Patents by Inventor Daniel LUCAS-HIRTZ

Daniel LUCAS-HIRTZ has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20200213777
    Abstract: The disclosed technology generally relates to operation modes for hearing devices. In some implementations, the disclosed technology includes a hearing device entering into and operating in airplane mode or a mode of operation that limits communication with a select frequency or select group of frequencies. To enter a mode of operation, a user can use two inputs for the hearing device. For example, one input is a battery closing and another input is the device pushing of a button on the device (e.g., on the hearing device or a mobile device in communication with the hearing device).
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 10, 2017
    Publication date: July 2, 2020
    Inventors: Jonas Högberg, Michael von Tessin, ivo Spieler, Daniel Lucas-Hirtz, Jan Mattmüller
  • Publication number: 20200196070
    Abstract: A binaural hearing system includes first and second hearing devices communicatively coupled by way of a binaural communication link. The first hearing device determines that a signal quality measure of a wireless signal transmitted by the remote audio source is greater than an upper threshold level. In response, both hearing devices enter a wireless audio rendering mode in which they render a remote audio stream from the remote audio source to a user. While operating in the wireless audio rendering mode, both hearing devices determine that a signal quality measure of the remote audio stream drops below a lower threshold level. In response to this determination, both hearing devices exit the wireless audio rendering mode.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 6, 2019
    Publication date: June 18, 2020
    Inventors: Georg Dickman, Daniel Lucas-Hirtz, Doris Zahnd
  • Publication number: 20200162883
    Abstract: There is provided a method of wirelessly connecting a communication device to other devices using a communication protocol, wherein the communication device searches for external devices known to the communication device by executing a search activity in which the search effort to be spent by the communication device increases with the number of known external devices to be searched, wherein the communication device adjusts the search effort spent on the search activity for each one of the external devices according to the relevance of that external device, with a higher relevance of the external device resulting in a higher search effort, and wherein the search effort is determined by at least one of the following parameters of the search activity: scheduling frequency, duty cycle and transmission power.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 11, 2017
    Publication date: May 21, 2020
    Inventors: Georg Dickmann, Daniel Lucas-Hirtz
  • Publication number: 20200053491
    Abstract: There is provided a hearing device to be worn by a user for stimulating the user's hearing, comprising an interface (20) for wireless communication with external devices (11, 40, 42, 44, 46, 48, 50, 54, 56), and a pairing control unit (38) for controlling pairing of the hearing device with external devices. The pairing control unit is configured to maintain a plurality of pairing tables (P1, P2), wherein each pairing table is configured to persistently store a limited number of pairing information entries for external devices paired with hearing device, and wherein, once the maximum number of external devices has been reached, one of the existing entries is overwritten when a new pairing information entry is to be stored in the paring table.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 20, 2016
    Publication date: February 13, 2020
    Inventors: Georg Dickmann, Daniel Lucas-Hirtz
  • Publication number: 20190335281
    Abstract: There is provided a method of controlling access of a client to a service of a hearing instrument, the method comprising the steps of: requesting access of the client to the service of the hearing instrument by providing a client authenticator to the hearing instrument; authenticating the client based on a validation of the provided client authenticator by the hearing instrument; upon successful authentication, comparing a security level associated with the service requested by the client with a highest security level assigned to the client by the hearing instrument, wherein the security level is selected from a plurality of hierarchically structured security levels, and granting access of the client to the service of the hearing instrument, if the requested security level is below or equal to the highest security level assigned to the client.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 16, 2016
    Publication date: October 31, 2019
    Inventors: Georg Dickmann, Daniel Lucas-Hirtz, Michael von Tessin, Alexander Maksyagin
  • Patent number: 10455333
    Abstract: There is provided a personal device to be worn at the body of a user (15), comprising an interface (20) for wireless data exchange with an external device (11, 39, 50); at least one sensor (28, 42, 44, 46) for sensing a parameter indicative of the proximity of the personal device (10) to the user; a loss detection unit (40) for determining, by regularly analyzing signals received from the sensor, whether the personal device is presently worn by the user or not; a control unit (38) for controlling operation of the personal device in a regular mode as long as the loss detection unit determines that the personal device is worn by the user and in a loss mode as long as the loss detection unit determines that the personal device is no longer worn by the user, wherein the wireless interface is directed to transmit in the regular mode a non-traceable device address and to transmit in the loss mode a traceable public device address.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 14, 2016
    Date of Patent: October 22, 2019
    Assignee: Sonova AG
    Inventors: Georg Dickmann, Daniel Lucas-Hirtz
  • Publication number: 20190230451
    Abstract: There is provided a hearing device (10) comprising a BTLE 4.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 12, 2016
    Publication date: July 25, 2019
    Inventors: Georg Dickmann, Daniel Lucas-Hirtz
  • Publication number: 20190082274
    Abstract: There is provided a personal device to be worn at the body of a user (15), comprising an interface (20) for wireless data exchange with an external device (11, 39, 50); at least one sensor (28, 42, 44, 46) for sensing a parameter indicative of the proximity of the personal device (10) to the user; a loss detection unit (40) for determining, by regularly analyzing signals received from the sensor, whether the personal device is presently worn by the user or not; a control unit (38) for controlling operation of the personal device in a regular mode as long as the loss detection unit determines that the personal device is worn by the user and in a loss mode as long as the loss detection unit determines that the personal device is no longer worn by the user, wherein the wireless interface is directed to transmit in the regular mode a non-traceable device address and to transmit in the loss mode a traceable public device address.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 14, 2016
    Publication date: March 14, 2019
    Applicant: Sonova AG
    Inventors: Georg Dickmann, Daniel Lucas-Hirtz
  • Patent number: 9980059
    Abstract: A hearing assistance system, having first and second hearing devices worn at respective ears of a user, each hearing device having a BLUETOOTH® interface for wireless reception from an external audio source device, the hearing devices being adapted to establish a binaural data link between each other, wherein the hearing devices are adapted to define first and second sets of BLUETOOTH® profiles assigned to the first and second hearing devices respectively, with the first set and the second set differing by at least one profile, wherein the first devices are adapted to establish a BLUETOOTH® connection to an external device and to advertise their BLUETOOTH® profile to the external device, wherein the hearing devices are adapted to modify, by data exchange via the binaural link, the first and second set of BLUETOOTH® profiles by moving at least one of the profiles from one of the sets to the other set.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 15, 2014
    Date of Patent: May 22, 2018
    Assignee: Sonova AG
    Inventors: Stephan Gehring, Daniel Lucas-Hirtz
  • Publication number: 20170238103
    Abstract: A hearing assistance system, having first and second hearing devices worn at respective ears of a user, each hearing device having a BLUETOOTH® interface for wireless reception from an external audio source device, the hearing devices being adapted to establish a binaural data link between each other, wherein the hearing devices are adapted to define first and second sets of BLUETOOTH® profiles assigned to the first and second hearing devices respectively, with the first set and the second set differing by at least one profile, wherein the first devices are adapted to establish a BLUETOOTH® connection to an external device and to advertise their BLUETOOTH® profile to the external device, wherein the hearing devices are adapted to modify, by data exchange via the binaural link, the first and second set of BLUETOOTH® profiles by moving at least one of the profiles from one of the sets to the other set.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 15, 2014
    Publication date: August 17, 2017
    Applicant: Sonova AG
    Inventors: Stephan GEHRING, Daniel LUCAS-HIRTZ