Tonal deafness compensation in an auditory prosthesis system
AssigneeCochlear Limited
InventorFlorent Maxime Hubert-Brierre
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Embodiments presented herein are generally directed to techniques for compensating for tonal deafness experienced by a recipient of an auditory prosthesis. More specifically, an auditory prosthesis system includes an external device configured to generate a graphical representation that enables the recipient to compensate for reduced tonal perception associated with delivery of the stimulation signals representative of speech signals. The external device is configured to analyze received speech signals to determine vocal articulator movement of the speaker of the speech signals and/or emotion of the speaker. The external device is further configured to display one or more animated visual cues representative of the detected vocal articulator movement and/or emotion.
Claims20
An auditory prosthesis system, comprising:
- an implantable auditory prostheses configured to deliver stimulation signals to a recipient;
- and
- an external device comprising:
- an interface configured to communicate with the implantable auditory prostheses;
- a display screen, and
- at least one processor configured to:
- provide received speech signals to the implantable auditory prostheses for use in delivering stimulation signals representative of the received speech signals to the recipient,
- display, at the display screen, a graphical representation comprising a humanoid avatar that includes at least head, neck, and shoulder features, wherein the humanoid avatar is configured to enable the recipient to compensate for reduced tonal perception associated with delivery to the recipient of the stimulation signals representative of the received speech signals,
- analyze the received speech signals to detect an emotion of a speaker of the received speech signals, and
- animate one or more features of the avatar based on the received speech signals to convey the emotion to the recipient.
A method performed at a system that includes an implantable auditory prosthesis and an external device, comprising:
- receiving speech signals forming part of a voice call;
- analyzing, at the external device, the received speech signals;
- sending the speech signals to the implantable auditory prosthesis for use in generating stimulation signals representative of the received speech signals, wherein delivery of the stimulation signals to the recipient results in reduced tonal perception of the received speech signals;
- displaying, at the external device, a graphical representation comprising a humanoid avatar that includes at least a head with a mouth region, wherein the humanoid avatar enables the recipient of the implantable auditory prosthesis to compensate for the reduced tonal perception associated with delivery of stimulation signals representative of the speech signals;
- performing speech to lip movement synthesis of the received speech signals;
- and
- animating the mouth region of the avatar based on the received speech signals so as to emulate vocal articulator movements of a speaker of the received speech signals.
A method, comprising:
- determining a degree of tonal deafness of a recipient of an implantable auditory prosthesis, wherein the implantable auditory prosthesis is configured to operate with an external device configured to display a graphical representation that enables the recipient to compensate for tonal deafness associated with delivery of stimulation signals to the recipient;
- and
- based on the degree of the tonal deafness of the recipient, setting a predetermined display mode for the graphical representation in which the external device displays a humanoid avatar that includes at least a head that includes a mouth region;
- and
- animating the mouth region of the avatar based on the received speech signals so as to emulate vocal articulator movements of a speaker of the received speech signals.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.