Patents Assigned to Sonova
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Patent number: 9913049Abstract: An exemplary method of compensating for a circuit offset error to a measure of a battery voltage of a rechargeable battery of an electronic device is described wherein the battery powers an electronic circuitry of the device and the electronic circuitry introduces the circuit offset error to the measure of the battery voltage. A corresponding electronic device is also described.Type: GrantFiled: April 14, 2016Date of Patent: March 6, 2018Assignee: Sonova AGInventors: Jonas Högberg, Sahba Aazami
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Patent number: 9866975Abstract: A hearing assistance system having a hearing assistance device to be worn at one of a user's ears and a scanning device, the hearing assistance device and the scanning device both having an interface for wireless data exchange between the hearing assistance device and the scanning device, wherein the hearing assistance device is adapted for wireless data exchange with an external device, wherein the scanning device is adapted to scan for wireless signals from the external device and to transmit, once such signals have been received by the scanning device, a message to the hearing assistance device for notifying the hearing assistance device of the availability of the external device, and wherein the hearing assistance device is adapted to decide, upon receipt of such notification message from the scanning device, whether on not to initiate wireless data exchange with the external device.Type: GrantFiled: May 28, 2014Date of Patent: January 9, 2018Assignee: Sonova AGInventors: Marc Secall, Amre El-Hoiydi, Stephan Gehring, Hilmar Meier
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Patent number: 9838829Abstract: A method of streaming an audio signal from an audio transmission device to first and second audio receiver devices via a Bluetooth link using a protocol that requires an audio data packet to be retransmitted if a positive packet receipt is not received. The first audio receiver device is synchronized to the audio transmission device to enable the first audio receiver device to receive an audio signal stream from the audio transmission device, the second audio receiver device is synchronized to the audio transmission device to enable the second audio receiver device to eavesdrop the audio signal stream to the first audio receiver device. When a positive packet receipt acknowledgement is not transmitted from the first audio receiver device to the audio transmission device, the audio transmission device repeats transmission of that audio data packet irrespective of whether the packet has been correctly received by the first audio receiver device.Type: GrantFiled: December 3, 2012Date of Patent: December 5, 2017Assignee: Sonova AGInventor: Amre El-Hoiydi
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Patent number: 9832575Abstract: A system for providing sound to at least one user has at least one audio signal source, a transmission unit with a digital transmitter audio data packets from the audio signal source via a wireless digital audio link; at least one receiver unit having at least one digital receiver; and a hearing stimulator responsive to audio signals from the receiver unit. The transmission unit encodes the audio signal as audio data blocks distributed onto at least two audio data packets, one of which is a low-quality packet, and one of which is a high quality packet only a low-quality version of the audio signal being retrievable from the low-quality packets, and a high-quality version of the audio signal being retrievable from both the low-quality packets and the high-quality packets. The low-quality packets and the high-quality packets are transmitted in respective dedicated slots of a multiple access protocol frame.Type: GrantFiled: January 20, 2012Date of Patent: November 28, 2017Assignee: Sonova, AGInventors: Marc Secall, Timothée Jost, Amre El-Hoiydi
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Patent number: 9832579Abstract: The present invention relates to an encapulated hearing device (50), e.g. for long-term wear, in which an electronics module (10) is encapsulated into a thermoformed hull (30) by means of an appropriate adhesive (41). This thermoformed hull (30) acts as an improved barrier between the electronics module (10) and the environment of the inner ear, reducing the risk of moisture reaching electrical components.Type: GrantFiled: September 18, 2012Date of Patent: November 28, 2017Assignee: Sonova AGInventors: Erdal Karamuk, Bruno Gabathuler, Andi Vonlanthen, Stephanie Thomas, Markus Muller
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Patent number: 9826321Abstract: Method for providing sound to at least one user, involves supplying audio signals from an audio signal source to a transmission unit; compressing the audio signals to generate compressed audio data; transmitting compressed audio data from the transmission unit to at least one receiver unit; decompressing the compressed audio data to generate decompressed audio signals; and stimulating the hearing of the user(s) according to decompressed audio signals supplied from the receiver unit. During certain time periods, transmission of compressed audio data is interrupted, and instead, at least one control data block is generated by the transmission unit in such a manner that audio data transmission is replaced by control data block transmission, thereby temporarily interrupting flow of received compressed audio data, each control data block includes a marker recognized by the at least one receiver unit as a control data block and a command for control of the receiver unit.Type: GrantFiled: May 8, 2017Date of Patent: November 21, 2017Assignee: Sonova AGInventors: Amre El-Hoiydi, Marc Secall
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Publication number: 20170311092Abstract: A method of providing hearing assistance to a at least one user wearing at least one receiver hearing assistance device from at least one audio transmission device worn by a another user, involving: automatically pairing and connecting the audio transmission device with the receiver hearing assistance device to form an ad-hoc network for exchanging network and/or control information, estimating at least one of an angular direction of the audio transmission device with regard to a viewing direction of the user of the receiver hearing assistance device and an angular direction of the receiver hearing assistance device with regard to a viewing direction of the user of the audio transmission device, admitting the audio transmission device to a wireless local acoustic area network for exchanging audio signals only if, as a predefined admission rule, the transmission device is within a field of view of one of the users.Type: ApplicationFiled: October 2, 2014Publication date: October 26, 2017Applicant: Sonova AGInventors: Marc Secall, Hans-Ueli Roeck, Francois Callias, Manuela Feilner
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Patent number: 9781523Abstract: A hearing instrument microphone device incudes at least two microphone sound ports (or sound inlets), a pressure difference microphone in communication with at least two of the sound ports and a pressure microphone in communication with at least one of the sound ports, wherein the acoustic centers of the pressure difference microphone and the pressure microphone essentially coincide.Type: GrantFiled: April 14, 2011Date of Patent: October 3, 2017Assignee: Sonova AGInventors: Martin Kuster, Alfred Stirnemann, Axel Schlesinger
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Patent number: 9774962Abstract: A shell (10) for a hearing device, and a method of producing the same. The shell (10) comprises a sub-shell (11) produced by a generative method, and a thermoformed hull (12) covering the subshell (11). The sub-shell (11) comprises lateral openings (13) covered by the thermoformed hull (12) so as to render the shell (10) more flexible in the region of the openings (13), and thereby to relieve pressure exerted by the shell (10) due to dynamic changes in the shape of the wearer's ear canal during jaw movement.Type: GrantFiled: January 11, 2013Date of Patent: September 26, 2017Assignee: Sonova AGInventors: Erdal Karamuk, Matthias Stadler, Thomas Winkler, Markus Mueller, Daniel Probst
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Patent number: 9774965Abstract: An exemplary method for fitting a hearing device to a hearing device user performed by a fitting system operatively connected to but remote from the hearing device includes providing, to the hearing device, an adjustable parameter identified by a fitter using a fitting system and a specification comprising an allowed range for the adjustable parameter defined by the fitter using the fitting system. The method further includes transferring the adjustable parameter and the specification to a user interface operatively connected to the hearing device and located with the hearing device for use by the hearing device user, receiving an adjusted parameter value for the adjustable parameter adjusted by the hearing device user with aid of the user interface to be within the allowed range, and updating the adjustable parameter in a transfer function of the hearing device based on the adjusted parameter value.Type: GrantFiled: December 18, 2013Date of Patent: September 26, 2017Assignee: Sonova AGInventors: Jha Siddhartha, Ralph Peter Derleth, Silvia Allegro-Baumann, Harald Krueger
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Patent number: 9774964Abstract: In a process for producing a hearing aid, comprising a housing made out, at least partially, of a metallic or ceramic part using powder injection molding technique (PIM) within the housing (1) at least one additional element (3) made out of a polymeric material is arranged for placing functional parts (5, 7, 13) within or at the housing (1) to reduce complexity of P parts and/or to compensate any tolerances due to the PIM process.Type: GrantFiled: December 28, 2010Date of Patent: September 26, 2017Assignee: SONOVA AGInventors: Erdal Karamuk, David Waeckerlin, Pascal Kunzi
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Patent number: 9769576Abstract: Method for providing hearing assistance to a user by capturing audio signals with a microphone arrangement of a transmission unit; analyzing, by a voice activity detector of the transmission unit, the captured audio signals to judge whether a voice is present close to the microphone arrangement or not, analyzing, by a noise level estimator, the captured audio signals to estimate a surrounding noise level, processing the captured audio signals and transmitting, by a transceiver of the transmission unit, the processed audio signals via a wireless link to a receiver unit, and stimulating the user's hearing, by stimulating means at or in at least one user ear, according to the received audio signals, wherein the audio signals are processed via the wireless link by setting the gain applied to the audio signals according to the close voice/no close voice judgment of the voice activity detector and the estimated surrounding noise level.Type: GrantFiled: April 9, 2013Date of Patent: September 19, 2017Assignee: Sonova AGInventors: Francois Marquis, Hans Mulder, Samuel Harsch, Tim Jost
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Patent number: 9763017Abstract: A hearing instrument is provided that has a T-coil antenna (14) for picking up an inductively transmitted base-band audio signal, an audio signal processing unit (16) for processing the picked-up T-coil audio signal, an output transducer (18) for stimulation of the user's hearing according to the processed audio signals, and a functional unit (22) that operates in a duty cycling mode and communicates with the audio signal processing unit the respective interference points at which the functional unit is switched from its inactive state to its active state and/or from its active state to its inactive state, wherein the audio signal processing unit applies a click removal treatment to the T-coil audio signal during the respective interference points at the time at which the functional unit is switched to and/or from its active state.Type: GrantFiled: August 9, 2013Date of Patent: September 12, 2017Assignee: Sonova AGInventor: Hans-Ueli Roeck
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Publication number: 20170257472Abstract: A method of establishing a wireless network with a first hearing assistance device (10), a second hearing assistance device (11), and an external device (40), each device having a wireless network interface (20), the method having the steps of: establishing a communication link (30) between the first and second hearing assistance device, transmitting a remote pairing command from the first to the second hearing assistance device via the communication link, the remote pairing command being adapted to cause the second hearing assistance device to initiate pairing with the external device, pairing the second hearing assistance device and the external device upon an initiate pairing request transmitted by the second hearing assistance device, pairing the first hearing assistance device and the external device before or after the pairing of the second hearing assistance device and the external device.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 4, 2014Publication date: September 7, 2017Applicant: SONOVA AGInventors: Stephan GEHRING, Reto KURMANN, Ivo HASLER
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Patent number: 9749759Abstract: The present invention proposes a sound tube (3) for an earpiece (1), wherein a first section (4) of an inner surface of the sound tube (3) has a structured surface, in particular a textural pattern forming a relief comprising convexities (13) and/or concavities (11). Alternatively or additionally, the sound tube (3) features a radially extending, circumferential flange (8), annular lip (8?) or collar at an outer surface of the sound tube (3). The present invention is further directed to a sound tube arrangement comprising two of the proposed sound tubes integrally formed in one piece and to an earpiece (1) with such a sound tube (3) or such a sound tube arrangement as well as to a hearing device with such an earpiece (1).Type: GrantFiled: November 20, 2013Date of Patent: August 29, 2017Assignee: Sonova AGInventors: Jonas Meyer, Martin Rahn, Christoph Leist, Roland Hug, Sven Keller, Marco Breitler
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Publication number: 20170245067Abstract: Method for providing sound to at least one user, involves supplying audio signals from an audio signal source to a transmission unit; compressing the audio signals to generate compressed audio data; transmitting compressed audio data from the transmission unit to at least one receiver unit; decompressing the compressed audio data to generate decompressed audio signals; and stimulating the hearing of the user(s) according to decompressed audio signals supplied from the receiver unit. During certain time periods, transmission of compressed audio data is interrupted, and instead, at least one control data block is generated by the transmission unit in such a manner that audio data transmission is replaced by control data block transmission, thereby temporarily interrupting flow of received compressed audio data, each control data block includes a marker recognized by the at least one receiver unit as a control data block and a command for control of the receiver unit.Type: ApplicationFiled: May 8, 2017Publication date: August 24, 2017Applicant: SONOVA AGInventors: Amre EL-HOIYDI, Marc SECALL
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Publication number: 20170238103Abstract: 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: ApplicationFiled: September 15, 2014Publication date: August 17, 2017Applicant: Sonova AGInventors: Stephan GEHRING, Daniel LUCAS-HIRTZ
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Patent number: D804034Type: GrantFiled: April 20, 2016Date of Patent: November 28, 2017Assignee: SONOVA AGInventors: Bruno Gabathuler, Erich Dittli, Richard Niccolai, Hans Georg Meier, Katja Dietrich
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Patent number: D804035Type: GrantFiled: April 20, 2016Date of Patent: November 28, 2017Assignee: SONOVA AGInventors: Bruno Gabathuler, Erich Dittli, Richard Niccolai, Hans Georg Meier, Katja Dietrich
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Patent number: D806648Type: GrantFiled: November 7, 2016Date of Patent: January 2, 2018Assignee: Sonova AGInventors: Martyn Beedham, Stefanie Klein