Device | 8929566 | Oticon A/S (Smorum, Denmark) | 1/06/2015 |
| Bone Conduction Device Including a Balanced Electromagnetic Actuator Having Radial and Axial Air Gaps | 8929577 | Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, NSW, AU) | 1/06/2015 |
| Behind-the-Ear (BTE) Prosthetic Device with Antenna | 8934984 | Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, NSW, AU) | 1/13/2015 |
| Visual Presentation of Speaker-Related Information | 8934652 | Elwha LLC (Bellevue, Wash.) | 1/13/2015 |
| Apparatus Having Hearing Aid | 8938082 | SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS Co. Ltd. (Suwon-si, South Korea) | 1/20/2015 |
| Pre-Curved Electrode Array Loading Tools | 8939993 | Advanced Bionics AG (Staefa, CH) | 1/27/2015 |
| Enhancing Cochlear Implants with Hearing Aid Signal Processing Technologies | 8942815 | King Chung (West Lafayette, Ind.) and Fan-Gang Zeng (Irvine, Calif.) | 1/27/2015 |
| Subcutaneous Piezoelectric Bone Conduction Hearing Aid Actuator and System | 942400 | Dalhousie University (Halifax, Canada) | 1/27/2015 |
| Methods for wideband Receiver and Module for a Hearing Assistance Device | 8942399 | Starkey Laboratories Inc. (Eden Prairie, Minn.) | 1/27/2015 |
| Methods and Apparatus for Early Audio Feedback Cancellation for Hearing Assistance Devices | 8942398 | Starkey Laboratories Inc. (Eden Prairie, Minn.) | 1/27/2015 |
| Wireless Binaural Hearing System | 942396 | Oticon A/S (Smorum, Denmark) | 1/27/2015 |
| System and Method for Assistive Caption, Video Description, and Audio Distribution | 8943021 | Home Box Office Inc. (New York) | 1/27/2015 |
| Sound Perception Using Frequency Transposition by Moving the Envelope | 8949113 | Oticon A/S (Smorum, Denmark) | 2/03/2015 |
| Method for Calibrating a Hearing Aid | 8948426 | Zounds Hearing Inc. (Tempe, Ariz.) | 2/03/2015 |
| Hearing Aid with an Elongate Member | 8948430 | GN Resound A/S (Ballerup, Denmark) | 2/03/2015 |
| Hearing Aid Fitting Procedure and Processing Based on Subjective Space Representation | 8948427 | University of California, Berkeley (Berkeley, Calif.) | 2/03/2015 |
| Hearing Aid with Histogram Based Sound Environment Classification | 8948428 | GN Resound A/S (Ballerup, Denmark) | 2/03/2015 |
| Hearing Aid with an Elongate Member | 8948430 | GN Resound A/S (Ballerup, Denmark) | 2/03/2015 |
| Hearing Device and Method for Operating a Hearing Device with Two-Stage Transformation | 8948428 | Siemens Medical Instruments Pte. Ltd. (Singapore) | 2/03/2015 |
| Amplification of a speech signal in dependence on the input level | 8948429 | Siemens Medical Instruments Pte. Ltd. (Singapore) | 2/03/2015 |
| Objective fitting of a Hearing Prosthesis | 8945216 | Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, NSW, AU) | 2/03/2015 |
| Multi-Electrode Channel Configurations | 8954158 | Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, NSW, AU) | 2/10/2015 |
| Synchronization in a Bilateral Auditory Prosthesis Systems | 8953810 | Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, NSW, AU) | 2/10/2015 |
| Behind the Ear Hearing Aid with Receiver in the Ear | 8953829 | Oticon A/S (Smorum, Denmark) | 2/10/2015 |
| Hearing Aid Retainer Accessory | 8953828 | Oticon A/S (Smorum, Denmark) | 2/10/2015 |
| Spectral Band Substitution to Avoid Howls and Sub-Oscillation | 8953818 | Oticon A/S (Smorum, Denmark) | 2/10/2015 |
| Hearing Aid with Integrated Telecoil and Battery Recharge Coil | 8953827 | Starkey Laboratories Inc. (Eden Prairie, Minn.) | 2/10/2015 |
| Systems and Methods for Loading a Pre-Curved Electrode Array Onto a Straightening Member | 8954169 | Advanced Bionics AG (Staefa, CH) | 2/10/2015 |
| Methods and Systems for Preventing Unauthorized Access to Patient Information | 8959455 | Advanced Bionics AG (Staefa, CH) | 2/17/2015 |
| Sound environment classification by coordinated sensing using hearing assistance | 8958586 | Starkey Laboratories Inc. (Eden Prairie, Minn.) | 2/17/2015 |
| Listening Device with a Rechargeable Energy Source Adapted for Being Charged Through an ITE-Unit, or a Connector Connectable to, or a connector of, a BTE-Unit | 8958590 | Oticon A/S (Smorum, Denmark) | 2/17/2015 |
| Signal Dereverberation Using Environment Information | 8958587 | Oticon A/S (Smorum, Denmark) | 2/17/2015 |
| Cable Length Adjustment in Auditory Devices | 8958589 | Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, NSW, AU) | 2/17/2015 |
| Maufacturing an Electrode Array for a Stimulating Medical device | 8955211 | Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, NSW, AU) | 2/17/2015 |
| Encoding Fine Time Structure in Presence of Substantial Interaction Across an Electrode Array | 8965519 | Advanced Bionics AG (Staefa, CH) | 2/24/2015 |
| Sound Processors with Light Transmissive Seals and Implantable cochlear Stimulation Systems Including the Same | 8965020 | Advanced Bionics AG (Staefa, CH) | 2/24/2015 |
| Sound Processor Housings, Sound Processors and Implantable Cochlear Stimulation Systems Including the Same | 8965019 | Advanced Bionics AG (Staefa, CH) | 2/24/2015 |
| Power Supply Voltage from Class D Amplifier | 8965018 | Sonion Nederland BV (Amsterdam) | 2/24/2015 |
| Automatic Determination of the Threshold of an Evoked Neural Response | 8965520 | Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, NSW, AU) | 2/24/2015 |
| Automatic Hearing Aid Adaptation over Time Via Mobile Application | 8965016 | Starkey Laboratories Inc. (Eden Prairie, Minn.) | 2/24/2015 |
| Semiconductor memory with Similar RAM and ROM Cells | 8964456 | GN Resound A/S (Ballerup, Denmark) | 2/24/2015 |
| Methods and Systems for Hearing Tests | 8968209 | Unitedhealth Group Inc. (Minnetonka, Minn) | 3/03/2015 |
| Binaurally coordinated compression system | 8971557 | Starkey Laboratories Inc. (Eden Prairie, Minn.) | 3/03/2015 |
| Switching structures for hearing aid | 8971559 | Starkey Laboratories Inc. (Eden Prairie, Minn.) | 3/03/2015 |
| Hearing Device with External Electrode | 8971558 | Oticon A/S (Smorum, Denmark) | 3/03/2015 |
| Coil Cable for an Implantable Medical Device | 8972020 | Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, NSW, AU) | 3/03/2015 |
Editor’s note: The Patent Series is updated every two months. Click links for patents approved in 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
