Hearing Device Tinnitus Stimulation Limiting
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current tinnitus treatments using external sound sources for masking or tinnitus retraining therapy often fail to effectively manage stimulation levels, leading to potential harm or discomfort for users, particularly in hearing devices that do not adequately limit output signals.
Innovation Solution
A method and device for generating a stimulation signal based on tinnitus characteristics, applying a predefined limiting scheme to prevent over-stimulation, and superimposing it with acoustic input signals, ensuring safe and comfortable sound levels through a hearing device with a generator unit, limiting unit, and output transducer, while allowing manual adjustments and domain transformations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a stimulation signal is generated for tinnitus treatment, then the user receives therapeutic sound masking, but the output level may become too high causing potential harm or discomfort to the user
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by implementing a limiting scheme before the stimulation signal is output to the user. The limiting unit pre-processes the stimulation signal to ensure it does not exceed safe output levels, preventing potential harm before it occurs. This is evident in the claims where the limiting scheme is applied to the stimulation signal before superimposition with the acoustic input signal.
2Reliability
If the stimulation signal is increased to improve tinnitus masking, then the therapeutic effect is enhanced, but artifacts and undesirable noise appear in the output signal
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies the taking out principle by extracting and separately processing the stimulation signal through a limiting unit before combining it with the acoustic input signal. This separation allows the stimulation signal to be independently constrained to prevent artifacts and undesirable noise, while maintaining its therapeutic masking effect. The limiting unit extracts the harmful components (excessive amplitude) while preserving the useful therapeutic signal.
3Ease of operation
If manual volume control is allowed for user adjustment, then user comfort is improved, but the risk of setting harmful sound levels increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies feedback by implementing a limiting scheme that continuously monitors and constrains the stimulation signal regardless of user volume control settings. The limiting unit provides feedback control by comparing the stimulation signal against predefined safe levels and automatically adjusting or clipping the signal to prevent harmful output, while still allowing users to adjust volume within safe parameters.
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
The solution effectively manages tinnitus by ensuring safe and comfortable sound levels, preventing artifacts and undesirable noise, and maintaining regular sound processing quality across various user settings and hearing programs, thereby providing effective tinnitus treatment without harming the user's ears.
Implementation Method 1
feeding the limited stimulation signal to an output transducer for generating a hearing device output signal
Implementation Method 2
converting an acoustic input signal into a corresponding converted input signal
Data Source
AI summary
A method for operating a hearing device for a user having tinnitus includes converting an acoustic input signal into a corresponding converted input signal, applying a transfer function to the converted input signal for generating a processed input signal, generating a stimulation signal depending on characteristics of a perceived disturbing internal signal resulting from a tinnitus perceived by a prospective user of the hearing device, limiting the stimulation signal by applying a predefined limiting scheme thereby generating a limited stimulation signal, superimposing the limited stimulation signal onto the processed signal thereby generating an output signal, and feeding the output signal to an output transducer for generating a hearing device output signal.