Hearing aid with sound replay capability
OwnerTrevor I. Blumenauinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A hearing aid includes a sound replay capability. The hearing aid can operate in a normal mode, augmenting sound as the sound occurs, or the hearing aid can operate in a replay mode (typically in response to input from the wearer of the hearing aid), replaying sound beginning up to a specified duration of time prior to the current time.
Claims30
A hearing aid comprising sound reproduction apparatus adapted to be mounted on a wearer on, in, or proximate to an ear of the wearer, the sound reproduction apparatus comprising:
- sound data acquisition apparatus adapted to acquire current sound data;
- sound production apparatus adapted to produce sound in accordance with sound data acquired by the sound data acquisition apparatus;
- and
- sound replay apparatus, the sound replay apparatus comprising:
- a sound data accumulation device for accumulating replay sound data representing sound occurring during a replay time;
- and
- a sound data selection device for selecting either the current sound data or the replay sound data to be transmitted to the sound production apparatus for use in producing sound.
A hearing aid that can acquire current sound data, produce sound in accordance with sound data, accumulate replay sound data representing sound occurring during a replay time, and select either the current sound data or the replay sound data to be used in producing sound.
A method for aiding hearing, comprising the steps of:
- acquiring current sound data;
- producing sound in accordance with sound data;
- accumulating replay sound data representing sound occurring during a replay time;
- and
- selecting either the current sound data or the replay sound data to be used in producing sound.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.