Hearing aid comprising a physiological sensor

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11785397-B2
Application number	US-202117459370-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 27, 2021
Priority date	May 19, 2020
Publication date	Oct 10, 2023
Grant date	Oct 10, 2023

Abstract

The present application relates to a system comprising a hearing aid, the hearing aid configured to be operated based on an estimation of a current listening effort of a hearing aid user. The system comprising an input unit for receiving an input sound signal from an environment of the hearing aid user and providing at least one electric input signal representing said input sound signal, an output unit for providing at least one set of stimuli perceivable as sound to the hearing aid user based on processed versions of said at least one electric input signal, a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) estimator for determining an SNR in the environment of the hearing aid user, a processing unit connected to said input unit and to said output unit and comprising signal processing parameters of the system to provide processed versions of said at least one electric input signal, a memory unit configured to store reference sets of SNR and pulse transition time (PTT) of the hearing aid user, at least a first and a second physiological sensor, wherein the system being configured to determine, based on the first physiological sensor, a first point in time at a first maximum upslope point of a first measured parameter, determine, based on the second physiological sensor, a second point in time at a second maximum upslope point of a second measured parameter, establish a current PTT by calculating a time difference between the first point in time and the second point in time, and determine, based on the current PTT and the stored reference sets of SNR and PTT, a current listening effort of the hearing aid user.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A hearing aid configured to be operated based on an estimation of a current listening effort of a hearing aid user, the hearing aid comprising
an input unit for receiving an input sound signal from an environment of the hearing aid user and providing at least one electric input signal representing said input sound signal,
an output unit for providing at least one set of stimuli perceivable as sound to the hearing aid user based on processed versions of said at least one electric input signal,
a processing unit connected to said input unit and to said output unit and comprising signal processing parameters to provide processed versions of said at least one electric input signal,
at least one physiological sensor,
wherein the hearing aid is configured to determine a current listening effort of the hearing aid user based on determining Heart Rate Variability (HRV) of the hearing aid user, and
wherein the hearing aid comprises a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) estimator for determining an SNR in the environment of the hearing aid user.

2. The hearing aid according to claim 1 , wherein the HRV is determined based on the at least one physiological sensor.

3. The hearing aid according to claim 1 , wherein the hearing aid comprises at least one accelerometer configured to detect a movement of the hearing aid user.

4. The hearing aid according to claim 1 , wherein the hearing aid comprises an own voice detector.

5. The hearing aid according to claim 1 , wherein determining the current listening effort comprises analysing the HRV in the time domain and/or in the frequency domain.

6. The hearing aid according to claim 5 , wherein determining the current listening effort further comprises one or more of determining movement of the hearing aid user by the accelerometer, determining the SNR in the environment of the hearing aid user by the SNR estimator, and detecting own voice of the hearing aid user by the own voice detector.

7. The hearing aid according to claim 5 , wherein analysing the HRV in the time domain comprises determining a width and/or a length of the HRV in a Poincaré plot.

8. The hearing aid according to claim 5 , wherein analysing the HRV in the frequency domain comprises determining a ratio of the power in a low frequency band to the power in a high frequency band of a frequency spectrum of the HRV.

9. The hearing aid according to claim 1 , wherein the hearing aid is configured to adjust the signal processing parameters of the processing unit based on the determined current listening effort.

10. The hearing aid according to claim 1 ,
wherein the hearing aid is configured to determine whether an activation requirement is fulfilled, the activation requirement comprising that
the movement detected by the accelerometer is below a movement threshold, and
the SNR is below another threshold, and

wherein, in response to the activation requirement being fulfilled, the processing unit is configured to change the activation mode of the at least one physiological sensor.

11. The hearing aid according to claim 10 , wherein, configured to change the activation mode of the at least one physiological sensor, comprises configured to activate at least one physiological sensor.

12. The hearing aid according to claim 10 , wherein, configured to change the activation mode of the at least one physiological sensor, comprises configured to change the activation mode of the at least one physiological sensor from standby mode to operational mode.

13. The hearing aid according to claim 10 , wherein, when the activation requirement is not fulfilled, the processing unit is configured to change or maintain the mode of the at least one physiological sensor to the standby mode or a deactivated mode.

14. The hearing aid according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one physiological sensor is a photoplethysmogram (PPG) sensor and/or an electrocardiogram (ECG) sensor.

15. A system comprising at least one hearing aid according to claim 1 and an auxiliary device.

16. The system according to claim 15 , wherein each of the at least one hearing aid and the auxiliary device are configured to establishing a communication link, and thereby allowing the exchange of information between the at least one hearing aid and the auxiliary device.

17. The system according to claim 15 comprising a first and a second hearing aid each comprising a physiological sensor.

18. A hearing aid configured to be operated based on an estimation of a current listening effort of a hearing aid user, the hearing aid comprising
an input unit for receiving an input sound signal from an environment of the hearing aid user and providing at least one electric input signal representing said input sound signal,
an output unit for providing at least one set of stimuli perceivable as sound to the hearing aid user based on processed versions of said at least one electric input signal,
a processing unit connected to said input unit and to said output unit and comprising signal processing parameters to provide processed versions of said at least one electric input signal,
at least one physiological sensor,
wherein the hearing aid is configured to determine a current listening effort of the hearing aid user based on determining Heart Rate Variability (HRV) of the hearing aid user, and
wherein the hearing aid comprises an own voice detector.

Assignees

• Oticon As

Inventors

• Lunner Thomas
• Bhuiyan Tanveer
• Esparza Isasa José Antonio
• Griful Sergi Rotger
• Salvatucci Antonello
• Jones Gary
• Petersen Kim Tilgaard
• Sommer Peter

Classifications

• H04R25/505 Primary

  using digital signal processing · CPC title

• H04R25/554

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

• H04R2225/41

  Detection or adaptation of hearing aid parameters or programs to listening situation, e.g. pub, forest · CPC title

• H04R25/552 Primary

  Binaural · CPC title

• A61B5/6817 Primary

  Ear canal · CPC title