DESC:
FORM 2
THE PATENTS ACT, 1970
(39 OF 1970)
&
The Patents Rules, 2003
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION
(See section 10; rule 13)

1. Title of the invention – A BONE CONDUCTION HEARING CARE DEVICE

2. Applicant(s)

(a) NAME :WEHEAR HEARING SOLUTIONS LLP
(b) NATIONALITY:INDIAN
(c) ADDRESS:G-4, Virat Apartment, Sataadahr Cross Road, Ghatlodia, Ahmedabad-380061, Gujarat

3. PREAMBLE TO THE DESCRIPTION

The following specification particularly describes the invention and the manner in which it is to be performed.

A BONE CONDUCTION HEARING CARE DEVICE

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention related to a bone conduction hearing care device. More particularly, it is a bone conduction headphone and a complete system having a personal hearing intelligence (PHI) that monitors the hearing pattern and estimates a current ear age and hearing loss age and gives user’s personalized suggestions to improve ear-health using artificial intelligence technique.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The hearing devices cause damage to ears the same way other loud noises do, resulting in what audiologists call “noise-induced hearing loss.” Over time the sounds from hearing devices cause the hair cells in the cochlea to bend down too much or too severely. If they don't get time to recover, the damage can be permanent.

When sound waves reach our ears, they cause the eardrum to vibrate. This vibration is transmitted to the inner ear through several small bones, where it reaches the cochlea. The cochlea is a fluid-filled chamber in your ear that contains many thousands of small “hairs.” When sound vibrations reach the cochlea, the fluid inside it vibrates and causes the hairs to move. Louder sounds. When you listen to sounds that are too loud for too long, these hair cells lose their sensitivity to vibration. Many loud noises cause the cells to bend or fold over. This is what causes the sensations of “temporary hearing loss” after you are exposed to loud noises. The hair cells take time to recover from extreme vibrations caused by a loud noise.

Two of the causes of hearing loss are lack of function in the cochlea and physical ear hearing loss due to issues in the physical ear. Examples of the first include age-related hearing loss and hearing loss due to noise exposure. A patient born without external ear canals is an example of the latter for which a conventional hearing aid with a mould in the ear canal opening would not be effective. Some with this condition have normal inner ear function, as the external ear canal and the inner ear are developed at different stages during pregnancy. Other types of hearing losses are conductive hearing loss, sensorineural hearing loss, mixed hearing loss.

The need for hearing care and devices or technologies for that is increasing day by day with the increase of the use of ear conduction headphones or devices as well as with the increase of noise pollution. Further, lack of knowledge or standards to instantly determine how healthy the hearing pattern is for an individual and what are the chances of hearing loss due to said hearing pattern have affected many around the world.

To overcome one such issue of conduction through the air, many inventions have been made that use bone conduction instead of air conduction to transmit sound within the air. One such invention is disclosed in patent bearing number US7664277B2 and having the title as “Bone conduction hearing aid devices and methods” that discloses an apparatus for transmitting vibrations via an electronic and/or transducer assembly through a tooth or teeth. It further teaches that the assembly may include a bracket that is adhered or affixed onto the tooth or teeth and an electronics and/or transducer assembly which may be removably coupled to the bracket. The electronic and/or transducer assembly may receive incoming sounds either directly or through a receiver to process and amplify the signals and transmit the processed sounds via a vibrating transducer element coupled to the bracket for transmission into the underlying tooth or other bone structure.

One another patent WO2009121111A1, which is a PCT application discloses a bone anchored hearing device, comprises: a sound input element configured to receive sound signals, and a transducer configured to generate vibrations representative of the sound signals received by the sound input device, wherein the sound input device and transducer are separated such that acoustic feedback is reduced in the acoustic sound perceived by the recipient.

Another prior art document US6643378B2 disclosed a bone conduction hearing aid includes a vibrator carried by the insertion end of the hearing aid. When the hearing aid is inserted into the ear canal of a patient, the vibrator is positioned in the ear canal adjacent the mastoid bone. A microphone receives sound waves and outputs a microphone signal to the hearing aid electronics where the microphone signal is amplified and then sent to the vibrator, causing the vibrator to vibrate. Vibrations produced by the vibrator are transferred to the opposite cochlea by way of the mastoid bone, enabling enhanced hearing perception in patients with hearing loss in one ear. Transfer of vibrations to the bones of the middle ear also assists patients with conductive pathology in one ear. The hearing aid may also function to enhance communication in high noise environments.

Another prior art document EP1250025A1 disclosed a neckband type headphone device there is provided a band onto which speaker units are connected to both ends thereof. These speaker units are worn on the left and right ears. The band has a shape wherein the area close to the connecting part between both speaker units forms a curve and passes above or below the ears of the listener when it is wound in a circular shape and extended. The band is formed from an elastic material into a shape that presses down at the approximate center on the rear of the head of the listen

Other than these, many other devices and systems were made but none of them discloses hearing care device and system that can use bone conduction technology to transmit the sound as well as monitor the hearing pattern of the user and calculate the future damages, ear age, and hearing loss age of the wearer from the hearing pattern of the user. Further, not any prior art technology discloses parallel streaming.

Therefore, there is a dire need for a hearing care system to have an Artificial intelligence system to monitor hearing patterns and determine if it is safe for the user or not. Further, there exists a need for a system that may calculate ear age and may estimate the hearing loss age of the user from the current hearing pattern. Also, there is a need for a hearing care device and system with parallel streaming where any streaming device may stream music or audio on more than one hearing care devices simultaneously. Moreover, there exists a need for a hearing care device that may work as a hearing aid for people having any kind of conduction hearing loss and as an audio guide having recorded messages in certain conditions.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION

The principle object of present invention is to overcome the drawbacks and limitations associated with prior technology by providing an improved bone conduction hearing care device and system of the same.

One object of present invention is to provide a bone conduction hearing device that works as a hearing aid to transmit sound through bone instead of air conduction.

One another object of present invention is to provide a bone conduction hearing device comprising of an in-built microphone that captures sound from the surrounding, picks audio in call, and collects hearing pattern and data for PHI of system.

Yet one object of present invention is to provide a system having a bone conduction hearing device and an artificially intelligent mobile application to monitor the hearing pattern of the user and estimate ear age, hearing loss age, etc. from it.

Yet one object of present invention is to provide a system having a personal hearing intelligence (PHI) within the mobile application that calculates daily hearing pattern of the user and estimates future damage in hearing and to determine how healthy said pattern is for the user.

Yet one object of present invention is to provide a bone conduction hearing system that monitors the time of use of the all-hearing device, average session length, average amplitude, and surrounding noise level to calculate hearing pattern.

Yet one object of present invention is to provide a bone conduction hearing device that also works in a hearing aid mode for the users having any kind of conductive hearing loss.

Yet one object of present invention is to provide a bone conduction hearing device having a parallel streaming feature that allows the connection of multiple hearing devices with any single streaming device for parallel streaming of music.

Yet one object of present invention is to provide a bone conduction hearing device capable of being used with TV and other media devices.

Yet one object of present invention is to provide a bone conduction hearing device that is capable of being used as an audio guide with pre-recorded messages.

Yet another object of present invention is to provide a bone conduction hearing device featuring an in-built translator that can translate in around 72 languages, an internal communication system, and the PTT radio with VOIP protocol.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further disclosed in the detailed description of the invention. This summary is not intended to identify key or essential inventive concepts of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended for determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.

The present invention is all about a bone conduction hearing care device that helps to reduce ear damage.

The main aspect of the present invention is to provide a bone conduction hearing device comprising a sound processing means as a bone conduction transducer which transmit sounds to inner ear; a contact pads which stays in touch with the cheekbone skin and transmit sounds; a vibration generating means convert the electromagnetic signal to acoustic vibration and for securing said vibration generating means subcutaneously to a cheek bone; a multipurpose button to control the operation on the device; an in-built microphone to capture the sound from the surrounding, to pick the audio during the call and also getting data for artificial intelligence; a control unit for the device which includes bluetooth circuit and audio controllers; a control buttons to operate the device for pairing with others and for volume controls; an USB charging port to charge the device battery using the USB cable; a titanium flex band for the fitting of the device and holding the bone conduction transducer; a protective rubber sleeve which is rubber grade sleeve to protect the titanium band and wires; a battery for supplying electrical power to the all-electronic embodiments; a holding mechanism for two main bone conduction transducer through the titanium band; an in-built offline translator having multiple languages support for user and user can download the multiple language for communication; and a PHI (Personal hearing intelligence) gives suggestion to users based on user’s hearing patterns for better ear health, can calculate current ear age and hearing loss age.

Another aspect of the present invention is to provide personal hearing intelligence (PHI) to the user to calculate their current ear age, hearing loss age to prevent the situation of deftness and provides a personalized hearing care suggestion from the recorded hearing pattern of the user.

One another aspect of the present invention is to provide dual connectivity to the end-user so that the user can connect to two or more devices at the same time for batter productivity.

One more aspect of the present invention is to provide artificial intelligence and data science to the end-user through the PHI so can users can understand and analyze the ear hearing pattern and it also provides a personalized hearing care dashboard.

Further aspect of the present invention is to provide a hearing aid device to the end-user so that the same device can be used as a hearing aid for people with conductive hearing loss and also can be connected to the TV and other devices.

Further aspect of the present invention is to provide inter-communication between more than one device with the help of mobile application and the PHI.

Furthermore, aspect of the present invention is to provide an in-built translator which can translate between 72 languages along with offline translation with audio and visual both.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

The foregoing summary, as well as the following detailed description of the invention, is better understood when read in conjunction with the appended drawings. For the purpose of illustrating the invention, exemplary constructions of the invention are shown in the drawings. However, the invention is not limited to the specific methods and structures disclosed herein. The description of a method step or a structure referenced by a numeral in a drawing is applicable to the description of that method step or structure shown by that same numeral in any subsequent drawing herein.

Fig. 1 is a Schematic presentation of the bone conduction hearing care device.

Fig. 2 illustrates an embodiment of a bone conduction hearing device of present system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF INVENTION

The present invention overcomes the aforesaid drawbacks of the above, and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will now be described in greater detail. Also, the following description includes various specific details and are to be regarded as merely exemplary. Accordingly, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that: without departing from the scope and spirit of the present disclosure and its various embodiments there may be any number of changes and modifications described herein.

It must also be noted that as used herein and in the appended claims, the singular forms "a", "an," and "the" include plural references unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Although any systems and methods similar or equivalent to those described herein can be used in the practice or testing of embodiments of the present invention, the preferred, systems and methods are now described.

The bone conduction is the conduction of sound to the inner ear (cochlea) through the bones of the skull. This is allowing the hearer to perceive audio content without blocking the ear canal. Bone conduction transmission occurs constantly as sound waves vibrate bone, specifically the bones in the skull, although it is hard for the average individual to distinguish sound being conveyed through the bone as opposed to the sound being conveyed through the air via the ear canal.

The bone conduction hearing system of the present invention is made of a bone conduction hearing device (100) to work as a conventional bone conduction headphone as well as to capture surrounding noise and to monitor the time of use of the device, average session length, and an average amplitude; and a smart firmware in the form of a mobile application and having an Artificial Intelligence [Personal Hearing Intelligence (PHI)] that calculates the daily hearing pattern of the user and determines how healthy said hearing pattern is for the user.

According to main embodiment, bone conduction hearing device (100) comprising a sound processing means as a bone conduction transducer (1) which transmit sounds to inner ear; a contact pads (2) which stays in touch with the cheekbone skin and transmit sounds; a vibration generating means convert the electromagnetic signal to acoustic vibration and for securing said vibration generating means subcutaneously to a cheek bone; a multipurpose button (3) to control the operation on the device; an in-built microphone (4) to capture the sound from the surrounding, to pick the audio during the call and also getting data for artificial intelligence; a control unit (5) for the device which includes bluetooth circuit and audio controllers; a control buttons (6) to operate the device for pairing with others and for volume controls; an USB charging port (7) to charge the device battery (10) using the USB cable; a titanium flex band (8) for the fitting of the device and holding the bone conduction transducer (1); a protective rubber sleeve (9) which is rubber grade sleeve to protect the titanium band (8) and wires; a battery (10) for supplying electrical power to the all electronic embodiments; a holding mechanism for two main bone conduction transducer (1) through the titanium band (8); an in-built offline translator having multiple languages support for user and user can download the multiple language for communication; and a PHI (Personal hearing intelligence) gives suggestion to users based on user’s hearing patterns for better ear health, can calculate current ear age and hearing loss age.

According to one embodiment, the bone conduction hearing device (100) in which the bone conduction transducers (1) transmit the voice through the ear bones instead of conduction through the air causing less damage to the ears of the user.

According to one embodiment, the bone conduction hearing device (100) of the present invention in which the bone conduction transducer (1) responds to 30 Hz to 20 kHz.

According to one embodiment, the PHI of the hearing system further calculates information such as the current ear age and an estimated hearing loss age.

According to one embodiment, the bone conduction hearing device (100) of a system comprises of bone conduction transducers (1) that transmit the voice through the ear bones instead of conduction through the air causing less damage to the ears of the user. An in-built microphone (4) is configured within the hearing device to capture the sound from the surrounding environment, to pick audio in calls, and to get data for the PHI of the system.

According to one embodiment, the bone conduction hearing system of the present invention allows parallel streaming such as a single streaming device like mobile or laptop or any other device may stream the music or sound to more than one bone conduction hearing devices simultaneously by making a network of bone conduction hearing devices where one of the bone conduction hearing devices works as a master and connects to the streaming device while the other bone conduction hearing devices behaves as slaves and connects to the master to receive the music or sound simultaneously. According to one embodiment, the bone conduction hearing device of the system further allows it to be used as a hearing aid for the users having any kind of conductive hearing loss or to be used as an audio guide with pre-recorded messages or information in any historical places or museums, etc.

Fig. 1, illustrates an embodiment of a bone conduction hearing care device (100) of the present system. According to it, titanium flex band (8) comprising bone conduction transducers (1) covered by skin comfort contact pads (2) mechanically connected with the multipurpose buttons (3), in-built microphone (4). The Bluetooth circuit and audio controller are embedded in the main circuit (5). The Bluetooth device helps to form a network through which more than two devices can parallelly stream the same media. The embodiments are powered through the battery (10). The battery (10) is being charged through the USB charging port (7).

Now, Fig. 2 illustrates an embodiment of a bone conduction hearing care device of the present system. According to the present embodiment, the bone conduction hearing device is comprising of a bone conduction transducers (1) that connects to the cheekbone of the user to transmits the sound in form of vibration to the inner ears of the user; a skin comfort contact pads (2) mounted over the bone conduction transducer to stay in touch with the cheekbone skin to give comfort to the wearer; a multipurpose button (3) that allows user to control operations of the user; an in-built microphone (4) that is configured to capture surrounding sound, audio in calls, etc. and transmit to the bone conduction transducers (1); a control unit (5) having a microcontroller, a storage means, a communication module and an audio controller that controls functioning of the device; and a control buttons (6) that are configured to allow the user to operate the device for pairing with other devices and for volume control.

According to the present embodiment, the bone conduction hearing device of the present invention is further comprising of a USB charging port (7); a titanium flex band (8) for the fitting of the device over the head of the user; a protective rubber sleeve (9) that is configured to protect the titanium flex band (8) and wires; a rechargeable battery (10) to provide power to the device; a holding mechanism (11) and a fitting mechanism (12).

The communication module of bone conduction hearing devices of the present system allows parallel streaming which is the feature that allows a single streaming device such as mobile or laptop or TV, etc. to connect with two or more bone conduction hearing devices and stream the sound or music simultaneously in all the connected hearing devices. According to the present embodiment, in such parallel streaming network, one of the hearing devices behaves as a master and connects to the streaming device and other hearing devices behaves as a slave and connects with the master device that receives sound from the streaming device and transmits it to all the connected slave devices parallelly.

As per one embodiment, it provides how the bone conduction hearing care device with personal hearing intelligence (PHI) of the present invention works. According to the present invention, the inbuilt microphone (4) of the hearing device captures data of surrounding noise each minute, minutes used with and without bone conduction device, session time, average audio amplitude, which device user used and stores it into the storage means as a hearing pattern of a user such as minutes used, average session time and an average amplitude. The hearing device saves the data along with the date and refreshes the information daily. According to one embodiment, the hearing device of the present invention further transmits the data to the mobile application of system through a communication module such as Bluetooth.

The mobile application of the system further collects monitored data from all devices. The PHI of the mobile application gathers all the data on daily basis and calculates the daily PHI using the intelligence system, saves the data in the local storage of a hearing device and in servers for further analysis and over a cloud for future use as shown in Fig. 3. It also compares the user data with worldwide users for global ranking. From the 7 days cumulative PHI data, the system of mobile application determines current ear age and an estimated hearing loss age. According to one embodiment, the PHI system of the present invention further provides a hearing care suggestion from the recorded hearing pattern of the user. It also compares the user hearing pattern with other users globally and based on that provides personalized suggestions also.

Without further description, it is believed that one of ordinary skill in the art can, using the preceding description and the illustrative examples, make and utilize the present invention and practice the claimed methods. It should be understood that the foregoing discussion and examples merely present a detailed description of certain preferred embodiments. It will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that various modifications and equivalents can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

Reference Numerals:
100- Bone Conduction Hearing Device
1 – Bone Conduction Transducers
2 – Contact Pads
3 – Multipurpose Button
4 – In-built Microphone
5 – Control Unit
6 – Control Buttons
7 – USB charging port
8 – Titanium flex band
9 – Protective rubber sleeve
10 – Battery
11 – Holding mechanism
12 – Fitting mechanism
,CLAIMS:Claims

We claim:-
1) A bone conduction hearing device (100) comprising:

a sound processing means as a bone conduction transducer (1) which transmit sounds to the inner ear;

a contact pads (2) which stay in touch with the cheekbone skin and transmit sounds;

a vibration generating means converts the electromagnetic signal to acoustic vibration and for securing said vibration generating means subcutaneously to a cheekbone;

a multipurpose button (3) to control the operation of the device;

an in-built microphone (4) to capture the sound from the surrounding, to pick the audio during the call, and also getting data for artificial intelligence;

a control unit (5) for the device which includes bluetooth circuit and audio controllers;

a control buttons (6) to operate the device for pairing with others and for volume controls;

an USB charging port (7) to charge the device battery (10) using the USB cable;

a titanium flex band (8) for the fitting of the device and holding the bone conduction transducer (1);

a protective rubber sleeve (9) which is rubber grade sleeve to protect the titanium band (8) and wires;

a battery (10) for supplying electrical power to all-electronic embodiments;

a holding mechanism for two main bone conduction transducer (1) through the titanium band (8);

an in-built offline translator having multiple languages support for user and user can download the multiple languages for communication; and

a PHI (Personal hearing intelligence) gives suggestions to users based on user’s hearing patterns for better ear health, can calculate current ear age and hearing loss age.

2) The bone conduction hearing device (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the bone conduction transducers (1) transmit the voice through the cheekbones instead of conduction through the air causing less damage to the ears of the user.

3) The bone conduction hearing device (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the bone conduction transducer (1) responds to 30 Hz to 20 kHz.

4) The bone conduction hearing device (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein communication module of bone conduction hearing devices (100) allows parallel streaming which is the feature that allows a single streaming device such as mobile or laptop or TV to connect with two or more bone conduction hearing devices and stream the sound or music simultaneously in all the connected hearing devices.

5) The bone conduction hearing device (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein in such parallel streaming network, one of the hearing device (100) act as a master and connects to the streaming device and other hearing devices act as a slave and connects with the master device that receives sound from the streaming device and transmits it to all the connected slave devices parallelly.

6) The bone conduction hearing device (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein in-built microphone (4) is configured within the hearing device to capture the sound from the surrounding environment, to pick audio in calls, and to get data for PHI of the system.

7) The bone conduction hearing device (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the inbuilt microphone (4) of the hearing device captures data of surrounding noise each minute and stores it into the storage means as a hearing pattern of a user such as minutes used, average session time and an average amplitude.

8) The bone conduction hearing device (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein said hearing device (100) saves the data along with the date and refreshes the information daily.

9) The bone conduction hearing device (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein said hearing device (100) further transmits the data to the mobile application of the system through a communication module such as Bluetooth.

10) The bone conduction hearing device (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the device (100) exploiting with Personal Hearing Intelligence as follows:

a. capturing data of surrounding noise each minute through an in-built microphone (4);
b. sending the data into the memory unit of a device where hearing patterns stores daily;
c. transferring the same data to the application via Bluetooth;
d. calculating daily PHI which based on 7 days data;
e. storing daily PHI on a cloud at midnight;
f. calculating ear age and hearing loss age based on final PHI and previous PHI;
g. giving personalized PHI suggestions to the user for better hearing and also compare the data with global users.
Date this 20th January of 2021