Tactile Feedback Device for Auditory Prosthesis Fitting Precision
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional hearing aid fitting processes rely on binary responses from users, making it difficult to determine the necessary adjustments for auditory prostheses, leading to inefficiencies and increased fitting time.
Innovation Solution
The use of a tactile feedback device to capture and analyze physical manipulations, allowing for the determination of both the type and scale of adjustments needed for auditory prostheses, such as cochlear implants or hearing aids, based on user interactions during the fitting process.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If binary responses are used from users during fitting, then the fitting process can be completed, but the precision of determining necessary adjustments deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
A tactile feedback device serves as an intermediary between the user and the fitting system. The device captures physical manipulations (touching, pressing, moving) that indicate the user's response to test signals, translating these into actionable feedback for adjustment determination. This mediator enables precise measurement of user responses without requiring complex direct user interaction or interpretation
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces traditional binary verbal or manual response systems with a tactile feedback mechanism that detects physical manipulations. This substitution transforms the response capture from a simple binary choice system to a continuous measurement system that can quantify the degree and nature of user responses, thereby improving measurement precision
2Productivity
If conventional binary response methods are used, then the fitting process is simpler to operate, but the fitting time increases due to repeated tests
Solution Approach 1:
The tactile feedback device provides immediate and quantifiable feedback about user responses to test signals. By capturing the degree and nature of physical manipulations, the system can determine the necessary adjustments more accurately in each test iteration, reducing the number of repeated tests needed and thereby improving fitting efficiency while reducing time loss
Solution Approach 2:
The system transitions from static binary response categories to dynamic, continuous measurement of physical manipulations. The tactile feedback device can detect varying degrees and types of user responses, allowing the fitting process to adapt and converge more quickly on the optimal settings, thus improving productivity and reducing fitting time
3Measurement precision
If tactile feedback device is used to capture physical manipulations, then the adjustment precision improves, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The tactile feedback device acts as an intermediary that simplifies the measurement process by capturing physical manipulations through dedicated sensors. This intermediary handles the complexity of translating various user gestures into standardized feedback signals, allowing the main fitting system to focus on processing and determining adjustments without dealing with the complexity of raw input interpretation
Solution Approach 2:
The tactile feedback device is designed to detect multiple types of physical manipulations (touching, pressing, moving) through a unified sensor system. This multi-functional capability allows a single device to capture various aspects of user response, improving measurement precision without proportionally increasing overall system complexity
Data Source
AI summary
Embodiments disclosed herein relate to systems and methods for performing fitting of an auditory prosthesis using tactile responses. A tactile feedback device determines a physical manipulation in response to a test stimulus. A type of adjustment can be determined based upon the type of the physical manipulation and the type of the test signal. A scaling of the adjustment can be determined based on the degree of the physical manipulation.