Self-Managed Sound Enhancement via Individualized Auditory Profiles
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Solution Overview
Problem
Hearing loss and tinnitus individuals face challenges with conventional hearing aids due to varying sound loudness tolerance profiles and environmental noise effects, leading to discomfort and potential hearing damage, as existing systems fail to account for individual differences in transducer effects and environmental noise during audio signal enhancement.
Innovation Solution
A system and method that capture individualized audiological profiles through self-administered testing, accounting for transducer characteristics and environmental noise, to automatically enhance audio signals, ensuring safe and comfortable listening experiences by adjusting loudness levels and providing tinnitus relief signals.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional hearing aids amplify sound to compensate for hearing loss, then hearing capability is improved, but feedback and discomfort occur due to individual variations in sound loudness tolerance
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies different amplification levels to different frequency bands based on the user's specific hearing thresholds and loudness tolerance at each frequency. Rather than uniform amplification, the equalization profile is customized frequency-by-frequency to match individual auditory characteristics, preventing feedback and discomfort while compensating for hearing loss.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically adjusts amplification parameters based on measured hearing thresholds and loudness tolerance levels. By changing the amplification factor across different frequencies according to individual profiles, the system optimizes hearing assistance while avoiding the harmful effects of excessive or inappropriate amplification.
2Reliability
If hearing aids provide amplification to improve hearing, then hearing sensitivity is enhanced, but hearing damage may occur due to excessive loudness
Solution Approach 1:
The system incorporates user feedback during loudness tolerance testing to determine safe amplification levels. By measuring the user's discomfort thresholds at different frequencies and using this feedback to set maximum amplification limits, the system ensures that enhanced hearing sensitivity does not lead to harmful exposure levels.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary loudness tolerance testing before establishing the final amplification profile. By determining safe loudness thresholds in advance through user testing, the system pre-configures protection against excessive amplification that could cause hearing damage while still providing necessary hearing assistance.
3Productivity
If standard hearing curves are used for sound enhancement, then general hearing loss compensation is achieved, but individual differences in loudness tolerance are not accounted for
Solution Approach 1:
The system transitions from a universal hearing curve to individualized equalization profiles that account for local variations in loudness tolerance at different frequencies. Each user's profile is customized based on their specific discomfort thresholds, making the hearing assistance adaptable to individual auditory characteristics rather than applying a one-size-fits-all approach.
Solution Approach 2:
The system makes the hearing assistance dynamic and adaptive by incorporating individual loudness tolerance measurements into the amplification profile. Rather than using a static standard curve, the system dynamically adjusts amplification levels based on personally measured thresholds, enabling the device to adapt to each user's specific hearing characteristics.
Data Source
AI summary
A system and method are provided for capturing hearing characteristics from self-administered hearing tests, including loudness tolerance levels at different sound frequencies, as an individualized shaped auditory profile for automatically enhancing audio to complement and address an individual's hearing deficits experienced via a particular signal pathway including the audio device used to administer the test, the sound environment, and the user's hearing capabilities. The user may self-administer a hearing test on a smartphone or other device. The shaped auditory profile may be used to produce enhanced sound subsequently transmitted to the individual via the same signal pathway. In some aspects, the invention is useful for any individual seeking an enhanced hearing experience, whether having hearing within normal range or hearing that is impaired. Manual gain adjustments applied by a user to the enhanced sound thereby produced may result in changes to a stored shaped auditory profile or the generation of a new profile.