US Hearing Device Patents for October 2017
The Hearable Lament: Hearing Economics looks forward to this time next year when we get to see the 2017 Hearables Hot Potato finalists. Of course they’ll be tinier and cuter, but we hope they’ll also be multitalented, highly articulate, and dedicated to assisting everyone with ears, even people with hearing loss who want to listen…
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US Hearing Device Patents for September 2017
Hearing aid patents continue to offer excitement, especially for audiophiles in pursuit of “natural” sound. The simple act of sticking something in the ear, whether occluding or not, has measurable effects at the ear drum. Patent #9769575 looks at those effects with the intent of correcting distortions of magnitude and phase (Fig 1). Magnitude effects…
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US Hearing Device Patents for April 2017
Audiologists and hearing scientists are familiar with human equal loudness contours (feature image above). Samsung is too, using those contours in its patent #9635459 to control signal input gain to protect against noise induced hearing loss. Samsung Exits the Ear to Aid Hearing Or, better yet, why not fully protect the ear and hearing…
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US Hearing Device Patents for March 2017
In 2016, IBM inventors were awarded more than 22 patents/day. That includes one last June in its “cognitive healthcare patent” group for a Smart Hearing Aid (USPTO #9374649). It looks a lot like the Smart Hearing Aid patents IBM was awarded (USPTO #9609441 & #9609442) in the March 2017 list below (see feature image above). Same…
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US Hearing Device Patents for February 2017
“Not your father’s Oldsmobile” was a 1980s ad campaign to shake the geriatric stigma attached to such cars by featuring an “Aerotech” futuristic model (Fig 1). Likewise, “Not your grandfather’s hearing aid” is a recurring theme in our industry as technology moves to reduce stigma and introduce integrated, futuristic audio processing systems (feature image above)…
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