The invention is related to a hearing aid retainer accessory for retaining a BTE (behind-the-ear) hearing aid at a user's ear.
In order to operate at best and to prevent damage resulting from falling of the ear and dropping to the ground, a BTE-hearing aid has to be kept in a safe position at a user's ear. Also if the user's head moves intensely such as it may do by doing sport. Another example is a child playing.
US 2007/0217641 A1 discloses a hearing aid protection accessory formed by a flexible sleeve to be wrapped around a housing of a hearing aid, the flexible sleeve to be connected to a users clothing via a clip and a cord. Suitable for preventing the hearing aid from dropping to the ground this arrangement, however, does not allow an adjustment to a user's ear and is likely to entangle with all kinds of obstacles a child may encounter playing. Also the sleeve adds to the thickness of the hearing aid housing rendering it difficult to be placed behind a small ear.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,881,616 and 4,702,345 each disclose a hearing aid retainer accessory that is formed by a tube with a respective sleeve connected to each end, both sleeves pulled over the housing of the hearing aid. The arrangement disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,881,616 allows an adjustment to a user ear by moving the sleeves toward or away from each other on the housing of the hearing aid. The degree of adjustment, however, is limited by the longitudinal dimension of the hearing aid housing. The sleeves of both U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,881,616 and 4,702,345 add to the thickness of the hearing aid housing, resulting in a discomfort to wear or even the ears protruding, provided they are still in a process of growth. Furthermore, the sleeves are likely to interfere with a control button located at the surface of the hearing aid housing.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,013,018 B2 discloses an adjustable earring for a headset, the earring being connected via a pivotal link to a housing of a speaker included in the headset.
Finally, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,918,757 and 3,327,807 each disclose an arrangement for retaining a hearing aid at a user's head utilizing a head band. Undesirably each of the arrangements exerts an uncomfortable force to the users head and is rather noticeable.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a hearing aid retainer accessory which avoids the disadvantages of prior art devices and is intuitive and easy to attach, comfortable to wear, free of interference with a hearing aid's control buttons and the specially designed hearing aid geometry, all while retaining a hearing aid at a user's ear safely and stably.
A hearing aid in the scope of the present invention is a BTE-hearing aid or a BTE-like-hearing aid.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds