JPH04354300A - Hearing aid - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a hearing aide capable of easily adjusting the volume while hearing with it by performing the volume adjustment of the hearing aide in a wireless manner by means of a sound signal within an audible range. CONSTITUTION:A wireless remote controller 30 is provided with a switch 31 which is operated by a user, and the audible signal corresponding to the operation of the switch is generated. In this hearing aide, a microphone 102 receives the audible sound and a control circuit 105 analyzes the received audible signal based on its frequency component. By adjusting a filter circuit 103 and/or an amplifier 104 corresponding to the analysis result, the characteristics of the sound outputted from the hearing aide can be changed.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a hearing aid that is used by being partially or completely inserted into the external auditory canal.

0002

2. Description of the Related Art Hearing aids are generally used by being partially or completely inserted into the external auditory canal, and their shapes include box-shaped, behind-the-ear, and ear-canal shapes. Such a hearing aid houses an amplifier including a filtering section for manipulating the frequency characteristics of sound, and an electroacoustic transducer (small microphone) or receiver that converts an electrical signal into sound. Some of these hearing aids have a power switch and a volume control on the operation panel of the main body, and the user can adjust the volume depending on the usage environment and operating conditions. etc. can be adjusted.

[0003] In such conventional hearing aids, since it is necessary to reduce the overall size of the hearing aid, the shape of the knobs provided on the hearing aid for adjusting volume and sound quality must also become smaller. For this reason, there is a problem that it is difficult for the user to perform operations such as adjusting the volume, and in the case of behind-the-ear or in-the-ear hearing aids, the user has to operate the volume switch etc. in an invisible position. However, there was a problem in that the adjustment was troublesome. For this reason, hearing aids have been proposed in which the volume can be adjusted by remote control using signals such as ultrasonic waves.

0004

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, since such conventional hearing aids use sound waves signals outside the audible range, for example, the battery of the hearing aid itself or the remote controller may run out, causing the hearing aid to malfunction. Even if it does not work, it may not be possible to determine whether the cause of the malfunction is due to a failure of the device or due to battery consumption.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional example, and allows the user to easily adjust the volume etc. while listening to the sound by wirelessly adjusting the volume of the hearing aid using audio signals in the audible range. The aim is to provide hearing aids that are possible.

[0006]

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, the hearing aid of the present invention has the following configuration. In other words, it is a hearing aid that is used by housing an acoustic conversion unit that converts an input signal into an acoustic signal and outputs it inside a case frame, and inserts a portion or almost the entirety of it into the ear canal, and is operated by the user. a remote control means that includes a switch and generates an audible signal according to the operation of the switch; and an analysis that receives the audible signal from the remote control means and analyzes the audible signal based on the frequency components of the audible signal. and a changing means for changing the sound characteristics output from the hearing aid according to the analysis result of the analyzing means.

[0007]

[Operation] The above configuration includes a switch operated by the user, receives an audible signal from a remote control means that generates an audible signal according to the operation of the switch, and receives an audible signal based on the frequency component of the audible signal. Then, the hearing aid analyzes the audible signal and changes the sound characteristics output from the hearing aid according to the analysis result.

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. <Description of Hearing Aid (FIGS. 1 and 2)> FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing the configuration of an in-the-ear type hearing aid according to an embodiment.

In the figure, 101 is a hearing aid housing;
Reference numeral 2 denotes a microphone, which inputs audio signals, environmental sounds, etc. that normally enter the ear, and receives control signals such as a volume length signal from a wireless remote control. 103 is a filter circuit, and 104 is an amplifier. A control circuit 105 inputs a control signal from the microphone 102 and determines the filter characteristics of the filter circuit 103, the amplification factor of the amplifier 104, etc. A receiver or speaker 106 converts the electrical signal amplified by the amplifier 104 into an audible signal and outputs the audible signal. A battery 107 supplies power to this hearing aid.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing details of the control circuit 105.

In FIG. 2, 21 is a microphone 102.
2 shows a control signal received from a wireless remote controller, which is input to the control circuit 105. 22 to 25 are band pass filters (BPF); 26 is a filter circuit 103;
This is a control signal for controlling. 27 is a control signal converter, and 28 is a control signal for controlling the amplifier 104.

When the control signal 21 is input, the signals passing through each of the band pass filters 22 to 25 are sent to the converter 2.
7 is input. The converter 27 creates a control signal 26 or 28 according to the frequency of the control signal 21 and outputs it to the filter circuit 103 or amplifier 104, respectively. As a result, the frequency characteristics of the filter circuit 103 or the amplification factor of the amplifier 104 are changed, and the tone quality or volume of the audio signal output from the speaker 106 is adjusted.

According to the configuration of the control circuit 105 as shown in FIG. 2, a maximum of 16 types of control signals can be processed. That is, when a control signal in which up to four types of frequency signals are multiplexed is sent from a wireless remote control, those frequency multiplexed signals are divided by a BPF for each frequency, and the frequencies included in the control signal 21 are divided by the BPF. Depending on the components, control signals 26 and 28 are generated in the converter 27. <Description of the remote control unit (wireless remote control) (Figure 3)> Figure 3 shows the remote control unit (wireless remote control) used in the hearing aid of the example.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a wireless remote control.

In FIG. 3, 30 indicates the transmitter body. 31 is an operation board operated by the user;
1a and 31b are key switches for instructing sound quality adjustment, and 31c and 31d are key switches for volume adjustment. 32 is a signal synthesizer that synthesizes sine wave signals according to the pressed key signals on the operation board 31, and outputs the signals to the speaker 3.
From 3 onwards, it is communicated to the outside world. Thereby, the hearing aid user can adjust the volume and sound quality of the hearing aid simply by operating the key switch of the wireless remote controller 30.

A key encoder 34 detects which key switch on the operation board 31 is pressed, and an oscillator 35 outputs a predetermined frequency signal (sine wave signal). 36 is a signal generator which inputs a signal indicating the type of key switch input from the encoder 34 and a sine wave signal from the oscillator 35, and generates and outputs a control signal shown in FIG. 4 or FIG. 5, which will be described later. ing. A battery 37 supplies power to the entire wireless remote control 30.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing waveforms of control signals output from the wireless remote controller 30 corresponding to each key switch on the operation board 31.

Here, the key switches 31a and 31b are keys for adjusting the sound quality of the hearing aid, and the key switch 13
A indicates a key for emphasizing low tones, and 31b indicates a key switch for emphasizing high tones. Further, the key switch 31c is a key for lowering the volume, and the key switch 31d is a key for lowering the volume.
is the key to increase the volume.

As shown in FIG. 4, here, sine wave signals of different frequencies (all are frequency signals in the audible range) are output corresponding to each key switch, and the frequency of each of these signals is However, the bandpass filter 22 in FIG.
It corresponds to the frequency band that can pass each of ~25.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a key switch (control signal) signal output from a wireless remote control according to another embodiment.

[0020] Here, sine wave signals of the same frequency are intermittently outputted at different time intervals in response to each key switch of the wireless remote control. By detecting this time interval, the hearing aid side can determine which key switch on the wireless remote controller 30 has been pressed.

FIG. 6 shows the configuration of the hearing aid control circuit 105a at this time.

In FIG. 6, the same parts as in the configuration of FIG. 2 described above are indicated by the same numbers, and their explanation will be omitted. timer 61
inputs the frequency signal output from each bandpass filter, and measures the time (period T) from the start of reception of the signal to the time the signal reception is interrupted until the signal is received again. Then, a periodic signal corresponding to this period T is output to the converter 63. The converter 63 determines which key switch of the wireless remote controller 30 has been pressed based on the periodic signal 62, and outputs control signals 26 and 28 in accordance with the pressed key switch.

By configuring the control circuit 105a as shown in FIG. 6, for example, if the frequencies of the key switch signals shown in FIG. 5 are set to different frequencies, and the period T of each key switch signal is set to be different, That is, even if the control signal 21 is a combination of the signals shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the corresponding key switch signal is determined by detecting the period by the timer 61 and the frequency by the converter 63. be able to. By doing this, the number of combinations of key switch signals increases, and even if a wireless remote control is provided with more key switches, it can be handled with fewer frequency signals.

As explained above, according to this embodiment, each function of the hearing aid can be reliably adjusted by remote control without directly operating the small switches on the hearing aid body, thereby reducing operational complexity. .

Furthermore, since the information signal from the wireless remote control is composed of a sound wave signal in the audible band, it is possible to recognize, for example, that a volume adjustment signal for a hearing aid has been output from the sound emitted by the information signal.

Furthermore, by using the microphone 102 as a microphone for collecting sounds to be amplified by the hearing aid and as a receiver for receiving control signals from the wireless remote controller 30, signals from the wireless remote controller can be received. There is no need to separately provide a receiver for this purpose. Moreover, the characteristics of this microphone 102 may be equivalent to the performance as a sound collector of a hearing aid, and no special performance is required.

[0027]

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, by wirelessly adjusting the volume of a hearing aid using audio signals in the audible range, the user can easily adjust the volume etc. while listening to the sound. effective.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a hearing aid according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a control circuit of a hearing aid according to an embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a wireless remote control that transmits a control signal to the hearing aid of the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a waveform diagram showing an example of a control signal oscillated by the wireless remote controller of the hearing aid according to the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a waveform diagram showing an example of a control signal oscillated by a wireless remote control for a hearing aid according to another embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a control circuit of a hearing aid according to another embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

21, 26, 28 Control signals 22 to 25 Band pass filter (BPF) 27, 63
Converter 30 Wireless remote control 31 Operation board 31a, 31b, 31c, 31d Key switch 32
Signal synthesizer 33 Speaker 34 Encoder 35 Oscillator 36 Signal generator 37, 107 Battery 101 Hearing aid housing 102 Microphone 103 Filter circuit 104 Amplifier 105, 105a Control circuit

Claims (3)

[Claims] [Claim 1] A hearing aid that is used by housing an acoustic converting section that converts an input signal into an acoustic signal and outputs it inside a case frame, and inserting a part or almost the whole of it into the ear canal, and which is used by the user. remote control means comprising a switch to be operated and generating an audible signal in response to the operation of the switch;
analysis means for receiving an audible signal from the remote control means and analyzing the audible signal based on frequency components of the audible signal; and changing audio characteristics output from the hearing aid according to the analysis result of the analysis means. A hearing aid characterized in that it has: a means for changing. 2. The hearing aid according to claim 1, wherein the audible signal output from the remote control means is a sine wave signal, and the signals have different frequencies corresponding to the switches. 3. The hearing aid according to claim 1, wherein the audible signal is a sine wave signal that is intermittently output at different cycles depending on the operated switch.