Patents by Inventor Dominic Perz

Dominic Perz 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: 20220295194
    Abstract: In an audio signal, one or more processing circuits recognize spoken content in a user's own speech signal using speech recognition and natural language understanding. The spoken content describes a listening difficulty of the user. The one or more processing circuits generate, based on the spoken content, one or more actions for hearing devices and feedback for the user. The one or more actions attempt to resolve the listening difficulty. Additionally, the one or more processing circuits convert the user feedback to verbal feedback using speech synthesis and transmit the one or more actions and the verbal feedback to the hearing devices via a body-worn device. The hearing devices are configured to perform the one or more actions and play back the verbal feedback to the user.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 31, 2022
    Publication date: September 15, 2022
    Inventors: Tao Zhang, Eric Durant, Dean G. Meyer, Martin McKinney, Matthew D. Kleffner, Dominic Perz, Karrie Recker
  • Patent number: 11412333
    Abstract: In an audio signal, one or more processing circuits recognize spoken content in a user's own speech signal using speech recognition and natural language understanding. The spoken content describes a listening difficulty of the user. The one or more processing circuits generate, based on the spoken content, one or more actions for hearing devices and feedback for the user. The one or more actions attempt to resolve the listening difficulty. Additionally, the one or more processing circuits convert the user feedback to verbal feedback using speech synthesis and transmit the one or more actions and the verbal feedback to the hearing devices via a body-worn device. The hearing devices are configured to perform the one or more actions and play back the verbal feedback to the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 15, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2022
    Assignee: Starkey Laboratories, Inc.
    Inventors: Tao Zhang, Eric Durant, Dean G. Meyer, Martin McKinney, Matthew D. Kleffner, Dominic Perz, Karrie Recker
  • Publication number: 20190149927
    Abstract: In an audio signal, one or more processing circuits recognize spoken content in a user's own speech signal using speech recognition and natural language understanding. The spoken content describes a listening difficulty of the user. The one or more processing circuits generate, based on the spoken content, one or more actions for hearing devices and feedback for the user. The one or more actions attempt to resolve the listening difficulty. Additionally, the one or more processing circuits convert the user feedback to verbal feedback using speech synthesis and transmit the one or more actions and the verbal feedback to the hearing devices via a body-worn device. The hearing devices are configured to perform the one or more actions and play back the verbal feedback to the user.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 15, 2018
    Publication date: May 16, 2019
    Inventors: Tao Zhang, Eric Durant, Dean G. Meyer, Martin McKinney, Matthew D. Kleffner, Dominic Perz, Karrie Recker
  • Patent number: 8737654
    Abstract: Disclosed herein, among other things, are methods and apparatus for improved noise reduction for hearing assistance devices. In various embodiments, a hearing assistance device includes a microphone and a processor configured to receive signals from the microphone. The processor is configured to perform noise reduction which adjusts maximum gain reduction as a function of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and which reduces the strength of its maximum gain reduction for intermediate signal-to-noise ratio levels to reduce speech distortion. In various embodiments, the hearing assistance device includes a memory configured to log noise reduction data for user environments. Also provided are methods to further adjust the noise reduction based on the logged information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 7, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 27, 2014
    Assignee: Starkey Laboratories, Inc.
    Inventors: Ivo Merks, William S. Woods, Tao Zhang, Dominic Perz
  • Publication number: 20110249844
    Abstract: Disclosed herein, among other things, are methods and apparatus for improved noise reduction for hearing assistance devices. In various embodiments, a hearing assistance device includes a microphone and a processor configured to receive signals from the microphone. The processor is configured to perform noise reduction which adjusts maximum gain reduction as a function of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and which reduces the strength of its maximum gain reduction for intermediate signal-to-noise ratio levels to reduce speech distortion. In various embodiments, the hearing assistance device includes a memory configured to log noise reduction data for user environments. Also provided are methods to further adjust the noise reduction based on the logged information.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 7, 2011
    Publication date: October 13, 2011
    Applicant: Starkey Laboratories, Inc.
    Inventors: Ivo Merks, William S. Woods, Tao Zhang, Dominic Perz