Binaural Hearing System Network Master Synchronization
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing binaural hearing systems experience unreliable and inefficient wireless communication between hearing devices and auxiliary devices due to interference from environmental objects, leading to temporal gaps and delays in audio signals, which can cause annoying sound disruptions and potential disconnection from the network.
Innovation Solution
A binaural hearing system with a time-division radio protocol and adaptive frequency hopping scheme, where the left-ear and right-ear hearing devices act as a combined network master to maintain communication and synchronization, allowing for beacon messages to align timing and ensure continuous data transmission, even if one device is temporarily unavailable, and dynamically adjust allocation schemes to prioritize real-time audio data.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If hearing devices use wireless communication in a binaural system, then convenience and freedom of movement are improved, but communication reliability deteriorates due to environmental interference and temporal gaps
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the network master functions of both hearing devices into a single unified master device. This consolidation ensures that there is always exactly one network master maintaining the communication network, eliminating the problem where multiple masters could cause synchronization issues and connection instability during temporal gaps
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary actions by having the unified network master continuously transmit synchronization data and maintain network parameters before communication gaps occur. This ensures that slave devices remain synchronized and can quickly rejoin the network if disconnected, preventing communication failures rather than reacting to them
2Reliability
If hearing devices maintain continuous network synchronization, then communication stability is improved, but network initialization time increases when devices disconnect and reconnect
Solution Approach 1:
Slave devices automatically perform self-service by monitoring for synchronization data from the network master and autonomously rejoining the network when reconnected, without requiring manual re-initialization. The unified network master also automatically re-establishes connections with slave devices, eliminating the need for time-consuming manual network initialization procedures
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback mechanisms where slave devices continuously monitor for the presence of synchronization data from the network master. When disconnected, they detect the absence of synchronization data and automatically attempt to rejoin by listening for the next synchronization transmission, creating a self-correcting system that minimizes re-initialization time
3Reliability
If synchronization data is transmitted regularly, then device synchronization is improved, but network traffic and energy consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The unified network master transmits synchronization data periodically at regular intervals rather than continuously. This periodic transmission maintains device synchronization while significantly reducing the total amount of data transmitted and the energy consumed by both the master device transmitting and slave devices receiving and processing synchronization data
Solution Approach 2:
The system maintains continuous synchronization coverage by ensuring that periodic synchronization data transmissions are spaced appropriately so that even if a device is temporarily disconnected, it will receive synchronization data immediately upon reconnection. This continuous coverage approach maintains reliability while minimizing transmission frequency to energy-efficient levels
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
AI summary
Wireless binaural hearing systems often communicate via connection-based networks. In such networks, communication gaps may lead to devices becoming disconnected from the network. Initialisation procedures executed to allow disconnected devices to participate on the network again, may cause prolonged pauses and/or delays in the audio signals presented to the user. The binaural hearing system 1 of the present invention comprises a left-ear hearing device L, a right-ear hearing device R and an auxiliary device S. The auxiliary device S has a connected mode wherein it transmits data messages 36, 37 and a disconnected mode wherein it does not transmit data messages 36, 37, and the auxiliary device S is adapted to enable the connected mode in dependence on receiving beacon messages 34, to synchronise its transmission of data messages 36, 37 with received beacon messages 34 and to enable the disconnected mode in dependence on not receiving beacon messages 34. To avoid disconnection of the auxiliary device S during gaps, the left-ear hearing device L and the right-ear hearing device R are adapted to alternatingly transmit the beacon messages 34. This allows for a more reliable and stable transmission of beacon messages 34 and thus for a more reliable network connection to auxiliary devices S, such that reconnection of auxiliary devices S will be required less frequently.