US Ear Device Patents for November 2020

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Hearing Health & Technology Matters
January 3, 2021

The feature image is from Bose patent 10835145, Ear tips capable of capturing bioelectrical signals and providing nerve stimulation. 

Bose is not the only company thinking Big by going Small.

 

Hearing Aids as Small Auditory Augmented Reality Devices

 

Readers from hearing health lines of work may wonder why patent lists of recent months include inventions centered on virtual/augmented reality and all sorts of spatial localization concepts using various forms of binaural rendering/recording.  Hearing aids don’t record or render, to our thinking, nor are they gaming paraphernalia. But, they are small wonders that fit comfortably into a direct sensory pathway and connect automatically to other devices, such as another unit in the other ear, and both to a smartphone or other controlling element.  That’s an inviting setup for gaming headset designers, among other inventors, if the devices can reduce headset bulkiness and eliminate the need to switch out audio devices when going from daily living to virtual gaming, or other created activities.

We–and the FDA –don’t tend to think that way: hearing aids process sounds in our natural surrounds, not sounds in imagined or remote settings. That’s a problem for headset designers who seek to transport us to imagined, remote or augmented worlds. But, it’s a solvable problem, as the patent lists demonstrate on a monthly basis.

Here’s just one AR designer’s thinking on how small in-ear devices could function in AR auditorium environments. It is not a big leap to think of a future in which wearers move seamlessly in auditory space between traditional hearing aid functions and a multitude of alternative auditory activities: 

Augmented reality is a version of our “real,” physical world augmented with virtual effects. Many augmented reality devices and applications focus primarily on adding virtual images to the real physical world. More recently, some augmented reality devices have incorporated 3-dimensional sound fields to add to the realism of an augmented reality world. To maintain a realistic augmented reality experience, a user’s position and orientation is typically tracked, such that virtual objects and sounds may be appropriately manipulated as the user moves…Efficient user tracking methods allow a user to experience an interactive auditory augmented reality experience by using a relatively small auditory augmented reality device.10835809

Bringing these ideas closer to home and the here-and-now, here’s Sennheiser’s patent 10827253, roughly paraphrased:

…earphones with stereo microphones…have reduced speech quality for  telephone function. …the present invention … an earphone [with] stereo microphones…is better suited for connection to a multimedia device with telephone function and audio recording and/or audio reproduction function.…  one microphone is arranged on or close to an ear… to record sound events as they are perceived by the user during normal hearing. The monitoring system also contains earphones in order to bring the sound to the ear of the user…the connection unit can [also] …output audio signals of the two microphones for recording ambient sound or audio signals…for capturing speech….The earphone can thus be used as a hearing/speech accessory (headset).  

 

The November 2020 Patent List

 

Description

Patent Number

Assignee

Issued

System and method to locally deliver therapeutic agent to inner ear

10821276

The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York (New York NY)

11/03/2020

Cochlear implants having MRI-compatible magnet apparatus and associated methods

10821279

Advanced Bionics AG (Staefa, CH)

11/03/2020

Device for enhancement of language processing in autism spectrum disorders through modifying the auditory stream including an acoustic stimulus to reduce an acoustic detail characteristic while preserving a lexicality of the acoustics stimulus

10825353

The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (Philadelphia, PA), The Trustees of the University of Philadelphia (Philadelphia, PA)

 

 

 

 

 

11/03/2020

Wireless earbud

10827249

Amazon Technologies Inc (Seattle, WA)

11/03/2020

Earbud stability anchor feature

10827252

Apple Inc (Cupertino, CA)

11/03/2020

Earphone having separate microphones for binaural recordings and for telephoning

10827253

Sennheiser electronic GmbH & Co KL (Wedemark, DE), Sennheiser electronic GmbH & Co LG (Wedemark, DE)

 

11/03/2020

Hearing aid system

10827260

Applicant: Chen, Hsiao-Han (Tianan, TW)

11/03/2020

Flexible hearing aid circuit with motherboard and peripheral attachments

10827283

Starkey Laboratories Inc (Eden Prairie, MN)

11/03/2020

Method for operating a hearing aid and hearing aid

10827285

Sivantos Pte Ltd (Singapore, SG)

11/03/2020

Hearing device with spatial cue information processing capability

10827286

GN Hearing A/S (Ballerup, DK)

 

11/03/2020

Method of operating a hearing device and hearing device

10827287

Sivantos Pte Ltd (Singapore, SG)

11/03/2020

Ear to ear communication using wireless low energy transport

10827288

Starkey Laboratories Inc (Eden Prairie, MN)

11/03/2020

Antenna unit

10827289

Oticon A/S (Smorum, DK)

11/03/2020

Sleep staging using an in-ear photoplethysmography (PPG)

10827972

Bose Corporation (Framingham, MA)

11/10/2020

Surface modified electrodes

10827936

Advanced Bionics AG (Staefa, CH)

11/10/2020

Cochlear implant assemblies and methods for manufacturing the same

10828487

Advanced Bionics AG (Staefa, CH)

11/10/2020

Wearable case for hearing device and methods for using the same

10828489

Advanced Bionics AG (Staefa, CH)

11/10/2020

Sound synthesis for data sonification employing a human auditory perception eigenfunction model in Hilbert space

10832693

Applicant: Ludwig, Lester F (San Antonio, TX)

11/10/2020

Audio control using auditory event detection

10833644

Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation (San Francisco, CA)

11/10/2020

Electronic attenuation adjusting hearing protection device

10834491

International Business Machines Corporation (Armonk, NY)

11/10/2020

Hearing devices with proactive power management

10834510

Sonova AG (Staefa, CH)

11/10/2020

Hearing aid with an antenna

 

GN Hearing A/S (Ballerup, DK)

11/10/2020

Moving an emoji to move a location of binaural sound

10834518

Lyren, Philip Scott (Bangkok, TH)

11/10/2020

Methods and systems for designing and applying numerically optimized binaural room impulse responses

10834519

Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation (San Francisco, CA)

11/10/2020

Switching binaural sound from head movements

10834520

Lyren, Philip Scott (Bangkok, TH)

11/10/2020

Audio listening system

D901455

Apple Inc (Cupertino, CA)

11/10/2020

Ear tips capable of capturing bioelectrical signals and providing nerve stimulation

10835145

Bose Corporation (Framingham, MA)

11/17/2020

Peptide for preventing hearing loss, and composition comprising same

10835582

GemVax & KAEL Co Ltd (Daejeon, KR)

11/17/2020

Auditorium efficient tracking in auditory augmented reality

10835809

Applicant: Contreras, Kristina (Los Angeles, CA)

11/17/2020

Device-cleaning wax guards

10835931

Eargo Inc (San Jose, CA)

11/17/2020

Binaural rendering for headphones using metadata processing

10838684

Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation (San Francisco, CA)

11/17/2020

Artificial intelligence to enhance a listening experience

10838686

Applicant: Kovacevic, Josh (West Jordan, UT)

11/17/2020

Communication network of in-ear utility devices having sensors

10841682

SmartEar Inc (San Francisco, CA)

11/17/2020

In-ear headphone

10841683

Apple Inc (Cupertino, CA)

11/17/2020

Programmable hearing device and method of programming a hearing device

10841714

Oticon A/S (Smorum, DK)

11/17/2020

Method of adapting a hearing apparatus

10841715

Sivantos Pte Ltd (Singapore, SG)

11/17/2020

Hearing device with two-half loop antenna

10841716

Sonova AG (Staefa, CH)

11/17/2020

Enhanced hearing system

10841724

Applicant: Tran, Bao (Saratoga, CA)

11/17/2020

Sharing locations where binaural sound externally localizes

10841725

Lyren, Philip Scott (Bangkok, TH)

11/17/2020

Communication device with wireless interface using different protocols

10841976

Sonova AG (Staefa, CH)

11/17/2020

Earbud

D902184

Shenzhen Ginto E-Commerce Co Ltd (Shenzhen, CN)

11/17/2020

Wireless earbud

D902185

Applicant: Xian, Guimei (Shenzhen, CN)

11/17/2020

Ear plug

D902380

Ear Labs AB (Malmo, SE)

11/17/2020

In-ear audio device customization

RE48315

Bose Corporation (Framingham, MA)

11/17/2020

Method and apparatus for tinnitus evaluation with test sound automatically adjusted for loudness

10842418

Starkey Laboratories Inc (Eden Prairie, MN)

11/24/2020

Electrode insertion tool with additional functionality

10842531

Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, AU)

11/24/2020

Fixation of a removable magnet or a similar element in an elastic implant material

10842994

MED-EL Elektromedizinische Geraete GmbH (Innsbruck, AT)

11/24/2020

Method and system for use of hearing prosthesis for linguistic evaluation

10842995

Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, AU)

11/24/2020

Shielding device for signal transmission coil

10843000

Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, AU)

11/24/2020

Methods and systems for neural stimulation via auditory stimulation

10843006

Cognito Therapeutics Inc (Cambridge, MA)

11/24/2020

Cycling hearing device and bicycle system

10848607

Finewell Co Ltd (Osaka, JP)

11/24/2020

Method, electronic device and recording medium for compensating in-ear audio signal

10848855

HTC Corporation (Taoyuan, TW)

11/24/2020

Binaural recording for processing audio signals to enable alerts

10848872

Intel Corporation (Santa Clara, CA)

11/24/2020

Audio system with integral hearing test

10848877

Applicant: Rountree, Sr, Robert Newton (Cotopaxi, CO)

11/24/2020

Method for improving the spatial hearing perception of a binaural hearing aid

10848879

Sivantos Pte Ltd (Singapore, SG)

11/24/2020

Hearing device with adaptive sub-band beamforming and related method

10848880

GN Hearing A/S (Ballerup, DK)

11/24/2020

User adjustment interface using remote computing resource

10848881

Starkey Laboratories Inc (Eden Prairie, MN)

11/24/2020

Implant abutment

10848882

Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, AU)

11/24/2020

Convertibility of a bone conduction device

10848883

Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, AU)

11/24/2020

Hearing aid for placement at an ear of a user

10848884

Oticon Medical A/S (Smorum, DK)

11/24/2020

Binaural audio signal processing method and apparatus for determining rendering method according to position of listener and object

10848890

Gaudi Audio Lab Inc (Seoul, KR)

11/24/2020

Displaying graphical representations for binaural sound

10848893

Lyren, Philip Scott (Bangkok, TH)

11/24/2020

Playing binaural sound clips during an electronic communication

10848898

Lyren, Philip Scott (Bangkok, TH)

11/24/2020

Binaural sound in visual entertainment media

10848899

Lyren, Philip Scott (Bangkok, TH)

11/24/2020

Method for processing an audio signal, signal processing unit, binaural renderer, audio encoder and audio decoder

10848900

Fraunhfer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der angewandten Forschung e.V. (Munich, DE)

11/24/2020

Earbud

D902890

Bose Corporation (Framingham, MA)

11/24/2020

 

Holly Hosford-Dunn, Hearing Health MattersHolly 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.

 

 

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