Hearing protection device with haptic feedback and method of operating a hearing protection device

Abstract

A hearing protection device (10, 10′, 10″) with at least one earmuff or earplug (12a, 12b, 12a′, 12b′, 12a″), optionally a headband (18, 18′, 18″) for supporting the earmuff or earplug (12a, 12b, 12a′, 12b′, 12a″) at the user's head, a control unit (42) and at least one haptic feedback element (44, 44a, 44b, 44c, 44d, 44a′, 44b′, 44c′, 44d′) comprising a skin-contacting element. The haptic feedback element (44, 44a, 44b, 44c, 44d, 44a′, 44b′, 44c′, 44d′) is configured and arranged to provide device-specific feed-back and ambience specific feedback to the user (100). The skin-12a contact element (46, 46a, 46b, 46c, 46d, 46a′, 46b′, 46c′, 46d′) is configured and arranged to transmit—in use—haptic signals to the user's skin Thus, the user (100) is provided with feedback not only about objects moving around the user (100), but also related to the hearing protection device (10, 10′, 10″) as such and conditions thereof. That is that such a hearing protection device (10, 10′, 10″) prevents or reduces the risk of a collision of the wearer with other persons or objects in an easy and reliable way and at the same time, the user (100) of the hearing protection device (10, 10′, 10″) is reliably and easily informed about conditions of the hearing protection device (10, 10′, 10″), e.g. battery warning, incoming calls or the like and/or conditions of the user (100). Also, the risk of missing relevant sounds is thereby compensated. Furthermore, a method of operating a hearing protection device (10, 10′, 10″) is provided, in which device-specific feedback and ambience-specific feedback to the user (100) of the hearing protection device (10, 10′, 10″) is provided.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.