US 12,279,092 B2
Interactive system for hearing devices
Tao Zhang, Eden Prairie, MN (US); Eric Durant, Milwaukee, WI (US); Dean G. Meyer, Mound, MN (US); Martin McKinney, Minneapolis, MN (US); Matthew D. Kleffner, Eden Prairie, MN (US); Dominic Perz, Bloomington, MN (US); and Karrie Recker, Edina, MN (US)
Assigned to Starkey Laboratories, Inc., Eden Prairie, MN (US)
Filed by Starkey Laboratories, Inc., Eden Prairie, MN (US)
Filed on May 31, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/804,757.
Application 17/804,757 is a continuation of application No. 16/192,333, filed on Nov. 15, 2018, granted, now 11,412,333.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/586,561, filed on Nov. 15, 2017.
Prior Publication US 2022/0295194 A1, Sep. 15, 2022
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. H04R 25/00 (2006.01); G06F 3/16 (2006.01); G10L 15/06 (2013.01); G10L 15/22 (2006.01)
CPC H04R 25/505 (2013.01) [G06F 3/165 (2013.01); G10L 15/063 (2013.01); H04R 25/407 (2013.01); H04R 25/70 (2013.01); G10L 2015/225 (2013.01); H04R 25/30 (2013.01); H04R 25/552 (2013.01); H04R 25/554 (2013.01); H04R 2225/39 (2013.01); H04R 2225/41 (2013.01); H04R 2225/43 (2013.01); H04R 2225/55 (2013.01)] 16 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A sound processing system comprising:
a set of one or more hearing devices, wherein:
each of the hearing devices comprises at least one microphone and a receiver, and
for at least one hearing device of the set of hearing devices, the hearing device is configured to use the at least one microphone of the hearing device to detect an own speech signal of a user; and
one or more processing circuits configured to:
recognize spoken content in the own speech signal of the user using speech recognition and natural language understanding, the spoken content describing a listening difficulty of the user;
generate, based on the spoken content describing the listening difficulty of the user, one or more actions for the hearing devices and feedback for the user, wherein the one or more actions attempt to resolve the listening difficulty by making adjustments to hearing device states of one or more of the hearing devices and the feedback is responsive to the spoken content describing the listening difficulty of the user;
convert the feedback to verbal feedback using speech synthesis, wherein the hearing devices are configured to perform the one or more actions and play back the verbal feedback to the user using the receivers,
ask the user whether to conference in a hearing professional in response to receiving an indication from the user that the one or more actions were unsuccessful in resolving the listening difficulty of the user;
in response to an indication from the user to conference in the hearing professional, conference in the hearing professional over a network connection to resolve the listening difficulty; and
learn from what the hearing professional does to resolve the listening difficulty.