Sonova Ag

Advanced Bionics Ag

Federico Ferrari

Amre El-Hoiydi

Alessandro Gallo

Marc Secall

Daniel Lucas-Hirtz

Georg Dickmann

Jonas Högberg

Michael Osterwalder

A hearing device includes a processor and a wireless transceiver operatively connected with the processor and configured to connect via a wireless link with a remote device and to exchange bi-directional audio packets with the remote device. The processor is configured to monitor an audio link quality and adapt a transmit power of the hearing device as a function of the audio link quality.

Method for ensuring symmetric audio quality for hands-free phoning

An exemplary hearing device is configured to receive, from a source, a data packet, the data packet including a plurality of frames including a first frame and a second frame. The hearing device determines that the data packet has an invalid checksum. The hearing device accesses, in response to the determining that the data packet has the invalid checksum, a first frame checksum for the first frame and a second frame checksum for the second frame. The hearing device determines that the first frame checksum is invalid and that the second frame checksum is valid. The hearing device discards, based on the first frame checksum being invalid, the first frame and stores, based on the second frame checksum being valid, the second frame.

Systems and methods for selective storing of data included in a corrupted data packet

The disclosed technology relates to operating two wireless communication protocols during operation of a hearing device. The disclosed technology includes a method that includes: aligning a timing of audio frames of a first wireless communication protocol with a timing of slots of a second wireless communication protocol to reduce overlapping requests to access a shared transceiver from the first wireless communication protocol and the second wireless communication protocol; receiving a first request to access the shared transceiver of the wireless communication device from the first wireless communication protocol and receiving a second request to access the shared transceiver of the wireless communication device from the second wireless communication protocol during a coexistence window; and granting the second request from the second wireless communication protocol to be executed based on priority of the second wireless communication protocol over the first wireless communication protocol during the coexistence window.

Operating more than one wireless communication protocol with a coexistence window

The disclosed technology includes a method to wirelessly communicate with a wireless communication device using two wireless communication protocols. The method includes: aligning a timing of audio frames of a first wireless communication protocol with a timing of advertising events of a second wireless communication protocol; increasing a time duration between beginnings of advertising Protocol Data Units (PDUs) transmitted during an advertising event of the second wireless communication protocol; receiving a first request to access a transceiver of the wireless communication device from the first wireless communication protocol and receiving a second request to access the transceiver of the wireless communication device from the second wireless communication protocol; and selecting the second request from the second wireless communication protocol to be executed based on priority of the second wireless communication protocol. The method can be used during audio streaming.

Operating more than one wireless communication protocol with a hearing device

A hearing device includes a processor and a wireless transceiver operatively connected with the processor and configured to connect via a wireless link with a remote device and to exchange bi-directional audio packets with the remote device. The transmit power of the remote device is larger than the transmit power of the hearing device. The processor is configured to estimate the audio link packet error rate of the transmission via the wireless link, and generate a notification when the audio link packet error rate exceeds a pre-determined threshold.

A communication device, including a wireless interface including a transceiver unit, and a controller configured to control the transceiver unit when applying a first protocol which is a Bluetooth Low Energy protocol and a second protocol which is suitable for exchanging both audio data and non-audio data. The controller is further configured to apply a first control configuration while the transceiver unit is not used for audio data reception and/or transmission of audio data via the second protocol, and to apply a second control configuration while the transceiver unit is used for audio data reception and/or transmission of audio data via the second protocol. In the second control configuration duration of BLE connection events is limited to a maximum duration shorter than the maximum duration of BLE connection events in the first control configuration.

Communication device using two wireless protocols

Provided is a method for operating two hearing devices. The method includes establishing a first bi-directional wireless connection between a primary hearing device and a wireless communication device over a first wireless link, eavesdropping on the first wireless link, by a secondary hearing device, over a second wireless link between the wireless communication device and the secondary hearing device, and establishing a second bi-directional wireless connection between the primary hearing device and the secondary hearing device over a third wireless link. The method further includes monitoring the link quality of the first wireless link and/or the second wireless link, and assigning to either the secondary hearing device or the primary hearing device the role of transmitting audio-related packets towards the wireless communication device, based on the quality of at least one of the first wireless link or the second wireless link. An audio communication system is also provided.

Bluetooth audio exchange with transmission diversity

There is provided a communication device having a wireless interface () including a transceiver () and a controller () configured to use the transceiver when applying a first protocol, which is a Bluetooth BR/EDR protocol, and also when applying a second protocol, which is suitable for audio streaming, and to use the transceiver for a Bluetooth BR/EDR inquiry scan and/or page scan procedure for data packets sent by an external device (), wherein the scan procedure comprises a set of N scan segments during which the transceiver is used for inquiry/page scanning, each scan segment having a start time and a frequency, wherein each scan segment is executed during idle times of the second protocol; wherein the duration of each scan segment is at least 1,0055 ms and less than 10.625 ms; wherein the set of scan segments comprises at least two different frequencies and wherein the frequency changes more often than every 1.28 sec.

Communication device having a dual protocol wireless interface

The disclosed technology generally relates to wireless communication. More specifically, the disclosed technology relates to activating and suspending diversity in transmission and reception of packets for hearing devices that are streaming audio information from a wireless communication device. For example, when a first hearing device is waiting for an acknowledgment of a signaling packet, the disclosed technology can suspend the transmission of acknowledgement packets in response to correctly received audio packets by a second hearing device until the first hearing device has successfully received an acknowledgment of the signaling packet. The disclosed technology also includes a policy that ensures correct sequence numbers are used in a packet header after diversity is resumed.

Diverse eavesdropping for a hearing device

A communication device comprises a wireless data interface including a radio transceiver and a controller for controlling the transceiver according to a first frequency hopping protocol comprising a first plurality of frequency channels within a first frequency range and according to a second frequency hopping protocol comprising a second plurality of frequency channels within a second frequency range, wherein the first frequency range and the second frequency range overlap at least in part. The controller is configured to temporarily disable part of the frequency channels for the first protocol in case that radio interference is recognized for those frequency channels, with the disabled frequency channels for that first protocol being stored. The controller is also configured to retrieve the disabled frequency channels of the first protocol and to disable, at least for a predetermined initial time period, at least part of those disabled frequency channels also for the second protocol.

Communication device with wireless interface using different protocols

A hearing system includes first and second hearing devices. The first hearing device is configured to render streaming audio from an audio source by establishing a wireless link with the audio source and receiving audio packets transmitted from the audio source over the wireless link in accordance with an acknowledgement-based transmission protocol. The second hearing device is configured to render the streaming audio from the audio source by eavesdropping on the wireless link to receive and store the audio packets in a buffer. The buffer has a playback duration based on a total number of audio packets currently stored in the buffer. To stop the second hearing device from rendering the streaming audio, the first hearing device abstains, for a time period at least equal to the playback duration of the buffer, from acknowledging successful receipt of an audio packet transmitted by the audio source over the wireless link.

Growing community of inventors

Bern, Switzerland

Federico Ferrari