Sonova Ag

Phonak Ag

Francois Callias

Yves Oesch

Amre El-Hoiydi

Evert Dijkstra

Francois Marquis

Stefan Haenggi

Claude Richard

Antonio Perri

Javier Abadia

Hans-Ueli Roeck

Manuela Feilner

Marc Secall

Herbert Baechler

Douglas L Jones

Mitesh Parikh

Steve Franke

Jeffery B Larsen

Christopher D Schmitz

Crista Malick

Xie Qi

A body-worn electronic device, including a loop antenna and a transmitter. The overall physical length of the loop antenna is less than 75% of the vacuum wavelength of a lower limit frequency of the operating frequency range of the transmitter, while the electrical length of the antenna is from 0.9 to 1.1 times the guided wavelength of the lower limit frequency of the operating frequency range of the transmitter. The loop antenna includes a plurality of conductors which are connected in series by inductors so as to increase the electrical length of the loop antenna.

Transmission system for a body-worn electronic device

A hearing device includes a wireless communication unit, such as a radio frequency transceiver, and a two-half loop antenna. The antenna includes a conductor defining a first half loop and a second half loop configured to be fed in series with a radio signal from a radio frequency transceiver. The first half loop and the second half loop have mirror images forming respective half loops of the two-half loop antenna. Transverse segments of the first half loop and second half loop join the first half loop and the second half loop at a mid-point of the antenna near a feeding point. The physical antenna length of the antenna is less than &#xbe; of the wavelength of the radio frequency signal to be transmitted or received through the antenna. An electrical length of the antenna is approximately equal to the wavelength of the radio frequency signal to be transmitted or received.

Hearing device with two-half loop antenna

There is provided a hearing instrument comprising a BTE part to be worn behind the ear of a user (), the BTE-part comprising: a first side, a second side substantially parallel to the first side, and a third side connecting the first side and the second side, wherein the first and second side are substantially parallel to the user's skin when the BTE part is worn behind the ear.

BTE hearing instrument comprising a loop antenna

There is provided a hearing instrument comprising a BTE part () to be worn behind the ear of a user, the BTE part comprising: a first side, a second side substantially parallel to the first side, and a third side connecting the first side and the second side, wherein the third side is substantially perpendicular to the user's skin when the BTE part is worn behind the ear, an antenna (), and a transceiver () designed for transmission and reception at frequencies from 1 to 6 GHz and connected to the antenna via a non-radiating bifilar transmission line ().

BTE hearing instrument comprising an open-end transmission line antenna

A method of providing hearing assistance to a at least one user wearing at least one receiver hearing assistance device from at least one audio transmission device worn by a another user, involving: automatically pairing and connecting the audio transmission device with the receiver hearing assistance device to form an ad-hoc network for exchanging network and/or control information, estimating at least one of an angular direction of the audio transmission device with regard to a viewing direction of the user of the receiver hearing assistance device and an angular direction of the receiver hearing assistance device with regard to a viewing direction of the user of the audio transmission device, admitting the audio transmission device to a wireless local acoustic area network for exchanging audio signals only if, as a predefined admission rule, the transmission device is within a field of view of one of the users.

Hearing assistance method

A system for providing hearing assistance having: an audio signal source; a transmission unit transmitting audio signals as data packets in a frame structure; a receiver unit for receiving audio signals from the transmission unit and associated with an ear-worn device having a power source and a hearing stimulator, and having a digital transceiver powered by the power source of the ear-worn device with a value between lower and upper limits. The transceiver listens, and optionally transmits, during part of each frame and otherwise sleeps. The receiver unit has a capacitor connected in parallel to the transceiver for supplying the transceiver with current during listening or transmission. A controlled current for controlling current flowing from the power source to the transceiver and the capacitor. The controlled current source has a DC/DC converter with an input connected to the power source and an output voltage connected to the capacitor.

Hearing assistance system and method

A system for providing hearing assistance to at least one user, having at least one audio signal source; a transmission unit with a digital transmitter for wirelessly transmitting audio signals as data packets to a frame structure from the audio signal source; at least one ear-worn receiver unit for receiving the transmitted audio signals and a hearing stimulating mechanism, the receiver unit having a digital transceiver adapted to listen, and optionally transmit, during part of each frame and to sleep during the remainder of the frame; wherein the receiver unit has a capacitor for supplying current to the transceiver during listening or transmission operation, and a controlled current source including a control unit for controlling current flowing to the transceiver and the capacitor a manner preventing changes in the current flowing to the transceiver and the capacitor caused by the transceiver switching between sleeping and listening/transmission operation and vice versa.

A hearing assistance system, having an audio signal source, a transmission unit for transmitting audio signals from the audio signal source via a wireless right ear audio link to a right ear unit and a receiver unit, and an arrangement for stimulating the user's right ear, and via a wireless left ear audio link, a left ear unit having a receiver unit and an arrangement for stimulating the user's left ear, an arrangement for exchanging audio signals received from the transmission unit between the right and left ear units, a device for detecting the quality of the right and left ear links and an arrangement for selecting, as a function of the detected qualities of the right and left ear links, as input to the stimulating arrangement, the audio signals received by the respective receiver unit from the transmission unit, the audio signals received via the audio signal exchanging arrangement, and/or mixtures thereof.

System and method for providing hearing assistance to a user

There is provided a method for operating a receiver unit () for receiving audio signals from a remote transmission unit () via a wireless audio link (), comprising: connecting an audio signal output () of the receiver unit () to an audio signal input () of a hearing instrument (A,B) comprising means () located at a user's ear or in the user's ear canal for stimulating the user's hearing according to the audio signals from the receiver unit () and a microphone arrangement (); measuring by means () included in the receiver unit () the impedance of the audio signal input () of the hearing instrument (A,B); and adjusting the impedance of the audio signal output () of the receiver unit () according to the measured impedance of the audio signal input () of the hearing instrument (A,B).

Method for operating a wireless audio signal receiver unit and system for providing hearing assistance to a user

There is provided a method of operating a hearing assistance system comprising a hearing device (), which comprises means () for stimulating a user's hearing and which is worn at one of the user's ears, and a remote device () spaced apart from the hearing device. The method comprises: establishing a wireless link () between the hearing device and the remote device for transmitting signals from the remote device to the hearing device, and operating the system in a base mode; detecting whether a source () of radio frequency signals interfering with the wireless link and having a transmission power changing according to a predictable scheme between low power regimes and high power regimes is present in the vicinity of the hearing device; and operating the system in an interference mode as long as the presence of such source of periodic signals interfering with the wireless link is detected, in which interference mode the transmission of the signals from the remote device to the hearing device is synchronized to the detected power scheme of the interfering signals in such a manner that the signals are transmitted only during the low power regimes.

Hearing assistance system and method of operating the same

A number of ear-worn hearing system devices are provided that each include a pair of electrodes to transmit time varying electrical signals therebetween when in contact with skin of a user's body. The devices each include a housing, a sound sensor, and processing circuitry included within the housing. The electrodes are coupled to the circuitry and are spaced apart from one another a distance sufficient to provide capacitance between the electrodes below a desired threshold. The electrodes are disposed along the housing for placement on locations of the user's body where skin contact is not likely to be disrupted by nominal body movements.

Growing community of inventors

Fontaines, Switzerland

Francois Callias