Camera-Guided Hearing Aid Placement for Remote Assessment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Hearing aid wearers face challenges in correctly arranging the device at their ears, leading to poor performance and discomfort due to incorrect placement, which is exacerbated by the difficulty of remote assessment during tele-audiology sessions.
Innovation Solution
An application executed by a first electronic device with a camera and display, providing a viewfinder to align the wearer's head, capturing a sequence of images as the head rotates, and allowing for visual evaluation of the hearing aid placement from multiple angles, assisted by computer vision technology.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a hearing aid wearer attempts to arrange the hearing aid themselves without assistance, then they can independently adjust the device, but they are likely to achieve incorrect placement leading to poor performance
Solution Approach 1:
The system captures images of the hearing aid placement and provides visual feedback to the user through a display. The feedback loop allows users to see whether the hearing aid is correctly positioned and makes adjustments accordingly, resolving the contradiction between independent operation and placement accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates a visual copy (image) of the actual hearing aid placement in the ear. This copy is then analyzed and displayed to the user, enabling them to assess and correct their placement without requiring professional assistance, thus maintaining independence while improving accuracy.
2Adaptability or versatility
If a Hearing Care Professional assesses hearing aid insertion during a tele-audiology session, then remote assessment is enabled, but the process becomes time-consuming and inconvenient requiring multiple repositionings
Solution Approach 1:
The system automatically captures multiple images of the hearing aid placement before the professional needs to review them. This preliminary capture of data eliminates the need for back-and-forth repositioning during the consultation, saving time while maintaining remote assessment capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The image capture system acts as an intermediary between the user's hearing aid placement and the Hearing Care Professional's assessment. Instead of the professional directly observing through video calls requiring repositioning, the intermediary system captures and transmits images for review, streamlining the process.
3Loss of information
If multiple images are captured during head rotation, then comprehensive visual evaluation from multiple angles is achieved, but the system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically captures images based on detected head rotation. Instead of requiring complex manual control or simultaneous multi-camera setups, the system automatically triggers image capture when motion is detected, achieving comprehensive visual information with simpler hardware architecture.
Data Source
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AI summary
Disclosed is a system and an application configured to be executed by a first electronic device, the first electronic device being configured for comprising a camera and a display, the application being for assisting in correctly arranging a hearing aid in and/or at an ear of a wearer of the hearing aid, the application being configured for: providing access to a camera application associated with the camera of the first electronic device; enabling a viewfinder of the camera application to display a preview of the field-of-view of the camera; determining if the wearer's head is aligned with the camera; determining if the wearer's head has begun to rotate relative to the camera; and initiating a capture sequence capturing a plurality of images, the plurality of images showing at least part of the ear of the wearer with the hearing aid arranged in and/or at the ear as the wearer's head rotates.