TWI654885B - Hearing aid communication system and hearing aid communication method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

A hearing aid communication system and a method of hearing aid communication therefor. The method of hearing aid communication includes the steps of: determining whether the sound providing device provides sound; establishing a connection with the hearing aid when the sound providing device has sound; receiving sound from the sound providing device for transmission to the hearing aid; and when the sound providing device stops providing sound When it is disconnected from the hearing aid.

Description

Hearing aid communication system and method for hearing aid communication therefor

The invention relates to a hearing aid communication system and a method for the communication thereof, in particular to a hearing aid communication system capable of automatically connecting or disconnecting a line and a method for communicating the same.

With the advancement of technology, modern society has also increased the number of aids for the disabled, such as hearing aids for the hearing impaired. At the same time, the prior art has also developed a hearing aid that uses the Bluetooth communication protocol to enhance the transmission of audio signals, so that the hearing impaired can more directly hear the sound of a mobile phone or a television device. However, today's hearing aids for hearing-impaired people are connected to the sound-providing device and remain connected. Even if the sound-providing device does not produce sound, the hearing aid will continue to be connected to the sound-providing device. As a result, the hearing aid is still playing the sound from the sound providing device, that is, there is no sound, which is inconvenient for the hearing impaired.

Therefore, it is necessary to invent a new hearing aid communication system and its hearing aid communication method to solve the lack of prior art.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A primary object of the present invention is to provide a hearing aid communication system having the effect of automatically maintaining a connection or disconnecting a connection.

Another primary object of the present invention is to provide a method of hearing aid communication for the above system.

To achieve the above object, the hearing aid communication system of the present invention is used to enable the hearing aid to receive the sound signal of the sound providing device, and the sound providing device has a digital signal transmission port. The hearing aid communication system includes a digital signal receiving port, a wireless transmission module, a decoding module and a processing module. The digital signal receiving system is configured to electrically connect the digital signal transmitting device of the sound providing device to receive sound from the sound providing device. The wireless transmission module can be connected to the hearing aid via a wireless communication path. The processing module is electrically connected to the digital signal receiving device and the wireless transmission module for determining whether the sound providing device provides sound; wherein when the sound providing device provides sound, the processing module controls the wireless transmission module to establish and the hearing aid The connection module controls the connection between the wireless transmission module and the hearing aid when the processing module determines that the sound providing device stops providing sound.

The method for communication of the hearing aid of the present invention comprises the steps of: determining whether the sound providing device provides a digital sound signal; establishing a connection with the hearing aid when the sound providing device has sound; receiving sound from the sound providing device for transmission to the hearing aid; and when the sound When the providing device stops providing sound, the connection to the hearing aid is cut off.

In order to enable the reviewing committee to better understand the technical contents of the present invention, the preferred embodiments are described below.

Please refer to FIG. 1 for a schematic diagram of the architecture of the hearing aid communication system of the present invention.

The hearing aid communication system 1 of the present invention is used to connect the sound providing device 3, and allows the hearing aid 2 to receive the sound signal of the sound providing device 3. The hearing aid 2 can receive the external sound and then amplify and filter it to the hearing impaired person. Since the function of the hearing aid 2 is not the focus of the present invention, the principle is not described herein. The sound providing device 3 may be a television set, a video player, or the like, but the present invention is not limited thereto. The sound providing device 3 has a digital signal transmission port 3a capable of transmitting an audio signal to other external devices such as an audio device by means of a digital signal.

The hearing aid communication system 1 includes a digital signal receiving unit 11, a wireless transmission module 12, a decoding module 13, and a processing module 14. The digital signal receiving port 11 is electrically connected to the corresponding digital signal transmitting port 3a of the sound providing device 3 to receive a sound from the sound providing device 3. The sound is a signal transmitted in digital form. When the sound providing device 3 is in normal operation, the digital sound signal is continuously sent through the digital signal transmission 埠3a. The digital signal receiving port 11 and the digital signal transmitting port 3a on the sound providing device 3 can be an S/PDIF (Sony/Philips Digital Interface Format) port. The present invention can be automatically set or disconnected with the sound providing device 3. The connection is opened, and the optimum output volume of the sound supply device 3 is not required to be set, and the sound quality may be better. However, the present invention is not limited to the connection port which can be applied only to the S/PDIF specification. The wireless transmission module 12 has a wireless communication function to connect to the hearing aid 2 via a wireless communication path, and the hearing aid 2 has the same wireless communication function. In an embodiment of the present invention, the wireless communication path may be a Bluetooth communication protocol, but the present invention is not limited to such a wireless communication method.

The decoding module 13 can be a decoding chip electrically connected to the digital signal transmission port 11 for decoding the encoded, encrypted or compressed digital audio signal into a general uncompressed digital audio signal format. Since the decoding technology is not the focus of the present invention, the principle will not be described here, and the digital signal receiving unit 11 may directly receive the uncompressed digital audio signal format, so the audio signal of the present case can be processed without the decoding module 13. . The processing module 14 is electrically connected to the digital signal receiving port 11 and the wireless transmission module 12 for determining whether the sound providing device 3 provides the sound. When the sound providing device 3 provides the sound, the processing module 14 controls the wireless transmission module 12 to establish a connection with the hearing aid, so as to transmit the decoded sound signal to the hearing aid 2, so the hearing aid 2 can The sound providing device 3 establishes a connection with the sound providing device 3 while providing sound. At the same time, in the case that the sound providing device 3 continues to provide the sound, the processing module 14 controls the wireless transmission module 12 to continuously maintain the connection with the hearing aid 2. In addition, when the processing module 14 determines that the sound providing device 3 stops providing sound, the processing module 14 controls the wireless transmission module 12 to disconnect the hearing aid 2.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the processing module 14 determines that the sound providing device 3 does not provide sound. The sound providing device 3 may provide silence. Therefore, when the sound providing device 3 provides mute and a certain time, for example, 3 seconds or 10 seconds, the processing module 14 controls the wireless transmission module 12 to disconnect the hearing aid 2. In addition, in another embodiment of the present invention, the condition that the processing module 14 determines that the sound providing device 3 does not provide a sound represents that the digital sound signal cannot be received from the sound providing device 3. Since the analog signal cannot distinguish between the silent segment and the source of the sound, there is no signal at all. However, the digital signal usually has a signal mark at the beginning and the end, or a packet mark. The digital signal is usually encrypted or compressed, so even the silent segment still has a signal. And some digital signal transmissions have a clock reference, and when there is no signal, there is no clock reference signal. In this way, it can be judged by the digital sound signal whether the sound providing device 3 is still operating. Regardless of whether the sound providing device 3 provides a sound digital sound signal or a short silent (silent) digital sound signal, the hearing aid 2 will remain connected and will not provide a short silent (silent) signal as a sound. The device 3 has stopped operating and the connection is easily cut off. When the sound providing device 3 does not provide a digital sound signal, the processing module 14 controls the wireless transmission module 12 to disconnect the hearing aid 2 from the wireless transmission module 12. It should be noted that the processing module 14 can simultaneously consider the above two embodiments. That is, when the sound providing device 3 does not provide a digital sound signal, or the processing module 14 confirms that the sound providing device 3 provides mute and after a certain period of time, the processing module 14 controls the wireless transmission module 12 to disconnect the hearing aid 2 .

It should be noted that the modules of the hearing aid communication system 1 can be configured by a hardware device, a software program combined with a hardware device, a firmware combined with a hardware device, and the like, for example, can be stored in a computer readable medium. The application product in the product, but the invention is not limited to the above. In addition, the present embodiment is merely illustrative of preferred embodiments of the present invention, and in order to avoid redundancy, all possible combinations of variations are not described in detail. However, those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the various modules or components described above are not necessarily required. In order to implement the invention, other well-known modules or elements of more detail may also be included. Each module or component may be omitted or modified as needed, and no other modules or components may exist between any two modules.

Next, please refer to FIG. 2, which is a flow chart of the steps of the method for hearing aid communication of the present invention. It should be noted that although the above hearing aid communication system is taken as an example to illustrate the method of hearing aid communication of the present invention, the method for hearing aid communication of the present invention is not limited to the use of the hearing aid communication system of the same structure described above.

First, step 201 is performed: determining whether a sound is received from the sound providing device.

First, the digital signal receiving unit 11 is electrically connected to the corresponding digital signal transmitting unit 3a on the sound providing device 3, and the processing module 14 determines whether a sound is received from the sound providing device 3.

If the sound providing device 3 provides sound, then step 202 is performed to establish a connection with the hearing aid.

Then, when the sound providing device 3 provides the sound, the processing module 14 controls the wireless transmission module 12 to establish a connection with the hearing aid 2. Thereby, the hearing aid 2 can pair or establish a connection with the wireless transmission module 12 to transmit signals by, for example, a Bluetooth communication protocol.

Step 203 is further performed: the signal is sent to the hearing aid.

Then, the decoding module 13 can decode the encoded, encrypted or compressed voice received by the digital signal receiving unit 11 into a general uncompressed digital audio signal format, and the processing module 14 uses the wireless transmission module for the audio signal. 12 is transmitted to the hearing aid 2. Therefore, the hearing aid 2 can establish a connection with the sound providing device 3 while the sound providing device 3 provides sound. In an embodiment of the present invention, when the sound providing device 3 continues to provide the sound, the processing module 14 controls the wireless transmission module 12 to continuously maintain the connection with the hearing aid 2, and does not Feel free to disconnect.

Next, proceed to step 204: determine whether the sound providing device stops providing a sound.

Then, the processing module 14 determines whether the sound providing device 3 stops providing sound, and the manner of determining may be that the sound providing device 3 provides mute and passes a certain time, or determines that the digital sound signal cannot be received from the sound providing device 3 The representative sound providing device 3 does not provide sound.

Finally, if the processing module 14 determines in step 204 that the sound providing device 3 stops providing sound, step 205 is performed to disconnect the hearing aid 2.

When the processing module 14 determines that the digital audio signal cannot be received from the sound providing device 3 or the sound providing device 3 provides mute and passes a certain time, the processing module 14 controls the wireless transmission module 12 and the hearing aid 2 Cut the connection. Finally, after step 205, it is possible to return to step 201 to cause the processing module 14 to determine again whether the sound providing device 3 provides a digital sound signal.

It should be noted here that the method of communication of the hearing aid of the present invention is not limited to the above-described sequence of steps, and the order of steps described above may be changed as long as the object of the present invention can be achieved.

In this way, the hearing impaired person can easily hear the sound of the sound providing device 3, and the hearing aid 2 can be kept connected, and the silent (silent) signal is not arbitrarily regarded as the sound providing device 3 has stopped. It is easy to cut off the connection by operation.

It is to be noted that the above-described embodiments are merely illustrative of the preferred embodiments of the present invention, and all possible combinations of variations are not described in detail to avoid redundancy. However, those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the various modules or components described above are not necessarily required. In order to implement the invention, other well-known modules or elements of more detail may also be included. Each module or component may be omitted or modified as needed, and no other modules or components may exist between any two modules. As long as they do not deviate from the basic structure of the present invention, they should be the scope of rights claimed in this patent, and the scope of patent application shall prevail.

1‧‧‧Hearing aid communication system

2‧‧‧Hearing aids

3‧‧‧Sound supply device

3a‧‧‧Digital signal transmission埠

11‧‧‧Digital signal reception埠

12‧‧‧Wireless Transmission Module

13‧‧‧Decoding module

14‧‧‧Processing module

1 is a schematic structural view of a hearing aid communication system of the present invention. 2 is a flow chart showing the steps of the method for communicating hearing aids of the present invention.

Claims (11)

A hearing aid communication system for enabling a hearing aid to receive an audio signal from a sound providing device, the sound providing device having a digital signal transmitting device, the hearing aid communication system comprising: a digital signal receiving port for electrically connecting The digital signal transmitting device of the sound providing device can receive a sound from the sound providing device; a decoding module is electrically connected to the digital signal receiving port for decoding the sound into an uncompressed digital sound signal a wireless transmission module that is connected to the hearing aid via a wireless communication path; and a processing module electrically connected to the digital signal receiving device and the wireless transmission module for determining the sound Providing the device whether the sound is provided; wherein when the sound providing device provides the sound, the processing module controls the wireless transmission module to establish a connection with the hearing aid; and when the processing module determines that the sound providing device stops providing In the case of the sound, the processing module controls the wireless transmission module to cut off the connection with the hearing aid. The hearing aid communication system of claim 1, wherein the sound providing device stops providing the sound so that the digital sound signal cannot be received from the sound providing device, and the processing module controls the wireless transmission module Cut off the connection with the hearing aid. The hearing aid communication system according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the sound providing device stops providing the sound system to provide a mute to the sound providing device for a specific time, and the processing module controls the wireless device The transmission module disconnects the hearing aid. The hearing aid communication system of claim 1, wherein the processing module controls the wireless transmission module to continuously maintain a connection with the hearing aid when the sound providing device continuously supplies the sound. The hearing aid communication system of claim 1, wherein the wireless transmission module is connected to the hearing aid by a Bluetooth communication protocol. The hearing aid communication system of claim 1, wherein the digital signal transmission port and the digital signal receiving system are an S/PDIF port. A method for communication of a hearing aid for enabling a hearing aid to receive an audio signal from a sound providing device, the method comprising the steps of: determining whether the sound providing device provides a sound; and when the sound providing device has the sound, establishing Connecting the hearing aid; receiving the sound from the sound providing device for transmission to the hearing aid; decoding the sound into an uncompressed digital sound signal format; When the sound providing device stops providing the sound, the connection with the hearing aid is cut off. The method of claim 14, wherein the step of the sound providing device to stop providing the sound further comprises: determining that the digital sound signal cannot be received from the sound providing device; and thereby controlling the wireless transmission mode The group cuts off the connection with the hearing aid. The method of hearing aid communication as described in claim 7 or 8, wherein the step of the sound providing means to stop providing the sound further comprises: determining that the sound providing means provides a mute and a certain time; and thereby controlling the The wireless transmission module disconnects the hearing aid. The method of hearing aid communication as described in claim 7, wherein when the sound providing device continues to provide the sound, the step of continuously maintaining the connection with the hearing aid is further included. The method of hearing aid communication as described in claim 7 further includes the step of connecting to the hearing aid by a Bluetooth protocol.