Phonak Ag

Sonova Ag

Samuel Harsch

Evert Dijkstra

Francois Marquis

Thomas Von Dach

Tim Jost

Yacine Azmi

Hans-Ueli Röck

Marc Herren

Hans Mülder

Fabrice Charriere

Hans Mulder

There is provided a system for estimating a total acoustic attenuation of a hearing protection device including an interface at a distal end and a sound canal extending from the interface to a sound opening at a medial end of the hearing protection device. The system comprises: a measurement unit including a loudspeaker and a microphone and being attachable to the interface in such a manner that, when the hearing protection device is worn in an ear canal of a user, the loudspeaker and the microphone are in acoustic communication, via the sound canal of the hearing protection device; a control unit configured to provide the loudspeaker with test audio signals to generate test sounds in the occluded ear canal volume and to receive test response audio signals captured by the microphone from the test sounds; and an evaluation unit configured to estimate a leakage acoustic impedance.

System and method for estimating an acoustic attenuation of a hearing protection device

There is provided a microphone assembly, comprising a base body portion comprising a top plate at its distal end; and a dome portion mounted at the distal end of the base body portion and having a perforated structure with at least 50% of outwardly facing surface area of the dome portion being formed by open areas, the dome portion made of a plastic material; at least one microphone capsule located within the dome portion, and an RF antenna located within the dome portion, the top plate comprising a reflection cone pointing towards the dome portion in order to reflect sound axially impinging on the reflection cone radially outwardly.

Microphone assembly

Method for providing hearing assistance to a user by capturing audio signals with a microphone arrangement of a transmission unit; analyzing, by a voice activity detector of the transmission unit, the captured audio signals to judge whether a voice is present close to the microphone arrangement or not, analyzing, by a noise level estimator, the captured audio signals to estimate a surrounding noise level, processing the captured audio signals and transmitting, by a transceiver of the transmission unit, the processed audio signals via a wireless link to a receiver unit, and stimulating the user's hearing, by stimulating means at or in at least one user ear, according to the received audio signals, wherein the audio signals are processed via the wireless link by setting the gain applied to the audio signals according to the close voice/no close voice judgment of the voice activity detector and the estimated surrounding noise level.

Method and system for providing hearing assistance to a user

A hearing protection earpiece having a shell shaped according to conform to the user's concha and ear canal and having an open hollow lateral portion to be inserted into the user's concha and a medial portion to be inserted into at least an outer portion of the user's ear canal, wherein the medial portion of the shell is axially adjacent to the lateral portion of the shell, wherein the lateral portion of the shell forms part of an open portion of the earpiece and the medial portion of the shell forms part of a closed portion of the earpiece, wherein the earpiece provides for a mechanical sound attenuation of at least 10 dB averaged over the audible frequency range, and wherein the lateral portion of the shell has a wall thickness of not more than 3 mm and is shaped to cover at least half of the concha area.

Hearing protection earpiece

A system for speech enhancement in a room having a directional lapel microphone arrangement for capturing an audio signal from a speaker's voice; audio signal processor for generating a processed audio signal from the captured audio signal, and an adaptive beamformer unit for imparting directivity to the microphone arrangement provides maximum sensitivity towards the speaker's mouth and minimum sensitivity towards noise sources identified by the beamformer unit. A unit shifts the frequency of components of the audio signal above a frequency threshold value only. A feedback cancelling unit has an adaptive filter and a selection unit which automatically switches between a first mode causing the audio signal to by-pass the adaptive filter and a second mode in which the audio signal is filtered by the adaptive filter. A loudspeaker arrangement generates sound according to the processed audio signal and has plural loudspeakers arranged to form a directional loudspeaker array.

Speech enhancement system and method

A method of speech enhancement in a room () includes the steps of capturing audio signals from a speaker's voice by a microphone (), estimating an ambient noise level in the room from the captured audio signals, processing the captured audio signals by an audio signal processing unit (), estimating a reverberation level, determining the gain to be applied to the captured audio signals by the audio signal processing unit according to a comparison between the estimated ambient noise level and the estimated reverberation level, and generating sound according to the processed audio signals by a loudspeaker arrangement () located in the room, wherein the reverberation level is the level of reverberant components of the sound generated by the loudspeaker arrangement.

Speech enhancement method and system

There is provided an earphone system comprising an earphone and at least two acoustic dampers (), the earphone comprising a speaker unit () and an earpiece (A,B), the speaker unit comprising a sound driver (), a wiring connector () for providing audio signals to the sound driver and a case () housing the sound driver, the earpiece comprising a sound outlet opening () and being designed for being worn in a user's ear canal and/or concha, the sound driver having a frequency response having a maximum within the range of 2000 Hz to 4000 Hz, wherein the speaker unit is for being inserted into the earpiece, wherein each of the acoustic dampers () is for being inserted into the earpiece or the speaker unit in an exchangeable manner and wherein each of the acoustic dampers, when used with the earphone, has a frequency response different from that of the other acoustic damper(s).

Earphone system and use of an earphone system

A method for monitoring a hearing device having an electroacoustic output transducer worn at a user's ear or in a user's ear canal, the method including: measuring the electrical impedance of the output transducer; analyzing the measured electrical impedance of the output transducer in order to determine at least one parameter from the length and diameter of tubing that extends into the user's ear canal and is connected to the transducer, and adjusting operation parameters of the hearing device based upon the results of the determination so as to optimize acoustical performance of the hearing device. A hearing device in which the method is implemented.

Method for monitoring a hearing device and hearing device with self-monitoring function

There is provided a method for monitoring a hearing device having an electroacoustic output transducer worn at a user's ear or in a user's ear canal, the method includes the steps of measuring the electrical impedance of the output transducer; analyzing the measured electrical impedance of the output transducer in order to evaluate the status of the output transducer and/or of an acoustical system cooperating with the output transducer; and outputting a status signal representative of the status of the output transducer and/or of the acoustical system cooperating with the output transducer.

There is provided a hearing system comprising: a hearing device to be worn at or in a user's ear for supplying audio signals to said user and comprising a sound attenuation portion for attenuating ambient sound before reaching the user's ear, means for producing audio signals at a controlled level, a loudspeaker which is included in the attenuation portion and which is oriented towards the user's ear canal for providing sound corresponding to the audio signal produced by the audio signal producing means to the user's ear canal, a microphone which is included in the attenuation portion and which is oriented towards the user's ear canal for capturing audio signals from the sound provided by the loudspeaker to the user's ear canal, and a level control unit adapted to control the level of the audio signals produced by the audio signal producing means according to the audio signals captured by the microphone.

Hearing device and method for supplying audio signals to a user wearing such hearing device

There is provided a method for measuring in-situ the acoustic attenuation obtained by a hearing protection device worn by a user, comprising: positioning the hearing protection device comprising a microphone oriented towards the user's ear canal at the user's ear; positioning a cup-like measuring device comprising a loudspeaker oriented towards to user's ear and a microphone oriented towards to user's ear at the user's ear in such a manner that a closed space surrounding the hearing protection device is created by the measuring device;providing a test signal via the loudspeaker, capturing audio signals representative of the level of the test signal in the closed space by the microphone of the measuring device and capturing audio signals representative of the level of the test signal in the user's ear canal by the microphone of the hearing protection device; processing the audio signals captured by the microphone of the measuring device and the audio signals captured by the microphone of the hearing protection device and estimating the attenuation provided by the hearing protection device from the processed audio signals.

Growing community of inventors

Ballaigues, Switzerland

Samuel Harsch