Patent Application
20070253585
The present invention is now described in more detail below with reference to the appended drawings, in which;
The exemplary embodiments illustrated in more detail below represent preferred embodiments of the present invention.
The amplification curve in
Since the patient is now only able to perceive sound below the limit frequency fg, he/she will not be able to hear high-frequency parts f4, f5 and f6. A frequency compression is carried out for this reason, as a result of which all spectral parts are shifted below the hearing limit fg.
As, prior to use of the hearing apparatus, the patient is only accustomed to hearing the frequencies f1 to f3, it is favorable, in respect of the acceptance, to only present him/her initially with these frequencies in amplified form, even with the hearing device. This initial adaptation takes place with the audiologist or hearing device acoustician at time instant T0. In accordance with the invention, a temporal adaptation is to be carried out in respect of a frequency transposition and/or frequency compression. The aim here is to map all frequencies and/or frequency bands f1 to f6 in the range below fg.
The compression is automatically carried out in a number of time steps. A first compression step takes place at time instant T1. The amplification curve resulting therefrom is indicated in
From time instant T1, the patient is now able to perceive locations, tones and noises, which originally lay outside his/her hearing range. By way of example, he/she receives the sound, which is actually present with the frequency f4, now shown with the frequency f4′, which he/she hears because it lies below the limit frequency fg.
In a second compression step, all frequencies f1 to f6 are now mapped in the range below the limit frequency fg so that the frequencies f1″ to f6″ result. The patient now also receives the high-frequency acoustic portions with f5 and f6 in its audio range below the limit frequency fg. He/she is thus able to perceive all acoustic portions, even when compressed.
In accordance with the invention, a temporally adaptive control of the frequency transposition takes place, the intensity of which increases successively with the wearing time of the hearing device. The temporally slow adaptation assists with the training on the modified acoustic pattern.
A frequency transposition takes place exclusively in the example chosen in
Furthermore, it is also advantageous to shift the individual frequency bands among one another in a non-linear fashion. The distance between the frequencies f1″ and f2″ could herewith be greater for instance than the distance between the frequencies f5″ and f6″. This means that the higher frequency portion in the audible range would be more densely packed below the limit frequency fg than the lower frequencies. Furthermore, any other non-linear shift in the audible frequency range is also conceivable.
The individual frequency bands can also be shifted into the desired range irrespective of one another. It can be favorable for instance to initially retain the frequency bands f1 to f3 and only to shift the frequency band f5 into the audible range. In a further shift step, the further initially non-audible frequency bands can then be shifted into the audible range. The shift of the frequency bands in the audible range can be carried out as a separate step.
The steps illustrated above allow different types of frequency transpositions to be reached, all of which lead however to an increase in the acceptance of an audio system and assist with the acclimatization processes.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 2006 019 728.3 | Apr 2006 | DE | national |
