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AssigneeSiemens Hearing Instruments, Inc.
InventorsArtem Boltyenkov, Fred McBagonluri, Andreas Reh, Anthony Strano
Estimating the term…
A computerized method is provided for designing a vent in a hearing aid housing shell based on an image of a patient's ear canal impression, and wherein a program is provided on a computer-readable medium. With the program, an image of a starter housing shell based on the image of the patient's ear canal impression is created which is longer than a final version of the housing shell to be created. A starter vent running from an inner canal end near the patient's ear drum to an outer end of the starter housing shell is placed inside the shell. Components are then placed substantially as deep as possible inside the starter shell but lying outside of the starter vent. Portions of the starter shell lying beyond where a faceplate is to be mounted are removed and the faceplate is mounted. The starter vent is then grown larger so that it fills substantially all space inside the shell without interfering with the components.
A method for designing a hearing instrument shell for a hearing instrument for insertion into an ear canal of a user, the hearing instrument further comprising a faceplate and hearing instrument components positioned within the shell, comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.
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Electric hearing aids: adapted to be supported entirely by ear
Prevention of acoustic reaction, i.e. acoustic oscillatory feedback: electronically
Housing parts, e.g. shells, tips or moulds, or their manufacture: ear tips; Ear moulds
Housing parts, e.g. shells, tips or moulds, or their manufacture: manufacture of housing parts
About 5 years 9 months of term left · ends 8 Aug 2032 (estimated)
A vent (also referenced to herein as a “venting channel”) is an important part of a hearing aid. A vent is required to provide air circulation and minimize occlusion. If a vent is not provided, a user will likely have an uneasy feeling caused by an unequal pressure differential present in a space between the users ear drum and an inner ear canal end of the hearing aid housing compared to the atmospheric pressure external to the hearing aid housing outwardly of the ear. Users have described this uneasy feeling as an unnatural pressure differential. Users have also complained of what has been described as an unnatural hollow sound when the hearing aid is used if no vent is provided. Furthermore, care must be given in choosing the size of the vent since if the vent is too large, undesirable acoustic feedback may occur. When marketing experts in the hearing aid industry are asked which shell they would consider ideal, many of them will indicate a shell as small as possible, but with a vent as big as possible. The term “shell” used herein means an outermost wall of the hearing aid housing.
A “collection vent” is a known prior art vent in hearing aids which starts as a regular round vent at a faceplate outer side of the hearing aid (also called a “starter vent” hereafter) and continues some distance as a round vent and then increases in diameter gradually until some size specified by a designer and which terminates at the canal side of the hearing aid near the ear drum.
It is an object to provide an automated software design method for a hearing aid which designs a vent-as-large-as-possible, and which takes as much space as possible in a housing shell of the hearing aid.
FIG. 1 is a flow chart of software in the computer for automatic creation of an optimized venting channel (vent) in a hearing aid instrument;
FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the hearing aid showing an outer housing shell and an outer end of a vent-as-large-as-possible running through the hearing aid;
FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken along line III-III in FIG. 2 showing a side profile of the hearing aid housing shell of FIG. 2;
For the purposes of promoting an understanding of the principles of the invention, reference will now be made to the preferred embodiment illustrated in the drawings and specific language will be used to describe the same. It will nevertheless be understood that no limitation of the scope of the invention is thereby intended, and such alterations and further modifications in the illustrated device and such further applications of the principles of the invention as illustrated as would normally occur to one skilled in the art to which the invention relates are included.
When the term “venting channel” or “vent” is used hereafter, it means a structure inside the shell that permits air flow between the inner ear canal near the ear drum and the outside atmosphere where the user is located.
When the acronym CIC is used hereafter, it means completely-in-the-canal.