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US 6,516,073 B1Granted
Self-powered medical device
AssigneeSiemens Audiologische Technik GmbH
InventorsHerve Schulz, Tom Weidner
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A self-powered medical device, which is operated independently of the public utility network, has at least one voltage source, a signal input for accepting an analog input signal and a signal processing unit. The sampling rate for the input signal or the clock frequency of at least one digital component can be varied. Therefore, the energy demand can be reduced according to the requirements of the signal processing or when the discharge state of the voltage source requires a reduction.
Claims4
A self-powered hearing aid, operable independently of a power supply network, comprising:
- a housing containing at least one voltage source;
- an acousto-electric transducer which receives an incoming audio signal and generates an analog input signal therefrom;
- an analog-to-digital converter for converting said analog input signal into a digital input signal, including sampling said analog input signal at a sampling rate;
- a digital signal processing unit for digitally processing said digital input signal to correct a hearing impairment by executing a hearing program including at least one signal processing procedure having a clock frequency associated therewith, to produce a digital output signal;
- a digital-to-analog converter for converting said digital output signal into an analog output signal, said digital-to-analog converter operating at said sampling rate;
- a signal analysis and evaluation unit for analyzing said digital input signal and for altering at least one of said sampling rate and said clock frequency dependent on said digital input signal to temporarily reduce at least one of said sampling rate and said clock frequency;
- and
- an electroacoustical transducer supplied with said analog output signal for generating an audio output signal therefrom.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.