Hearing device and monitoring system thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10743115-B2
Application number	US-201916386593-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 17, 2019
Priority date	Mar 30, 2016
Publication date	Aug 11, 2020
Grant date	Aug 11, 2020

Abstract

A system for monitoring the status and/or performance of one or more hearing devices is disclosed. The system comprises a number of access points configured to receive wireless signals transmitted by the hearing devices, wherein the access points are connected to a central unit communicatively connected to the Internet/cloud, wherein the system is configured to automatically monitor the status and/or performance of one or more parameter of the one or more hearing devices received by access points, wherein the monitored parameters are accessible from the central unit and/or from a cloud service.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A monitoring system for monitoring parameters of hearing devices, wherein the monitoring system comprises
a central unit configured to communicate with an internet and/or cloud service;
a plurality of hearing aid devices worn by a plurality of users, respectively, each of said hearing aid devices being worn in or behind an ear or attached to a fixture implanted in the skull of the corresponding user, each of said hearing aid devices being adapted to improve or augment the hearing capability of the corresponding user, each of the hearing aid devices further having
one or more sensors configured to perform measurements from said hearing aid device, and
a memory configured to store a set of measurement parameters based on said measurements, and store a set of performance parameters of said hearing aid device,
wherein each of said hearing aid devices is configured to transmit said stored performance and/or measurement parameters through a wireless signal;

said monitoring system furthermore comprising
a number of access points configured to receive said transmitted stored performance and/or measurement parameters through said wireless signal transmitted by each of said plurality of hearing aid devices,
wherein said number of access points furthermore are configured to transmit said received performance and/or measurement parameters to said central unit,
wherein said number of access points are communicatively connected to one another, to said plurality of hearing aid devices, and to said central unit via a wireless network such that each of said number of access points is configured to communicate via said wireless network with at least one other access point of said monitoring system, and with any of said plurality of hearing aid devices within a predefined range, and said performance and/or measurement parameters transmitted by each of said plurality of hearing aid devices is relayed to said central unit through a combination of said one or more access points dependent on the corresponding user's location relative to said number of access points,
wherein said central unit comprises a processing unit having a set of stored normal values for each of said plurality of users representing each of said performance and/or measurement parameters transmitted from each of said plurality of hearing aid devices, and
wherein said processing unit is configured to evaluate said received performance and/or measurements parameters relayed from each of said plurality of hearing aid devices against said set of stored normal values for the corresponding one of said plurality of users, in order to detect a deviation from said normal value.

2. A monitoring system according to claim 1 , wherein said transmitted performance and/or measurements parameters are communicated to said central unit through at least two access points.

3. A monitoring system according to claim 1 , wherein said transmitted performance and/or measurement parameters comprises an identification parameter, wherein said central unit is configured to receive said identification parameter and correlate said received identification parameter with a set of identification parameters stored in said central unit, so as to identify the hearing aid device of said transmitted parameters.

4. A monitoring system according to claim 1 , wherein the number of access points is configured to request a status from one or more hearing aid devices, said request being made periodically and/or in response to instructions transmitted from said central unit.

5. A monitoring system according to claim 1 , wherein the hearing aid devices continuously transmits performance and/or measurement parameters to said access points, wherein said access point is configured to store said performance and/or measurement parameter, such that upon request from said central unit, said performance and/or measurement parameters are transmitted to said central unit.

6. A monitoring system according to claim 1 , wherein said central unit is communicatively connected to an internet and/or cloud service, wherein said cloud is configured to store said performance and/or measurement parameters transmitted to said central unit through said access points, wherein said internet and/or cloud service is configured to transmit said measurement and/or performance data to a remote location of said location of said central unit.

7. A monitoring system according to claim 1 , wherein said measurement parameters transmitted by said one or more hearing aid devices includes stored measurements of:
a blood sugar value, and/or
a heart rate and/or
a temperature and/or
an acceleration and/or
a vibration and/or
a blood pressure and/or
a skin conductance and/or
an ultraviolet light exposure and/or
a pH level and/or
a bacteria level and/or
a humidity and/or
an electrical activity of the brain of the hearing aid device user(s) and/or
wherein said performance parameters includes a registration of:
a battery status of the hearing aid devices and/or
a surroundings and/or a positioning.

8. A monitoring system according to claim 1 , wherein the control unit of said monitoring system upon a detected deviation in said transmitted one or more parameters of said one or more hearing aid device is configured to automatically notify an external device.

9. A monitoring system according to claim 1 , wherein a setting of a particular one of the plurality of hearing devices is automatically changed when the central unit detects a deviation with regard to a received performance and/or measurement parameter relayed by the particular hearing aid device.

10. A monitoring system according to claim 9 , wherein at least one of the particular hearing aid device and the central unit is programmed to change the setting.

11. A monitoring system according to claim 9 , wherein the automatically changed setting causes the particular hearing device to switch from executing a first program to executing a second program.

12. A monitoring system according to claim 9 , wherein the automatically changed setting is a setting within a program executed by the particular hearing aid device.

13. A monitoring system according to claim 12 , wherein
one of the stored normal values represents a location, and
when a measured location of the particular hearing device deviates from the location represented by the corresponding normal value, the automatically changed setting causes the program executed by the particular hearing aid device to switch from applying predefined hearing aid device settings meeting conditions of the location represented by the corresponding normal value to applying predefined hearing settings meeting conditions of the measured location.

14. A monitoring system according to claim 1 , wherein the central unit of said monitoring system, in response to a detected deviation in one of said received performance and/or measurement parameters is configured to notify a personal communication device of the deviation via a wireless communication link.

15. A monitoring system according to claim 1 , wherein said monitoring system is connected wirelessly with an external management system including an insulin pump.

16. A monitoring system according to claim 1 , wherein the monitoring system is configured as a service platform configured to be installed in a care center environment, wherein said performance and/or measurement parameters may be monitored for said plurality of hearing aid devices at the same time through said central unit in a structured manner.

17. A monitoring system

Assignees

• Oticon As

Inventors

• Frederiksen Lars Pinnerup
• Bodvarsson Thorvaldur Oli
• Larsen Søren Hesselballe
• Bramsløw Lars
• JENSEN Niels Søgaard
• Rønne Filip Marchman
• Laplante-Lévesque Ariane
• Petersen Eline Borch
• Graversen Carina
• Villadsen Lasse Juul
• Rossing Rikke Birksteen
• Bjelosevic Adis

Classifications

• A61B5/363

  Detecting tachycardia or bradycardia · CPC title

• A61B5/361

  Detecting fibrillation · CPC title

• G16H40/67

  for remote operation · CPC title

• H04R25/554

  using a wireless connection, e.g. between microphone and amplifier or using Tcoils · CPC title

• A61B5/6817

  Ear canal · CPC title