Patent Application
20150005661
Tinnitus; from the Latin word tinnitus meaning “ringing” is the perception of sound within the human ear (ringing of the ears) when no actual sound is present. Despite the origin of the name, “ringing” is only one of many sounds the person may perceive.1 1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinnitus
Tinnitus is not a disease, but a condition that can result from a wide range of underlying causes. The most common cause is noise-induced hearing loss. Other causes include: neurological damage (multiple sclerosis), ear infections, oxidative stress, emotional stress, foreign objects in the ear, nasal allergies that prevent (or induce) fluid drain, wax build-up, and exposure to loud sounds. Withdrawal from benzodiazepines may cause tinnitus as well. Tinnitus may be an accompaniment of sensorineural hearing loss or congenital hearing loss, or it may be observed as a side effect of certain medications (ototoxic tinnitus)2. 2See, n.1, above.
[Tinnitus is usually a subjective phenomenon, such that it cannot be objectively measured. The condition is often rated clinically on a simple scale from “slight” to “catastrophic” according to the difficulties it imposes, such as interference with sleep, quiet activities, and normal daily activities3. 3 See, n.1, above.
If there is an underlying cause, treating it may lead to improvements. Otherwise typically management involves talk therapy. As of 2013, there are no effective medications. It is common, affecting about 10-15% of people, most however tolerate it well with it being only a significant problem in 1-2% of people4. 4See, n.1, above.
Tinnitus can be perceived in one or both ears or in the head. It is usually described as a ringing noise, but in some patients, it takes the form of a high-pitched whining, electric buzzing, hissing, humming, tinging or whistling sound, or as ticking, clicking, roaring, “crickets” or “tree frogs” or “locusts (cicadas)”, tunes, songs, beeping, sizzling, sounds that slightly resemble human voices or even a pure steady tone like that heard during a hearing test, and in some cases, pressure changes from the interior ear. It has also been described as a “whooshing” sound because of acute muscle spasms, as of wind or waves. Tinnitus can be intermittent, or it can be continuous, in which case it can be the cause of great distress. In some individuals, the intensity can be changed by shoulder, head, tongue, jaw, or eye movements5. 5See, n.1, above.
Most people with tinnitus have some degree of hearing loss, in that they are often unable to hear clearly external sounds that occur within the same range of frequencies as their “phantom sounds”. This has led to the suggestion that one cause of tinnitus might be a homeostatic response of central dorsal cochlear nucleus auditory neurons that makes them hyperactive in compensation to auditory input loss6. 6See, n.1, above.
The sound perceived may range from a quiet background noise to one that can be heard even over loud external sounds. The specific type of tinnitus called pulsatile tinnitus is characterized by one hearing the sounds of one's own pulse or muscle contractions, which is typically a result of sounds that have been created from the movement of muscles near to one's ear, changes within the canal of one's ear or issues related to blood flow of the neck or face7. 7See, n.1, above.
Persistent tinnitus may cause irritability, fatigue, and on occasions, clinical depression and musical hallucinations. Tinnitus annoyance is more strongly associated with psychological symptoms than acoustic characteristics. Other psychological problems such as depression, anxiety, sleep disturbances and concentration difficulties are common in those with worse tinnitus8. 8See, n.1, above.
The basis of quantitatively measuring tinnitus relies on the brain's tendency to select out only the loudest sounds heard. Based on this tendency, the amplitude of a patient's tinnitus can be measured by playing sample sounds of known amplitude and asking the patient which they hear. The volume of the tinnitus will always be equal to or less than that of the sample noises heard by the patient. This method works very well to gauge objective tinnitus (see above). For example: if a patient has a pulsatile paraganglioma in their ear, they will not be able to hear the blood flow through the tumor when the sample noise is 5 decibels louder than the noise produced by the blood. As sound amplitude is gradually decreased, the tinnitus will become audible, and the level at which it does so provides an estimate of the amplitude of the objective tinnitus9. 9See, n.1, above.
Objective tinnitus, however, is quite uncommon. Often patients with pulsatile tumors will report other coexistent sounds, distinct from the pulsatile noise, which will persist even after their tumor has been removed. This is generally subjective tinnitus, which, unlike the objective form, cannot be tested by comparative methods. However, pulsatile tinnitus can be a symptom of intracranial vascular abnormalities, and should be evaluated for bruits by a medical professional with auscultation over the neck, eyes, and ears. If the exam reveals a bruit, imaging studies such as transcranial doppler (TCD) or magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) should be performed10. 10See, n.1, above.
Assessment of psychological processes related to tinnitus involves measurement of tinnitus severity and distress (i.e. nature and extent of tinnitus-related problems), measured subjectively by validated self-report tinnitus questionnaires. However, wide variability, inconsistencies and lack of consensus regarding assessment methodology is evidenced in the literature, limiting comparison of treatment effectiveness. Developed to guide diagnosis or classify severity, most tinnitus questionnaires have also been shown to be treatment-sensitive outcome measures11. 11See, n.1, above.
What is needed is an effective and reliable method of treating tinnitus compared to that which exists today.
A process and system for reducing Tinnitus includes receiving an input audio sound by a user. The user listens to different tones (frequencies) of the received audio to determine both amplitude and frequency of the ringing or tinnitus tone in user's ears and provides tactile response on an input device (keyboard, etc.). The offending frequencies and amplitudes are identified based on the user's responses and a diagnosis from the data collected is produced and a tone map for each ear separately is created and the collection of tones and amplitudes are provided to the user to hear. User is tested for amplitude of these tones and the tones are increased until the audible ringing disappears as the phase of these tones will be shifted from zero to negative 180 degrees and as their level is increased, the ringing will decrease until it is substantially reduced.
Preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be discussed by reference to the drawings. The MS process for Tinnitus can be either a self contained system or a software package. Both are software programs, but one is built into a dedicated hardware system.
Audio Source 100 is preferably a tone generator picked up by the microphone on the earpiece device. In User Response 120 the user will listen to different tones (frequencies) to determine both amplitude and frequency of the ringing or tinnitus tone in their ears. It is important to get both parameters for this to work. The user will provide tactile response on an input device (keyboard, etc.). MS Tone Map 130 will use the user response to identify the offending frequencies and amplitudes of same. This collection of tones and amplitudes will be produced for the user to hear via Collection Device 110. Upon hearing these tones, the user will be tested multiple times for amplitude of these tones. The test will be to increase the tone until the audible ringing disappears. The phase of these tones will be shifted from zero to negative 180 degrees and as their level is increased, the ringing will decrease until it is almost gone. The process will produce a diagnosis from the data collected and produce a tone map, for each ear separately.
As shown by the dotted lines in
Earpiece Device 150 is the playback system part of the Tinnitus process. Preferably it will be a dual ear piece with either a wired or wireless connection between them. There could be a separate controller unit (wired or wireless). In one embodiment Ear Piece includes a microphone, digital processor, amplifier, and transducer/speaker (plus the housing for the complete unit). Processor stores the information collected from the testing unit that will make up the tone generation tables with frequency and amplitude. These tables will be turned into audible tones and sent to the amplifier and speaker. There will be a master volume control for the pair of earpieces located on one unit.
Earpiece Device 150 includes is the MS Response block 160.
Tone Generator 200 is described next by reference to
Max Sound Process is explained by reference to
The original audio signal also processed by SPARKLE 330.
The original audio signal is processed by SUB BASS 340 in
In more detail, EXPAND 310 is a 4 pole digital low pass filter with an envelope follower for dynamic offset (FIXED ENVELOPE FOLLOWER). This allows the output of the filter to be dynamically controlled so that the output level is equal to whatever the input is to this filter section. (Ex.) If the level at the input is −6dB, then the output will match that. Whenever there is a change at the input, the same change will occur at the output regardless of either positive or negative amounts. The frequency for this filter is 20 to 20 k hertz, in other words it is full range. The intention of this filter is to “warm up” or provide a fuller sound as audio that passes through it. The original sound passes through, and is added to the effected sound for its output. As the input amount increases or decreases (varies), so does the phase of this section. This applies to ALL FILTERS used in this software application. All filters are preferably of the Butterworth type.
SPACE 320 includes several components. They are: SPACE 321—this amount is after the envelope follower and sets the final level of this module. This is the effected signal only, without the original. SPACE ENV FOLLOWER 322—tracks the input amount and forces the output level of this section to match and SPACE FC 323, which sets the center frequency of the 4 pole digital high pass filter used in this section. This filter also changes phase as does the EXPAND one. See reference page.
SPACE blocks 220 are followed by the SPARKLE 230 blocks. Like SPACE 220, there are several components to SPARKLE. SPARKLE HPFC 231 is a 2 pole high pass filter with a preboost which sets the lower frequency limit of this filter. Anything above this setting passes through the filter while anything below is discarded or stopped from passing. SPARKLE TUBE THRESH 232 sets the lower level at which the tube simulator begins working. As the input increases, so does the amount of the tube sound. The tube sound adds harmonics, compression and a slight bit of distortion to the input audio 200. This amount increases slightly as the input level increases. SPARKLE TUBE BOOST 233 sets the final level of the output of this module. This is the effected signal only, without the original.
Next, the SUB BASS 240 module is discussed. This module takes the input signal and uses a low pass filter to set the upper frequency limit to about 100 Hz. An octave divider occurs in the software that changes the input signal to lower by an octave (12 semi tones) and output to the only control in the interface, which is the level or the final amount. This is the effected signal only, without the original.
Outputs from the above modules 210 to 240 are directed into SUMMING MIXER 250 which combines the audio. The levels going into the summing mixer 250 are controlled by the various outputs of the modules listed above. As they all combine with the original signal 200 fed through the DRY 260 module there is interaction in phase, time and frequencies that occur dynamically. These changes all combine to create a very pleasing audio experience for the listener in the form of “enhanced” audio content. For example, a change in a single module can have a great affect on what happens in relation to the other modules final sound or the final harmonic output of the entire software application.
Audio Output—This block passes the audio from the Earpiece Device into the users' ear canal. The end result is a much clearer auditory experience with less “ringing” from Tinnitus.
The system needs all of these parts in order to function correctly. In a typical conventional system for addressing tinnitus, the entire operation would be static in nature therefore being much less efficient because it doesn't have the ability to operate in a dynamic nature to accommodate any changing conditions in a user's environment. Earpieces also have phase anomalies because of their construction. Because the present invention is based on a dynamic process, it greatly lessens that effect on what the user hears, both from Tinnitus and the outside audio user may be listening to. Be it voice, music, environmental, etc.
Embodiments of the present invention relate to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/768,300, filed Feb. 22, 2013, entitled “PROCESS FOR REDUCING TINNITUS”, the contents of which are incorporated by reference herein and which is a basis for a claim of priority.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61768300 | Feb 2013 | US |
