Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Panasonic Corporation

Kurimoto, Ltd.

Yasushi Ueda

Makoto Okazaki

Yukio Iijima

Nobuaki Minakuchi

Hidemi Takahashi

Yasushi Imamura

Nobuaki Noguchi

Hiroyoshi Inoshita

Takahiro Watanabe

Toru Aoki

Shigekiyo Fujii

Junichi Inoshita

Mamiko Akizuki

Hiroshi Kondo

Makoto Usui

Takahiro Nagai

Hirotaka Ochi

Kazutaka Maruoka

Akira Ochi

Hiroyoshi Isozaki

Yoko Kimura

Yoshiaki Shingu

Ichiro Kuwabara

A hearing aid includes: first and second microphones; first and second A/D converters; a microphone sensitivity correction unit; a hearing assistance processing unit; a microphone sensitivity correction value calculation unit; a storage unit; a failure detection unit; a sound output unit; a D/A converter; and a receiver. The outputs of the first and second A/D converters are input to the microphone sensitivity correction value calculation unit. One output the microphone sensitivity correction value calculation unit is connected to the microphone sensitivity correction unit, and another output thereof is connected to the storage unit. An output of the storage unit and a signal output from the another output of the microphone sensitivity correction value calculation unit are input to the failure detection unit. Output signals of the failure detection unit and the hearing assistance processing unit are input to the sound output unit.

Hearing aid

A hearing aid () comprises a microphone () converting sound into an electrical signal, a processor () disposed inside a main body case (), a first volume adjuster () having a variable resistor, and a receiver () converting an electrical signal into sound. The processor () has an amplifier () amplifying an electrical signal from the microphone (), a second volume adjuster () setting a degree of amplification by the amplifier (), and a controller () controlling the second volume adjuster () and the amplifier (). The controller () detects the resistance value of the variable resistor, determines whether or not the resistance value has exceeded a specific threshold, acquires a specific value for the degree of amplification by the amplifier (), and sets the degree of amplification by the amplifier () to this specific value when the controller determines that the resistance value has exceeded the specific threshold.

Hearing aid and method of controlling volume of hearing aid

There is provided an environment adaptive type hearing aid capable of reducing the erroneous estimation of an ambient environment or the unnecessary changeover of a hearing aid process. The environment adaptive type hearing aid includes an input section () that inputs an ambient sound, a scheduled environment referring section () having a scheduled environment table () to store a scheduled environment candidate corresponding to an ambient environment other than the ambient sound set in advance for the hearing aid, an environment estimating section () that estimates an ambient environment candidate of the hearing aid on the basis of the ambient sound and estimates an estimation ambient environment on the basis of the ambient environment candidate and the scheduled ambient environment candidate, a hearing ability compensation system determining section () that determines a compensation system for the hearing aid on the basis of the estimation ambient environment, a hearing ability compensating section () that processes the ambient sound on the basis of the determined compensation system, and an output section () that outputs the processed ambient sound as an output sound.

Environment adaptive type hearing aid

A non-invasive body information measurement apparatus, in which a blood glucose level is corrected using a blood glucose level measured with an invasive blood glucose measurement apparatus, wherein in a calibration period, measurement of body information is performed at a plurality of luminous energy levels, a plurality of estimated blood glucose levels are calculated from a plurality of characteristic quantities calculated at the various luminous energy levels and from blood glucose levels measured with an invasive blood glucose measurement apparatus, and at the end of the calibration period, the blood glucose levels measured with the invasive blood glucose measurement apparatus are compared with a plurality of estimated blood glucose levels, and in a normal measurement period a light source is controlled so that measurement is performed at a luminous energy level corresponding to the estimated blood glucose level that satisfies the targeted accuracy.

Non-invasive body information measurement apparatus

A blood glucose measurement system in which a blood glucose level measured with an invasive blood glucose measurement apparatusis used to calibrate a blood glucose level measured with a non-invasive blood glucose measurement apparatus, comprising a controller that outputs an invasive actuation signal that starts the detection of a characteristic quantity in the body with the invasive blood glucose measurement apparatus, and a blood sampling component for collecting blood from the body on the basis of the invasive actuation signal, wherein measurement with the invasive blood glucose measurement apparatus is begun when the amount of change in the estimated blood glucose level has reached or exceeded a non-invasive blood glucose threshold.

Blood glucose measurement system

The invention is a hearing aid that is mounted on both the left and right ears and generates a notification sound to notify the user to a state change. This hearing aid comprises a first hearing aid and a second hearing aid mounted on the left and right ears, respectively. The first and second hearing aids each have a communication unit, an operating unit, a notification sound generator, and a notification sound generation delay unit. The communication unit performs communication between the first and second hearing aids. The operating unit changes the operating state of the first and second hearing aids. The notification sound generator generates a notification sound when the operating state of the first and second hearing aids changes due to operating of the operating unit. The notification sound generation delay unit controls the notification sound generator of the first hearing aid or the second hearing aid so as to delay by a specific amount the timing at which a notification sound is generated by the notification sound generator in the first hearing aid or the second hearing aid, on the basis of delay time information received through the communication unit.

A hearing aid includes: a sound collection unit configured to collect a surrounding sound; a sound output unit configured to output a sound; and a main body having a shape that can be attached to an ear. The main body includes: a hearing aid processing unit configured to perform hearing aid processing for the surrounding sound collected by the sound collection unit; an attaching determination unit configured to determine whether the main body is attached to the ear based on the surrounding sound; a specific sound generation unit configured to generate a predetermined signal; and a selection unit configured to select one of the sound subjected to the hearing aid processing by the hearing aid processing unit and the sound generated by the specific sound generation unit based on a determination result of the attaching determination unit and to output the selected sound to the sound output unit.

This hearing aid system comprises a first hearing aid () and the second hearing aid () mounted on the right ear. These each have a microphone () for inputting ambient sound, a hearing aid processor () for subjecting sound inputted from the microphone () to hearing aid processing, a speaker () for outputting sound that has undergone the hearing aid processing, a communication component () for performing wireless communication, and a battery () for supplying electrical power to the microphone (), the hearing aid processor (), the communication component (), and the speaker (). The first hearing aid () and the second hearing aid () have a battery charge detector () for detecting the remaining charge of the battery. A power consumption controller () is provided for reducing the power consumption for whichever of the first hearing aid () and the second hearing aid () that has the lowest remaining battery charge when it has been detected that the difference in the remaining battery charges of the first hearing aid () and the second hearing aid () detected by the battery charge detector () is greater than a specific value.

Hearing aid system

A digital data demodulator which can reduce a loss of decodable digital data, and increase capability of reproducing digital data inputted through a transmission line even when an error occurs in the transmission line. In the digital data demodulator, a specific pattern detector () detects a specific pattern to be included in a modulation code, from a bit string inputted through a transmission line (). A modulation code identifying unit () generates a demodulation data strobe signal () according to a phase of the modulation code including the specific pattern. An error corrector () samples demodulation data () in response to the demodulation data strobe signal () and reproduces the data to the original digital data.

Digital data modulator-demodulator

An optical disc recording and reproducing apparatus for recording and reproducing data in and from an optical disc by the use of the optical disc as a recording medium, comprises analog processing means including a binarization unit for subjecting a signal read from the optical disc to binarization and a servo unit for controlling recording and reproducing a signal in and from the optical disc; synchronous clock generating means for generating a synchronous clock signal which is synchronized with the signal read from the optical disc; address detecting means for detecting address information indicating a physical position on the optical disc based on the signal read from the optical disc, and outputting a signal indicating the address information and a signal indicating that the address has been detected when the address information has been detected; a sector counter for holding a sector count value of a sector as a recording unit on the optical disc, and updating the sector count value according to the synchronous clock signal and the signal output from the address detecting means; and gate signal generation switching means for generating gate a signal which controls the analog processing means, based on one of the sector count value held in the sector counter and information obtained from the analog processing means, according to the signal indicating that the address has been detected, which is output from the address detecting means.

Optical disc recording and reproduction apparatus having automatic gate signal generation modes

Digital data demodulator

A fast synchronization pull-in and an optimum error correction are achieved in a reproduction apparatus for reproducing data recorded on a recording medium even in the case where the quality of input data involving a seek or defect is low. A seek amount detection blockis provided, a seek change signalis generated, and the width of a synchronization detection window pulseand a correction algorithm in a correction blockare modified.

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Saijo, Japan

Yasushi Ueda