Over the years, hearing devices to assist the hearing impaired have advanced in design and functionality. Today's hearing devices are electronic devices with sophisticated circuitry providing signal processing functions which can include noise reduction, amplification, and tone control. In many hearing devices these and other functions can be programmably varied to fit the requirements of individual users.
Hearing devices, including hearing aids for use in the ear, in the ear canal, and behind the ear, have been developed to ameliorate the effects of hearing losses in individuals. Hearing deficiencies can range from deafness to hearing losses where the individual has impairment responding to different frequencies of sound or to being able to differentiate sounds occurring simultaneously. The hearing device in its most elementary form usually provides for auditory correction through the amplification and filtering of sound provided in the environment with the intent that the individual hears better than without the amplification.
It is common that an individual's hearing loss is not uniform over the entire frequency spectrum of audible sound. An individual's hearing loss may be greater at higher frequency ranges than at lower frequencies. Recognizing these differentiations in hearing loss considerations between individuals, hearing health professionals typically make measurements that will indicate the type of correction or assistance that will be the most beneficial to improve that individual's hearing capability. A variety of measurements may be taken to determine the extent of an individual's hearing impairment. With these measurements, programmable parameters for fitting a hearing are determined. These parameters are selected using a system typically having graphical interfaces for viewing and setting the parameters. With modern hearing devices having a multitude of parameters such as multiple channels with different gains over different frequencies, a large number of parameters need to be adjusted to properly fit a hearing device to an individual.
What is needed is a visual presentation of these parameters and a straightforward means for selecting the appropriate parameters for programming a hearing device to improve its performance.
For these and other reasons there is a need for the present invention.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds