Earhealth monitoring system and method II

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10760948-B2
Application number	US-201916258127-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 25, 2019
Priority date	Jun 1, 2006
Publication date	Sep 1, 2020
Grant date	Sep 1, 2020

Abstract

Methods of operating an audio device are provided. A method includes measuring sound pressure levels (SPLECM) for acoustic energy received by an ear canal microphone (ECM) during a time increment Δt and calculating a SPL_DoseΔt during the time increment Δt using SPLECM.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method, comprising:
determining, during a time increment Δt, a SPL_Dose Δt based on sound pressure levels (SPL ECM1 ) associated with a first acoustic energy received by an ear canal microphone (ECM) of a device,
wherein measurements corresponding to the SPL ECM1 are free field equivalent values; and
wherein the SPL_Dose Δt indicates a cumulative exposure to the SPL ECM1 .

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising measuring the SPL ECM1 associated with the first acoustic energy received by the ECM.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising measuring, during the time increment At, sound pressure levels SPL ECM2 of a second acoustic energy received by an ear canal receiver (ECR) of the device.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising calculating a calibration relationship between an intensity of the second acoustic energy with a pressure measurement.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining whether an ECR of the device is operating.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising calculating, during the time increment Δt, a sound pressure level (SPL ECR ) for an acoustic signal directed to the ECR.

7. The method of claim 3 , further comprising measuring sound pressure levels SPL ECM of a third acoustic energy received by the ECM of the device.

8. The method of claim 4 , further comprising updating SPL ECM using the calibration relationship to generate SPL ECM-UPDATE .

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising generating an input audio signal at the ECM or an ambient sound microphone of the device.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining when the device is in a charger or a communication cradle.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising setting an update epoch as an in-cradle epoch if the device is in the charger or the communication cradle.

12. The method of claim 10 , further comprising inputting the input audio signal to the device if the device is determined to not be in the charger or the communication cradle.

13. A system, comprising:
an audio device that performs operations comprising:
calculating, during a time increment Δt, a SPL_Dose Δt based on sound pressure levels (SPL ECM1 ) associated with a first acoustic energy received by an ear canal microphone (ECM) of the audio device,
wherein measurements corresponding to the SPL ECM1 are free field equivalent values; and
wherein the SPL_Dose Δt indicates a cumulative exposure to the SPL ECM1 .

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the operations further comprise measuring the SPL ECM1 associated with the first acoustic energy when the audio device remains in a position.

15. The system of claim 13 , wherein the operations further comprise calculating a rate of change for the SPL ECM1 .

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the operations further comprise determining whether the rate of change is less than a predetermined amount.

17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the operations further comprise increasing an update epoch if the rate of change is less than the predetermined amount.

18. The system of claim 13 , wherein the operations further comprise determining an update epoch, wherein the update epoch is a time since a last SPL_Dose Δt was calculated.

19. The system of claim 13 , wherein the operations further comprise
determining a time period for sampling the SPL ECM1 .

20. An audio device that performs operations comprising:
determining, during a time increment At, a SPL_Dose Δt based on sound pressure levels (SPL ECM1 ) associated with acoustic energy received by the audio device,
wherein measurements corresponding to the SPL ECM1 are free field equivalent values; and

wherein the SPL_Dose Δt indicates a cumulative exposure to the SPL ECM1 .

Assignees

• Station Techiya Llc
• Staton Techiya Llc

Inventors

• Goldstein Steven W
• Usher John
• Fligor Brian
• Keady John P

Classifications

• G01H3/14 Primary

  Measuring mean amplitude; Measuring mean power; Measuring time integral of power · CPC title