Electrical audio signal processing systems and devices – Hearing aids – electrical – Specified casing or housing
Reexamination Certificate
1999-02-17
2003-12-30
Isen, Forester W. (Department: 2644)
Electrical audio signal processing systems and devices
Hearing aids, electrical
Specified casing or housing
C381S328000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06671381
ABSTRACT:
The invention relates generally to hearing aid technology and, in particular, to a sleeve or protective sleeve for hearing aids or parts of them, to hearing aids or parts of them provided with a sleeve, and to a hearing test device using the abovementioned hearing aids, as well as to a method for operation of this hearing test device.
Hearing aids which are inserted into the auditory channel and are fixed there (concha units, in-the-ear units) and parts of behind-the-ear units which project into the auditory channel are subject to corrosive body fluids and cerumen. This leads in general to hygiene problems and to the risk of inflammation if these parts are not regularly cleaned. In addition, in the case of in-the-ear units, there is a risk of the corrosive body fluids or cleaning fluids making the sensitive electronic and acoustic components unserviceable.
It is known for the end of in-the-ear units which faces the eardrum and the parts of a hearing aid which can be worn in the auditory channel to be provided with a cerumen protective grid. This admittedly prevents the ingress of cerumen, but not the ingress of body fluids.
In the case of hearing aids or hearing boosters for compensation for hearing weaknesses or hearing damage, a distinction is drawn essentially between two types of units, so-called behind-the-ear units and so-called in-the-ear units. The latter are also called auditory channel units or concha hearing aids. In the case of behind-the-ear units, the actual part of the hearing aid, with the electronics, microphone, earphone, battery compartment, control elements etc., is located in a common housing behind the ear and a so-called standard flexible tube or a so-called Libby horn leads from the earphone into the auditory channel. In the case of so-called in-the-ear units, which have been produced in the course of miniaturization of electronic and electromechanical components, the hearing aid is located entirely in the auditory channel or projects out of it into the pavilion of the ear. In-the-ear hearing aids are marketed, for example, by the Siemens Co. under the designation Cosmea Top.
In both types of hearing aid, the part of the hearing aid which is located in the auditory channel or the part of the hearing aid which is located in the pavilion of the ear is surrounded by an otoplasty which is matched to the individual ear shape or auditory channel shape of the wearer and makes it possible for the hearing aid to be seated correctly and to operate correctly (avoidance of feedback etc.). Examples of this are disclosed in DE-OS 39 36 062 and DE Utility Patent 91 15 511.8.
Holes are also introduced into these specially manufactured otoplasties for individual adaptation of the frequency response, for pressure equalization and for voice modulation, and are also used for ventilation of the auditory channel. German Utility Patent G 90 03 269.1 discloses a hearing aid which can be worn in the ear or an otoplasty which has a ventilation channel which can be blocked off to a greater or lesser extent by means of a blocking device, as a result of which the ventilation, the voice modulation etc. can be influenced and can be varied during operation and while being worn.
These otoplasties considerably increase the cost of the hearing aids since they must be individually manufactured. In consequence, the purchasing of a hearing aid also becomes a highly tedious process which leads to hearing aids frequently being bought only when they are absolutely essential, that is to say in the event of a high degree of hearing difficulty. People having minor to medium hearing difficulty frequently avoid buying a hearing aid or an electronic hearing booster for cost, time or else image reasons.
DE Utility Patent 87 12 957.4 discloses an in-the-ear hearing aid which is surrounded by a sleeve in the form of a sack or a double sack. A curable material is inserted into the volume defined by the sleeve and the actual in-the-ear unit or by the interior of the sleeve which is in the form of a double sack, as a result of which an individually adapted otoplasty is produced and the in-the-ear unit is thus fixed in the wearer's ear. It is disadvantageous in the case of this known in-the-ear unit that the earphone and the sound outlet channel from the hearing aid are not exposed until after the curable compound has cured, that is to say after the adaptation of the otoplasty, by cutting off the part which closes the sound outlet channel of the earphone. In consequence, the otoplasty and the hearing aid can not be tested until after the otoplasty has been manufactured. If, for any reason, the hearing aid provided with the individual otoplasty is unsuitable or if the manufactured otoplasty has defects, then a new hearing aid module must be used. This results in the risk of a number of hearing aid modules being “used up” before a suitable hearing aid module has been found. The individual adaptation of this hearing aid according to the prior art is thus in no way cost effective but, on the contrary, is highly cost-intensive.
In order that an optimally adapted hearing aid can be selected and manufactured for a patient suffering from hearing difficulty, the level of his or her hearing difficulty, or his or her hearing ability, must first be determined. Once this has been done, an appropriate hearing aid can then be selected and an otoplasty individually manufactured for it. The conventional known hearing tests are very complex since they can be carried out only by trained specialist personnel. Furthermore, it is disadvantageous that, essentially, unnatural sinusoidal tones are used for testing the hearing ability.
The document FR 2 664 494 A1 discloses a hearing test device by means of which sound events, which are stored on a sound storage device, can be called up via a loudspeaker. The level of recognition of the various sound events (curve b in
FIG. 2
) is recorded by an investigating person for various hearing aids or for one hearing aid with various settings. In this way, an appropriately individually matched hearing aid is searched for by cooperation between the patient and the investigating person. It is disadvantageous in this case that the investigation can be carried out only with the continuous involvement of an appropriately trained specialist person. The high labour costs thus increase the cost of the investigation method accordingly.
DE-OS 39 00 588 and DE-OS 32 05 685 disclose hearing aids in the case of which specific acoustic operating parameters can be varied.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide a hearing aid or a part of a hearing aid which can be worn in the ear, which is particularly suitable for forms of slight to medium hearing difficulty and which can be adapted more quickly and cost-effectively to the individual characteristics of a wearer. It is furthermore the object of the invention to specify an improved protective device for hearing aids. In addition, it is an object of the invention, in cases of slight to medium hearing difficulty, to specify a quick and efficient method for individual selection and adaptation of a hearing aid.
It is furthermore an object of the present invention to provide a device for testing the hearing ability of a patient and for selection of an individually adapted hearing aid, which device allows less cost-intensive use. In addition, it is an object of the invention to make available an appropriately matched method for testing the hearing ability of a patient and for selection of an individually adapted or matched hearing aid.
These objects are achieved by the features of claims 1, 9, 10, 32, 35, 38, 48 and 53.
The protective sleeve according to the invention can be pulled, in a simple manner, over the part of a hearing aid—over the otoplasty—which can be inserted into the auditory channel. In consequence, the entire part which is located in the auditory channel is covered by the moisture-proof, thin, elastic sleeve. The acoustically transmissive cap ensures that the acoustic characteristics of the hearing aid are not adversely
Isen Forester W.
O'Melveny & Myers LLP
Pendleton Brian T.
LandOfFree
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