Method for controlling a hearing device via touch gestures, a touch gesture controllable hearing device and a method for fitting a touch gesture controllable hearing device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10222973-B2
Application number	US-201415314531-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 30, 2014
Priority date	May 30, 2014
Publication date	Mar 5, 2019
Grant date	Mar 5, 2019

Abstract

A method for controlling a hearing device via touch gestures carried out by a wearer of the hearing device. As part of the gesture a finger is swiped across first and second sound inlets of the hearing device. A gesture is detected by determining if a first output signal from a first microphone at the first sound inlet contains a component caused by the finger touching the hearing device at the first sound inlet and if a second output signal from a second microphone at the second sound inlet contains a component caused by the finger touching the hearing device at the second sound inlet. Based on the detected gesture a control signal changes a processing parameter or setting of a signal processing unit of the hearing device. Additionally, a hearing device capable of performing the proposed method and a method of fitting such a hearing device are provided.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for controlling a hearing device, the method comprising:
detecting a touch gesture carried out by a wearer of the hearing device using a finger, wherein the touch gesture is associated with an audio signal for the finger swiping across a first sound inlet and a second sound inlet, wherein the audio signal includes a first component caused by the finger touching the hearing device at the first sound inlet and second component caused by the finger touching the hearing device at the second sound inlet and a time difference between the first and second component;
selecting a control signal from a plurality of control signals based on detecting the touch gesture;
providing the selected control signal to a signal processing unit;
changing at least one processing parameter or setting of the signal processing unit dependent on the selected control signal;
applying noise cancellation to the audio signal to generate a modified signal, wherein applying the noise cancellation is based on the first component, the second component, and the time difference between the first and second component; and
providing the modified signal to an ear canal, wherein the ear canal is associated with the wearer of the hearing device.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the touch gesture is a first touch gesture, and wherein different touch gestures result in selecting different control signals.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the touch gesture further comprises:
swiping the finger from the first sound inlet to the second sound inlet; or
swiping the finger from the second sound inlet to the first sound inlet.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein selecting the control signal is further based on a swiping speed or a tapping rate.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising providing an acknowledgement signal to an output transducer based on the selected control signal.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein detecting the touch gesture further comprises determining a spectrogram of the audio signal.

7. A hearing device, the hearing device comprising:
a housing with a first and a second sound inlet;
a first microphone disposed at the first sound inlet;
a second microphone disposed at the second sound inlet;
a processing unit;
an output transducer,
a memory electronically coupled to the processing unit, wherein the memory stores instructions that when executed by the processing unit cause the hearing device to perform operations, the operations comprising:
detecting a touch gesture carried out by a wearer of the hearing device using a finger,
wherein as part of the touch gesture the finger is swiped across the first sound inlet and the second sound inlet, wherein the touch gesture generates an audio signal from the finger swiping across the first sound inlet and the second sound inlet, wherein the audio signal includes a first component and second component caused by the finger swiping across the first and second sound inlets and the audio signal includes a time difference between the first and second components;

selecting a control signal from a plurality of control signals based on detecting the touch gesture;
providing the selected control signal to the processing unit;
changing a processing parameter or setting of the processing unit based on the selected control signal;
applying touch noise cancellation to an output signal based on the first component, the second component, and the time difference; and
providing a resulting signal to the output transducer.

8. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that when executed by a processor cause a hearing device to perform operations, the operations comprising:
detecting a gesture based on receiving a first input signal, wherein the first input signal comprises:
a first portion associated with a finger swiping across a first sound inlet,
wherein the first portion has a first sound feature;

a second portion associated with the finger swiping across a second sound inlet,
wherein the second portion has a second sound feature,
wherein the first input signal has a time difference between the first feature and the second feature caused by the finger touching the hearing device at the first inlet and the second inlet;

in response to detecting the gesture:
modifying a parameter of the hearing device based on the gesture;
applying signal cancelling to an output signal,
wherein the signal cancelling cancels sound associated with the first and the second features; and

providing the output signal to a receiver, wherein the receiver is associated with a wearer of the hearing device.

9. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8 , wherein detecting the gesture further comprises evaluating a spectrogram of the first signal to determine a speed or a direction of the swiping.

10. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8 , wherein
the gesture is further associated with:
a swiping speed of the finger; or
a tapping rate of the finger.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the gesture is a first gesture, and the operations including detecting a second gesture, wherein the first and second gestures are different.

Assignees

• Sonova Ag

Inventors

• Schnyder Franz
• Frei Christian
• Kurmann Reto
• Affini Enea

Classifications

• H04R2460/01

  Hearing devices using active noise cancellation · CPC title

• H04R2225/61

  Aspects relating to mechanical or electronic switches or control elements, e.g. functioning · CPC title

• H04R25/70

  Adaptation of deaf aid to hearing loss, e.g. initial electronic fitting · CPC title

• G06F3/0488 Primary

  using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures · CPC title

• H04R2225/021

  Behind the ear [BTE] hearing aids · CPC title