JP2008199193A - Hearing aid, and method of manufacturing hearing aid - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce a feeling of inarticulation of a sound that an ear hole type hearing aid user has by making a vent hole much larger than heretofore. <P>SOLUTION: The hearing aid comprises a shell (10) forming the external shape of the hearing aid, a vent hole (20) linking an outer side and a front inner side of the shell (10) to each other, a microphone (13) disposed on the outer side of the shell (10), and a receiver (14) disposed on the front inner side of the shell (10). A bypass wall (25) is formed at an outer opening of the vent hole (20) without closing the vent hole (20). Flexibility of design associated with the size of the vent hole is ensured and a feeling of inarticulation of a sound that the user has is reduced. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a structure of an ear hole type hearing aid and a manufacturing method thereof.

  A hearing aid amplifies an external sound and uses it as a sound output in the inner ear. Therefore, a microphone that captures external sound and a receiver that outputs the external sound amplified by the sound processing unit to the median side are required.

Ear hole type hearing aids (hereinafter referred to simply as “hearing aids” are referred to as ear hole type hearing aids) are preferably used in the ear canal, so it is desirable to have a small size. The microphone and receiver are close to each other. In such a structure, the sound output from the receiver wraps around the microphone, and howling occurs when it exceeds a certain volume.
In recent hearing aids, various techniques have been introduced and various improvements have been made to suppress howling.

Now, the hearing aid is designed to fit into the user's ear canal. For this reason, when a user wears an ear hole type hearing aid, the user may feel close to a state of wearing a pinna and feel a blockage. As for the output sound from the receiver, it is difficult to hear the low frequency range of the audible band (the sound can be heard). These uncomfortable feelings are referred to as “feeling of hunger”.
There are many needs from current hearing aid users who want to improve such “feeling of hunger”. In order to reduce this feeling of hunger, it is common to provide an air hole (generally a “vent hole”) that connects the outer side and the median side of the ear canal separated by the hearing aid.

A technique as described in Patent Document 1 is provided to reduce the feeling of fogging. In Patent Document 1, an unpleasant feeling due to a feeling of fogging is reduced by providing two through holes such as a first through hole and a second through hole.
JP 2002-345090 A

There is a trade-off between the size of the vent hole and the feeling of cloudiness. That is, in order to fulfill the need to eliminate the feeling of cloudiness, the vent hole should be made larger, but howling will easily occur. At the same time, the sound quality heard by the user may be deteriorated.
However, if the vent hole is made small in order to suppress howling, the feeling of cloudiness that the user feels cannot be resolved.

The problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide a hearing aid that can suppress the occurrence of howling and can form a vent hole that is as large as possible to reduce the feeling of fogging and the deterioration of sound quality.
The object of the invention described in claims 1 to 7 is to provide a hearing aid that can suppress the occurrence of howling and form a vent hole that is as large as possible to reduce the feeling of fogging and the deterioration of sound quality. It is to be.
The object of the invention described in claims 8 to 10 is to produce a hearing aid that can suppress the occurrence of howling and can form a vent hole that is as large as possible to reduce the feeling of fogging and the deterioration of sound quality. Is to provide a method.

  The inventor of the present invention who has eagerly studied to solve the above-described problems has found a configuration in which howling can be suppressed by substantially increasing the distance between the microphone and the vent hole.

(Claim 1)
The invention according to claim 1 relates to an ear hole type hearing aid that is used by being attached to the ear canal of a hearing aid user.
The hearing aid includes a shell that forms an outer shape of the hearing aid, a vent hole that communicates the outer side and the median side of the shell, a microphone provided on the outer side of the shell, and a median side of the shell. And a sound processing unit and a battery built in the shell, and a bypass wall that covers the vent hole without covering the vent hole is provided at an outer side of the vent hole.

(Function)
Due to the presence of the bypass wall, a substantial distance is increased with respect to the positional relationship between the microphone and the vent hole, and howling hardly occurs. For this reason, the freedom degree of the design regarding the magnitude | size of a vent hole is ensured, and it contributes to providing the hearing aid which reduces a user's feeling of hunger.

(Claim 2)
The invention according to claim 2 limits the hearing aid according to claim 1,
The outer periphery of the outer opening in the vent hole is formed to exceed 25 millimeters.

“The outer periphery of the outer opening exceeds 25 mm” for the vent hole has the following meaning.
In other words, ear hole type hearing aids are custom-made to suit the user, and the shape of the vent hole is various, such as circular, oval, rectangular, etc. The purpose is to provide it.
In addition, such a vent hole is designed in the range which suppresses howling.

(Function)
Since the hearing aid is provided with a vent hole whose outer periphery has an outer diameter of more than 25 millimeters, the feeling of fogging is much smaller than that of a conventional hearing aid.
The presence of a large vent hole facilitates howling, but the presence of a bypass wall increases the distance between the microphone and the speaker, thereby suppressing howling.

(Claim 3)
The invention according to claim 3 limits the hearing aid according to claim 1 or claim 2,
The outer periphery of the median side opening in the vent hole is formed to exceed 16 mm.

(Glossary)
“The outer periphery of the median opening of the vent hole exceeds 16 mm” has the same meaning as the terminology in claim 1;
The purpose is to provide a certain standard for custom-made hearing aids.
Such a vent hole is also designed within a range where howling is suppressed.

(Claim 4)
The invention according to claim 4 limits the hearing aid according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
A cross-sectional area of the outward opening in the vent hole is formed so as to exceed 30 square millimeters.

(Glossary)
The cross-sectional area of the opening of the vent hole is “a cross-sectional area perpendicular to the direction of the vent hole”. The vent hole is not necessarily straight, but in that case, the direction of the hole is reasonably determined and the cross section is perpendicular to the direction.
In addition, such a vent hole is designed in the range which suppresses howling.

(Function)
Since the hearing aid has a vent hole whose outer side opening has a cross-sectional area exceeding 30 square millimeters, the feeling of fogging is much smaller than that of a conventional hearing aid.
The presence of a large vent hole facilitates howling, but the presence of a bypass wall increases the distance between the microphone and the speaker, thereby suppressing howling.

(Claim 5)
The invention according to claim 5 limits the hearing aid according to any one of claims 1 to 4,
A cross-sectional area of the median opening in the vent hole is formed so as to exceed 15 square millimeters.

(Function)
Since the hearing aid has a vent hole whose cross-sectional area of the mid-side opening exceeds 15 square millimeters, the feeling of fogging is much smaller than that of a conventional hearing aid.
The presence of a large vent hole facilitates howling, but the presence of a bypass wall increases the distance between the microphone and the speaker, thereby suppressing howling.

(Claim 6)
The invention according to claim 6 limits the hearing aid according to any one of claims 1 to 5,
The voice processing unit includes a mechanism that predicts occurrence of howling from input sound from a microphone, and controls the gain or phase of a frequency band that causes feedback in the input sound from the microphone when the occurrence is predicted. It is characterized by that.

(Function)
The speech processing unit predicts howling from the input sound from the microphone, and controls the gain or phase of the frequency band that causes howling in the input sound from the microphone when the occurrence is predicted.
For this reason, while suppressing the occurrence of howling, it is possible to form as large a vent hole as possible to reduce the feeling of fogging and the deterioration of sound quality.

(Claim 7)
The invention according to claim 7 limits the hearing aid according to any one of claims 1 to 6.
That is, the voice processing unit includes a mechanism that predicts howling from input sound from a microphone and controls the output of a receiver that causes howling when the occurrence is predicted.

(Function)
The sound processing unit predicts howling from the input sound from the microphone, and controls the output of the receiver that causes howling when the occurrence is predicted.
For this reason, while suppressing the occurrence of howling, a vent hole that is as large as possible can be formed to reduce the feeling of fogging and the deterioration of sound quality.

(Claim 8)
The invention according to claim 8 relates to a method of manufacturing an ear hole type hearing aid that is used by being attached to the ear canal of a hearing aid user.
The hearing aid includes a shell forming the outer shape of the hearing aid, a vent hole communicating the outer side and the median side of the shell, a microphone provided on the outer side of the shell, and a median side of the shell. A receiver, and a voice processing unit and a battery built in the shell.
A method for manufacturing a hearing aid includes: a mold making process for shaping a shape of a user's external auditory canal according to the hearing aid; and a microphone, a receiver, an audio processing unit, and a battery arranged in the shell based on the mold making process A setting position determining step to be arranged; a vent hole designing step for designing the position and shape of the vent hole communicating with the outer side and the median side in the shell member; the position of the vent hole determined by the vent hole designing step; And a detour wall design step of designing the position and shape of the detour wall based on the shape.

(Claim 9)
The invention according to claim 9 limits the method of manufacturing the hearing aid according to claim 8.
That is, the outer side opening of the vent hole designed in the vent hole setting step is designed so that its outer circumference exceeds 25 millimeters or its cross-sectional area exceeds 30 square millimeters.

The outward opening of the vent hole corresponds to one of the following three patterns.
First, a pattern with an outer circumference greater than 25 mm, second, a pattern with a cross-sectional area greater than 30 square millimeters, and third, a pattern with an outer circumference greater than 25 millimeters and a cross-sectional area greater than 30 square millimeters, It is.

(Claim 10)
The invention described in claim 10 limits the method of manufacturing a hearing aid according to claim 8 or claim 9.
That is, the median side opening of the vent hole designed in the vent hole setting step is designed so that its outer circumference exceeds 16 millimeters or the cross-sectional area exceeds 15 square millimeters.

The median side opening of the vent hole corresponds to one of the following three patterns.
First, a pattern with an outer circumference exceeding 16 millimeters, second, a pattern with a cross-sectional area exceeding 15 square millimeters, and third, a pattern with an outer circumference exceeding 16 millimeters and a cross-sectional area exceeding 15 square millimeters, It is.

According to the first to seventh aspects of the present invention, there is provided a hearing aid that can suppress the occurrence of howling and can form a vent hole that is as large as possible to reduce the feeling of fogging and the deterioration of sound quality. We were able to.
According to the invention described in claims 8 to 10, a hearing aid that can suppress the occurrence of howling and can form a vent hole that is as large as possible to reduce the feeling of fogging and the deterioration of sound quality. Could provide a way.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in more detail based on embodiments and drawings.
The drawings used here are FIGS. 1 to 4. 1 to 3 show an embodiment according to the present invention, and FIG. 4 shows a conventional hearing aid used for comparison.

(Figure 1)
The hearing aid shown in FIG. 1 is an ear hole type hearing aid that is used by being worn on a user's ear canal.
A shell 10 forming the outer shape of the hearing aid, a vent hole 20 penetrating from the outer side 11 side of the shell 10 to the midline 12 side, a microphone 13 provided on the outer side 11 of the shell 10, and a midline 12 of the shell 10 A receiver 14 provided on the side, and a sound processing unit and a battery built in the shell 10. The battery is a button-type small battery, and is detachable from a battery storage portion 15 provided on the outer side 11 of the shell 10.
A bypass wall 25 that covers the vent hole 20 without closing the vent hole 20 is provided at the outer side opening of the vent hole 20.

(Figure 2)
2A is a side view from the front side (for the sake of convenience, the front side), and FIG. 2B is a side view from the back side (for the sake of convenience, the back side).
The bypass wall 25 is covered so as to cover the vent hole 20. Further, when viewed from the outer side 11, the microphone 13 and the bypass wall 25 are disposed at positions far from each other.

Although not shown in detail, the maximum width Da of the lateral width of the vent hole 20 viewed from the outer side 11 was 14.0 millimeters. Further, the vertical dimension Ha of the vent hole 20 in the direction perpendicular to the maximum dimension Da was 5.5 millimeters. The peripheral length was about 33 millimeters.
On the other hand, the maximum width dimension Db of the vent hole 20 as viewed from the middle 12 side was 7.0 millimeters. The vertical width Hb of the vent hole 20 in the direction perpendicular to the maximum dimension Db was 5.5 millimeters. The perimeter was about 25 millimeters.

  A cross-sectional area perpendicular to the hole direction in the vent hole 20 is determined. The vent hole is not necessarily straight, but in that case, if the direction of the hole is reasonably determined and determined as a cross section perpendicular to that direction, the outer 11 side is about 38.5 square millimeters and the median 12 side is about 35 squares. Mm.

(Fig. 4)
FIG. 4 shows a conventional hearing aid. The basic structure is substantially the same. As shown in FIG. 4A, the battery housing 35 and the microphone not shown are provided on the outer side of the shell 30, and the vent hole 40 is provided. And the vent hole 40 has penetrated to the median side, as shown in FIG.4 (b).

  The vent hole of this hearing aid had a substantially circular shape, and its diameter was about 2.0 millimeters on the outer side and about 1.5 millimeters on the median side. When the outer circumference is obtained from this numerical value, the outer side is about 6.3 mm and the median side is about 4.7 mm. The outer side has a cross-sectional area of about 3.1 square millimeters and the median side is about 1.8 square millimeters. However, as described above, the hearing aid is custom-made, and there are some differences in the outer periphery and cross-sectional area depending on the shape of the user's ear.

  When comparing the hearing aid according to the present embodiment with a conventional hearing aid, the outer peripheral length is 33: 6.3, which is about 5.2 times, and the median peripheral length is 25: 4.7, which is about It was 11.8 times. When compared in cross-sectional area, the outer side was 38.5: 3.1, approximately 12.4 times, and the median side was 33: 1.8, approximately 18.3 times.

Although not shown, similar measurements were made on a sample of the product that would have the largest vent hole in a conventional hearing aid.
The outer periphery on the outer side was about 17 millimeters, and the outer periphery on the median side was about 12 millimeters. The cross-sectional area was about 17 square millimeters on the outer side and about 10 square millimeters on the median side.
Even compared with this, the outer peripheral length is 33:17, which is approximately 1.9 times, and the median peripheral length is 25:12, which is approximately 2.1 times. In comparison with the cross-sectional area, it was about 2.3 times at 38.5: 17 on the outer side, and about 3.5 times at 35:10 on the median side.

  As described above, the vent hole of the hearing aid according to the present embodiment secures a size of at least about twice when compared based on different standards such as the peripheral length and the cross-sectional area. For this reason, as a hearing aid user, it is possible to use a hearing aid that reduces or eliminates the feeling of hunger.

FIG. 3 shows howling and suppression thereof according to the present embodiment.
FIG. 3A shows a state in which the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 is used. FIG. 3B shows a state where the second embodiment is used.

As shown in FIG. 3A, the sound input from the microphone 13 is output to the receiver 14 via the sound processing unit in the shell 10. When the output sound is input from the microphone 13 through the vent hole 20, howling occurs.
However, since the detour wall 25 exists, the sound that causes the howling becomes difficult to reach the microphone 13 and the occurrence of the howling is suppressed. On the other hand, since the vent hole 20 is not substantially reduced, the effect of reducing the feeling of cloudiness is maintained.

The larger the vent hole, the less the "feeling of smoldering", but the shape is more likely to cause howling. However, even if this embodiment is employed and the vent hole 20 is enlarged, howling can be suppressed by enlarging the bypass wall 25 accordingly.
FIG. 3B shows a hearing aid in which the vent hole and the bypass wall are significantly enlarged in order to further reduce the “feeling of hunger” compared to the hearing aid in FIG.

In the above-described embodiment, howling is suppressed by the presence of the bypass wall 25. However, in order to more effectively suppress howling, it is preferable to provide a howling suppression mechanism in the voice processing unit provided in the shell 10. .
This mechanism predicts howling from the input sound from the microphone, and controls the gain and phase of the frequency band that causes howling in the input sound from the microphone when the occurrence is predicted. Two types of mechanisms are typical: a mechanism that predicts howling from the input sound and controls the output of a receiver that causes howling when the occurrence is predicted.
Both mechanisms can be combined and used together.

  The present invention can be used in the hearing aid manufacturing industry, the hearing aid maintenance industry, the hearing aid rental industry, and the like.

1 is a perspective view of a hearing aid according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is the front view and back view of a hearing aid which concern on embodiment of this invention. It is sectional drawing which shows the use condition of the hearing aid which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is the front and back view which show the conventional hearing aid.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Shell 10a Support piece 11 Outer 12 Middle 13 Microphone 14 Receiver 15 Battery storage part 20 Vent hole 25 Detour wall 30 Shell 35 Battery storage part 40 Vent hole

Claims (10)

A hearing hole type hearing aid to be used by attaching to the ear canal of a hearing aid user,
A shell forming the outer shape of the hearing aid, a vent hole communicating the outer side and the median side of the shell, a microphone provided on the outer side of the shell, and a receiver provided on the median side of the shell A voice processing unit and a battery built in the shell,
A hearing aid, characterized in that a bypass wall is provided at an outer side of the vent hole so as to cover the vent hole without blocking.   The hearing aid according to claim 1, wherein an outer periphery of the outer opening in the vent hole is formed to exceed 25 millimeters.   The hearing aid according to claim 1 or 2, wherein an outer periphery of a median side opening in the vent hole is formed to exceed 16 millimeters.   The hearing aid according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein a cross-sectional area of an outer side opening in the vent hole is formed to exceed 30 square millimeters.   The hearing aid according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein a cross-sectional area of a mid-side opening in the vent hole is formed to exceed 15 square millimeters.   The voice processing unit includes a mechanism that predicts occurrence of howling from input sound from a microphone, and controls the gain or phase of a frequency band that causes feedback in the input sound from the microphone when the occurrence is predicted. The hearing aid according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the hearing aid is provided.   2. The speech processing unit includes a mechanism that predicts howling from input sound from a microphone and controls output from a receiver that causes feedback when the occurrence is predicted. The hearing aid according to any one of claims 6 to 7. A method of manufacturing an ear hole type hearing aid to be used by attaching to the ear canal of a hearing aid user,
The hearing aid includes a shell that forms the outer shape of the hearing aid, a vent hole that communicates the outer side and the median side of the shell, a microphone provided on the outer side of the shell, and a median side of the shell. A receiver, and a voice processing unit and a battery built in the shell,
A mold making process of shaping the shape of the user's external auditory canal according to the hearing aid;
A setting position determining step for determining and arranging the microphone, the receiver, the sound processing unit, and the battery provided in the shell based on the mold making step;
A vent hole design process for designing the position and shape of the vent hole communicating with the outer side and the median side in the shell member, and the position of the bypass wall based on the position and shape of the vent hole determined by the vent hole design process. A method of manufacturing a hearing aid including a bypass wall design step of designing a position and a shape.   9. The hearing aid according to claim 8, wherein the outer side opening of the vent hole designed in the vent hole setting step is designed so that an outer periphery thereof exceeds 25 millimeters or a cross-sectional area exceeds 30 square millimeters. Production method.   10. The vent hole setting step in which the median side opening of the vent hole is designed so that its outer circumference exceeds 16 millimeters or its cross-sectional area exceeds 15 square millimeters. A method for manufacturing a hearing aid according to claim 1.

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