EP2257080B1

EP2257080B1 - Wireless audio signal receiver device for a hearing instrument

Info

Publication number: EP2257080B1
Application number: EP10177385A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Rainer Platz
Original assignee: Phonak AG
Current assignee: Sonova Holding AG
Priority date: 2006-03-30
Filing date: 2006-03-30
Publication date: 2012-01-18
Anticipated expiration: 2026-03-30
Also published as: DK2257080T3; EP2257079A1; CN103259075A; EP1681903A2; EP2257079B1; CN101416531A; WO2007112838A1; DK2257079T3; CN101416531B; EP2257080A1; EP1681903A3

Description

The present invention relates to a wireless receiver device for wirelessly receiving audio signals from a remote source, which is capable of supplying such audio signal to a hearing instrument.
It is well-known to use a receiver device (usually an FM (frequency modulation) receiver) for receiving audio signals from a remote source, for example a remote microphone, via a wireless link (usually an FM link) in order to provide such audio signals as input signals to a hearing instrument worn at a user's ear. To this end the receiver device has an output interface which is capable of being mechanically connected to an input interface of the hearing instrument via a so-called "audio shoe". The audio shoe is mechanically connected to the input interface of the hearing aid and comprises typically a standardized 3-pin socket for receiving three mating pins of the output interface of the receiver device, which pins typically are arranged in a line. However, the orientation of the three pins in the audio shoe with respect to the hearing instrument, i.e. with respect to the user's head, is not standardized and therefore varies from type to type. Moreover, the sensitivity of the antenna of the receiver device depends on the relative orientation to the user's head, with the optimum orientation of the antenna being given if the loop surface is perpendicular to the direction of the user's nose. If the receiver device is turned by 90°, the loss in sensitivity is typically of the order of 6 dB.
A presently used solution to this problem is to provide for a mechanical construction which allows to orient the receiver device in the optimum direction for all types of hearing instruments, wherein the connector, i.e. the mechanical components of the output interface of the receiver unit (i.e. the three pins), is rotatable with respect to the housing of the receiver device, so that prior to plugging the receiver unit into the audio shoe the connector can be rotated in an appropriate manner so as to adapt the orientation of the receiver device to the specific type of audio shoe / hearing instrument. Such receiver devices are sold, for example, by Phonak Communications AG, Murten, Switzerland, under the product designation MLx S.
A drawback of this solution is that a rotatable connector results in larger dimensions of the receiver device, given by the space required to design and implement a reliable and stable mechanical solution for the connector rotation. In addition, the electrical connections between the connector and the electronic module of the receiver device need to be flexible in order to allow the rotation of the connector with respect to the electronic module, which results in additional complexity, e.g. soldered wires, and again larger geometrical dimensions. A further drawback is the need to instruct the user regarding how to manipulate the receiver device, i.e. how to rotate the connector, on all sorts and types of combinations of hearing instruments and audio shoes.
EP 1 531 649 A2 describes a wireless hearing aid system with a magnetic loop antenna on a flex print, wherein at least a portion of the matching network is affixed to the flexible dielectric substrate carrying the antenna. The antenna may be attached to the inner or outer surface of the shell of the hearing aid, with the shape of the loop antenna being matched to the irregular shape of the hearing aid shell.
DE 10 2004 017 832 B3 relates to a hearing aid having a housing into which an antenna is integrated as an electrically conducting layer in order to reduce the size of the hearing aid. The antenna may be L-shaped as a metal layer applied to the hearing aid housing, the antenna may be applied as a pre-shaped foil element onto the hearing aid housing, the antenna may be produced by structuring a metal layer of the hearing aid housing or the antenna may be fabricated as a conducting plastics layer during injection moulding of the hearing aid housing.
EP 1 376 760 A2 relates to a folded dipole antenna for transmitting and receiving radio signals in all types of telecommunication systems, in particular for use in base stations of mobile telephone networks. The antenna consists of three portions, namely a central portion fixed to a ground plate, a left portion and a right portion which are angled by 45° to the central portion in such a manner that they form an angle of 90° relative to each other.
EP 1 594 187 A1 relates to a folded laminar antenna which is designed as a slot-loop antenna with a loop-like slot between conducting portions. The antenna consists of three portions, namely a central portion, a right portion and a left portion, with the right and left portions being folded by about 180° onto the central portion. The antenna comprises a layer of electrically conductive material which is provided on a dielectric substrate layer. The antenna may be used in portable wireless devices such as mobile telephones and personal digital assistants.
DE 10 2004 016 573 B3 relates to a binaural In-the-ear (ITE) hearing aid system wherein each of the two hearing aids has an antenna for wireless communication with the other hearing aid and wherein the antenna is oriented at a certain angle with respect to the housing in order to ensure that the two antennas are aligned when the hearing aids are worn by the user.
DE 37 42 877 A1 relates to an FM receiver for a hearing aid, which is connected to the hearing aid via an audio shoe.
It is an object of the invention to provide for a receiver device for being used with a hearing instrument, wherein the dependence of the sensitivity of the receiver device on the specific type of the hearing instrument should be relatively low while nevertheless the receiver device should be mechanically relatively simple.
According to the invention this object is achieved by a receiver device as defined in claim 1.
This solution is beneficial in that, by orienting the antenna plane or antenna direction, respectively, at an angle of 30 to 60 degrees, preferably at 40 to 50 degrees, with respect to the central symmetry plane of the output interface, it is ensured - due to the fact that the orientation of the input interface or the adapter interface (audio shoe) typically differs by ±90 degrees or ±180 degrees from type to type of the hearing instrument so that also the relative orientation of the receiver device when connected to the hearing instrument would differ by 90 degrees or 180 degrees depending on the type of hearing instrument - that the orientation of the antenna to the user's head anatomy, in particular to the direction of the user's nose, differs by significantly less than 90 degrees depending on the type of hearing instrument so that the worst case in which the antenna is oriented more or less parallel to the direction of the user's nose can be avoided.
Usually said output interface comprises three pins which are arranged in a line, with these pins defining the central symmetry plane. The antenna may be a magnetic loop antenna, a ferrite coil antenna or an air coil antenna.
In the following, examples of the invention will be illustrated by reference to the attached drawings, wherein:

Fig. 1: is a block diagram of an embodiment of a receiver device according to the invention when connected with a hearing instrument;
Fig. 2: is a side view of a hearing instrument with a receiver device being connected thereto via an audio shoe; and
Fig. 3: is a schematic view of a receiver device according to the invention comprising a non-angled antenna.

Fig. 1 shows a block diagram of a receiver device 10 capable of wirelessly receiving audio signals from a remote source 12, which is connected via an audio shoe 14 to a hearing instrument 16 which may be a behind-the-ear (BTE) hearing aid which is worn at the user's ear. The remote audio signal source typically may be a transmitter unit comprising a microphone which is worn by a teacher in a classroom for teaching hearing-impaired pupils.
The receiver device 10 comprises a housing 18, a magnetic loop-antenna 20 for receiving radio-frequency signals carrying audio-signals from the remote source 12 via a radio-frequency link 22, a signal processing unit 21 for reproducing audio signals from the radio frequency signals received by the antenna 20, and an output interface 24 which is capable of being mechanically connected to an input interface 26 of the hearing instrument 16 via the audio shoe 14 which comprises an input interface 25 mating with the output interface 24. The signal processing unit 21 comprises a high frequency (HF) unit 29 connected to the antenna 20, a demodulator 30 for demodulating the frequency-modulated (FM) signal received by the antenna 20 and processed by the HF-unit 29, and a pre-amplifier 32 for pre-amplifying the demodulated audio signal prior to being passed to the output interface 24. The HF-unit 29 usually comprises a matching network for the antenna 20, an low-noise amplifier, an RF-amplifier, a frequency synthesiser and a mixer in order to convert the HF-signal received by the antenna 20 down an intermediate frequency. The architecture of the receiver device described so far is conventional FM receiver architecture.
The hearing instrument 16 comprises at least one microphone 34, a signal processing unit 36, an output transducer 38 (e.g. a loudspeaker) for stimulating the user's hearing, and a housing 40 and a battery 42 which typically also serves to power the receiver device via the audio shoe 14. When being used with the receiver unit 10, the hearing instrument 16 usually will have two different modes of operation: a first mode in which only the input audio signal received from the receiver device 10 is reproduced by the output transducer 38 (usually labelled "FM" mode) and a second mode in which a combination of the signal of the microphone 34 and the input signal provided by the receiver device 10 is reproduced by the output transducer 38 (usually labelled "FM+M" mode).
In Fig. 2 an arrangement is shown in which a receiver unit 10 comprising a housing 18 is connected via an audio shoe 14 to a hearing instrument 16, with the switch 72 projecting through the housing 18 for being operated by the user.
Fig. 3 is a schematic view of a receiver device 110 comprising a non-angled antenna 120, respectively, when used with four different types of audio shoes. In Fig. 3 the respective orientation of the antenna 120 with respect to the direction 94 of the user's nose 96 is shown, with the direction 94 extending between the ears 98 through the nose tip.
The receiver device 10 comprises an essentially rectangular housing 18 with a plug member comprising three pins 76A, 76B and 76C which are arranged in a line, thereby defining a central symmetry plane 90 of the output interface of the receiver device 110. In a first orientation labelled "A" in Fig. 3 the receiver unit 110 is used with a hearing instrument having an audio shoe of a first type which is oriented such that, when the receiver device 110 has been connected to the audio shoe and the hearing instrument is worn at the user's ear 98, the central plane 90 of the output interface of the receiver device 110 is perpendicular to the direction 94 of the user's nose 96.
In the configuration labelled "B" in Fig. 3 the receiver device 110 is used with a different type of hearing instrument/audio shoe so that, when the receiver device 110 has been connected to the audio shoe and the hearing instrument is worn at the user's ear 98 the receiver device 110 has been rotated by 90° in the counter-clockwise direction compared to configuration A, so that the central symmetry plane 90 of the output interface now is parallel to the direction 94 of the user's nose 96.
In the configuration labelled "C" the type of hearing instrument/audio shoe is such that the receiver device 110 has been rotated by 90° in the counter-clockwise direction compared to configuration B so that the central symmetry plane 90 now has the same orientation as in configuration A.
In the configuration labelled "D" the type of hearing instrument/audio shoe is such that the receiver device 110 has been rotated by 90° in the counter-clockwise direction compared to configuration C so that the central symmetry plane 90 now has the same orientation as in configuration B.
An embodiment according the invention in order to achieve independence of antenna performance from the type of audio shoe is to use an antenna 120 which is either planar, thereby defining an antenna plane 92, or has an axial symmetry, thereby defining an antenna direction 92, wherein the antenna plane 92 or the antenna direction 92, respectively, is oriented at an angle of 30 to 60°, preferably from 40 to 50°, with respect to the central symmetry plane 90 of the output interface. If the antenna 120 is planar, it is preferably a magnetic loop antenna, whereas if it has an axial symmetry, it is preferably a ferrite antenna or an air coil antenna. Most preferably, the angle between the antenna direction 92 and the symmetry plane 90 of the output interface is about 45° as shown in Fig. 3. In this case, in configuration A, i.e. with the pins 76A to 76C being oriented such that the central symmetry plane 90 defined thereby is perpendicular to the direction 94 of the user's nose 96, the angle between the antenna direction 92 and the central symmetry plane 90 is 45°, resulting in medium performance of the antenna 120 compared to an orientation in which the antenna plane 92 or the antenna direction 92 would be perpendicular to the direction 94 of the user's nose 96.
In configuration B in which the orientation of the central symmetry plane 90 of the output interface has changed by 90° with respect to the direction 94 of the user's nose 96 due to the different type of audio shoe, the antenna direction 92 likewise has been rotated in the counter-clockwise direction by 90°. However, due to the angle of 45° between the antenna direction 92 and the central symmetry plane 90 of the output interface, the angle between the direction 94 of the user's nose 96 and the antenna direction 92 still is 45°. Consequently, the antenna performance will remain the same as in configuration A.
This also applies to configurations C and D in which the antenna 120, due to the 45° orientation with respect to the central symmetry plane 90, has the same orientation with respect to the user's head 91 as in configurations A and B, respectively.
Thugs, by using an antenna 120 which is oriented such that the angle of the antenna direction 92 with respect to the central symmetry plane 90 of the output interface is around 45°, the antenna performance is essentially independent of the specific type of hearing instrument/audio shoe with which the receiver device 110 is used.
The housing 18 shown in Fig. 3 has a four-fold rotational symmetry with respect to an axial symmetry axis and comprises two walls which are parallel to the central symmetry plane 90 of the output interface and two walls which are perpendicular to the central symmetry plane 90.
Generally, apart from the different design of the antenna 120, the receiver device 110 may have the same architecture as the examples of the receiver device described so far.
Also shown in Fig. 3 is a schematic example of the input interface 25 of the audio shoe 14, which comprises three pin sockets 79A, 79B, 79C for receiving the pins 76A, 76B and 76C, respectively, which sockets are arranged in a line and thereby define a central symmetry plane 93 of the input interface 25. The input interface 25 shown in Fig. 3 is an example of an audio shoe of the type resulting in the configuration "A" of the receiver devices 110 of Fig. 3.

Claims

A receiver device (10) for receiving audio signals from a remote source (12), comprising: an antenna (120) for receiving radio frequency signals carrying audio signals, which antenna is either planar, thereby defining an antenna plane (92), or has an axial symmetry, thereby defining an antenna direction (92), a signal processing unit (21) for reproducing audio signals from the radio frequency signals received by the antenna, an output interface (24, 74, 76A, 76B, 76C) which is capable of being mechanically connected to an input interface (26) of a hearing instrument (16) to be worn at a user's ear (98) in order to supply the audio signals from the signal processing unit as input to the hearing instrument, and a housing (18, 64) enclosing the antenna and the signal processing unit, wherein the output interface has a central symmetry plane (90), and wherein said antenna plane or antenna direction is oriented at an angle of 30 to 60 degrees with respect to said central symmetry plane of the output interface.
The receiver device of claim 1, wherein said angle is from 40 to 50 degrees.
The receiver device of one of claim 1 and 2, wherein said output interface (24, 74) comprises three pins (24, 74, 76A, 76B, 76C) which are arranged in a line, and wherein said pins define said central symmetry plane (90).
The receiver device of one of claims 1 to 3, wherein said antenna (120) is a magnetic loop antenna, a ferrite antenna or an air coil antenna.
The receiver device of one of claims 1 to 4, wherein said housing (64) has a four-fold rotational symmetry with respect to an axial symmetry axis and comprises two walls which are parallel to said central symmetry plane (90) of said output interface (74, 76A, 76B, 76C) and two walls which are perpendicular to said central symmetry plane of said output interface.
A system comprising the receiver device (10) of claim 1 and said hearing instrument (16), wherein said input interface has a central symmetry plane (93) which is oriented, when said hearing instrument is worn at the user's ear (98), at an angle of 30 to 60 degrees with respect to the direction (94) of the user's nose (96).
The system of claim 6, wherein said angles are from 40 to 50 degrees.
The system of one of claims 6 and 7, wherein said input interface (26) comprises three pin sockets (79A, 79B, 79C) which are arranged in a line, and wherein said pin sockets define said central symmetry plane (93) of the input interface.
The system of one of claims 6 to 8, wherein said hearing instrument (16) is a behind-the-ear (BTE) hearing instrument.