Multi-device Hearing Management System with Real-time Audiogram Enhancement
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional smart devices lack the capability to perform multi-modal data acquisition and processing for diagnosing, treating, and enhancing hearing conditions in a comprehensive and integrated manner, often requiring separate devices and clinical interventions.
Innovation Solution
A system comprising a combination of mobile, wearable, and hearable devices that generate audiograms, perform noise cancellation, and enhance sound frequencies in real-time, using signal gain determined by the audiogram, to diagnose and treat hearing conditions, including tinnitus, without the need for immediate clinical presence.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If conventional smart devices are used for hearing diagnostics, then basic audio functions are provided, but multi-modal data acquisition and processing capabilities are insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple devices (mobile device, wearable device, and hearable device) into an integrated system where each device contributes specific sensing or processing capabilities. The mobile device provides computational power and user interface, the wearable device provides motion and physiological sensors, and the hearable device provides audio sensors and speakers. This merging enables comprehensive multi-modal data acquisition for hearing diagnostics while distributing complexity across manageable components.
Solution Approach 2:
The integrated system performs multiple functions including hearing diagnostics, tinnitus detection, noise cancellation, and real-time sound enhancement. The same device combination serves both diagnostic purposes (collecting audio, motion, and physiological data) and therapeutic purposes (providing customized audio output), eliminating the need for separate dedicated devices for each function.
2Measurement precision
If clinical-grade hearing diagnostics are performed, then accurate audiograms are generated, but immediate clinical presence is required
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables users to perform hearing diagnostics themselves at home without requiring a clinician's physical presence. The integrated devices collect all necessary audio, motion, and physiological data, process the information through algorithms, and generate clinical-grade audiograms automatically. The mobile device provides a user-friendly interface that guides users through the diagnostic process and presents results, making professional-grade hearing assessment accessible to anyone with the device combination.
3Measurement precision
If noise cancellation is performed during hearing diagnostics, then ambient noise interference is reduced, but processing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The noise cancellation function is segmented and assigned to the hearable device, which contains dedicated microphones for capturing ambient noise and speakers for delivering anti-noise signals. This separation allows the hearable device to handle noise cancellation independently while the mobile device focuses on coordinating the diagnostic process and analyzing results, distributing processing complexity across specialized components.
4Ease of operation
If real-time sound enhancement is provided, then user hearing is improved, but computational resources are consumed
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs hearing diagnostics and generates an audiogram before providing real-time sound enhancement. This preliminary action establishes a baseline of the user's hearing capabilities, allowing the system to pre-calculate frequency-specific gain values and enhancement parameters. During real-time operation, the system applies these pre-determined enhancements rather than computing them from scratch, significantly reducing ongoing computational resource consumption while maintaining effective hearing support.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables accurate hearing diagnostics and real-time sound enhancement, providing equivalent clinical-grade audiograms and effective treatment options for hearing conditions, including tinnitus, through integrated device operations, enhancing user hearing and reducing exposure to harmful sounds.
Implementation Method 1
performing noise cancellation that cancels at least some of the ambient noises
Implementation Method 2
amplifying select frequencies of at least some of the captured sounds using signal gain
Data Source
AI summary
Hearing management, using a portable device or integrated portable devices, can include generating during a hearing diagnostics phase an audiogram based on responses of a user to signals conveyed to the user. In response to detecting ambient noises during the hearing diagnostics phase, noise cancellation can be performed to cancel the ambient noises in conjunction with conveying the signals to the user. During a hearing enhancement phase, sounds can be captured with the portable device. The captured sounds can be enhanced in real-time during the hearing enhancement phase by amplifying select frequencies of the captured sounds using signal gain. The frequencies can be selected, and the signal gain determined based on the audiogram. The captured sounds, now enhanced, can be conveyed to the user as frequency-enhanced sounds.