HEARING AID BATTERY CONNECTED TO EAR SHELL

Abstract

There is presented an in-the-ear hearing aid comprising a faceplate, an ear shell, such as a custom ear shell, and a battery, wherein the battery is fixed to the ear shell and furthermore a method for providing an in-the-ear hearing aid, said method comprising obtaining data, such as three-dimensional data, representative of a shape and/or size of an ear canal of a specific person, such as the part of an ear canal extending at least partially from the outer ear to the middle ear, establishing a digital model of the ear shell, such as the custom ear shell, of the hearing aid for said ear canal based on said data, wherein said providing includes determining a position and/or orientation of a battery in said ear shell, which position and/or orientation increases or maximizes a distance from the outer ear to the faceplate.

Claims

1. An in-the-ear hearing aid comprising: a faceplate extending about a plane and comprising two microphones arranged so as to lie on a horizontal line when the hearing aid is placed in the ear of a user, an ear shell, and a rechargeable battery, wherein the rechargeable battery is fixed to the ear shell and the battery is placed out of contact with the faceplate, and an axis around which the battery exhibits circular symmetry is neither orthogonal to nor parallel with the horizontal line.

2. The in-the-ear hearing aid according to claim 1, wherein the battery is fixed to the ear shell independently of the faceplate.

3. The in-the-ear hearing aid according to claim 1, wherein the battery is fixed exclusively to the ear shell.

4. The in-the-ear hearing aid according to claim 1, wherein an angle between said axis and said horizontal line is within [5°; 85°].

5. The in-the-ear hearing aid according to claim 1, wherein the hearing aid further comprises an induction coil configured for wireless charging of the rechargeable battery.

6. The in-the-ear hearing aid according to claim 1, wherein the faceplate comprises an antenna configured for high frequency wireless communication.

7. The in-the-ear hearing aid according to claim 1, wherein the battery is fixed to the ear shell via protrusions monolithically integrated with the ear shell.

8. The in-the-ear hearing aid according to claim 1, comprising a substrate carrying at least one electronic component wherein said substrate carrying at least one electronic component floats relative to the faceplate or is attached to the faceplate.

9. The in-the-ear hearing aid according to claim 1, wherein a protection layer is applied to at least one electronic component in the in-the-ear hearing aid.

10. The in-the-ear hearing aid according to claim 1, wherein the ear shell is monolithic.

11. The in-the-ear hearing aid according to claim 1, wherein the in-the-ear hearing aid comprises a housing, said housing comprising the faceplate and the ear shell, and wherein the in-the-ear hearing aid further comprises a telecoil arranged within the housing.

12. The in-the-ear hearing aid according to claim 1, wherein the ear shell is monolithic.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0074] The aspects of the disclosure may be best understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying figures. The figures are schematic and simplified for clarity, and they just show details to improve the understanding of the claims, while other details are left out. Throughout, the same reference numerals are used for identical or corresponding parts. The individual features of each aspect may each be combined with any or all features of the other aspects. These and other aspects, features and/or technical effect will be apparent from and elucidated with reference to the illustrations described hereinafter in which:

[0075] FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of an in-the-ear hearing aid,

[0076] FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of an in-the-ear hearing aid, and

[0077] FIG. 3 illustrates a method according to the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0078] The detailed description set forth below in connection with the appended drawings is intended as a description of various configurations. The detailed description includes specific details for the purpose of providing a thorough understanding of various concepts. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that these concepts may be practiced without these specific details. Several aspects of the in-the-ear hearing aid, plurality of in-the-ear hearing aids, binaural system and methods are described by various blocks, functional units, modules, components, circuits, steps, processes, algorithms, etc. (collectively referred to as “elements”). Depending upon particular application, design constraints or other reasons, these elements may be implemented using electronic hardware, computer program, or any combination thereof.

[0079] The electronic hardware may include microprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors (DSPs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), gated logic, discrete hardware circuits, and other suitable hardware configured to perform the various functionality described throughout this disclosure. Computer program shall be construed broadly to mean instructions, instruction sets, code, code segments, program code, programs, subprograms, software modules, applications, software applications, software packages, routines, subroutines, objects, executables, threads of execution, procedures, functions, etc., whether referred to as software, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description language, or otherwise.

[0080] FIG. 1 is a schematic of an in-the-ear hearing aid 100 placed in an ear canal of a user as observed in a direction being parallel with an axis of the ear canal. This in-the-ear hearing aid holds two microphones, which are restricted to lie on a horizontal axis. A first dotted line (forming a rectangle with sides being parallel with the sides of the paper and with the horizontal axis) shows an orientation of the battery 106 according to a restriction that the battery 106 must be placed in this orientation. This restriction may result in an unnecessarily large in-the-ear hearing aid. A second dotted line (forming a rectangle being angled ca. 60° with respect to the rectangle formed by the first dotted line) shows an alternative orientation of the battery 106 which may be the result of an optimization with a view to reduce or minimize a size of the in-the-ear hearing aid, and which may result in a smaller in-the-ear hearing aid than what is possible to design with the restriction that the battery 106 must be oriented as indicated by the first dotted line.

[0081] FIG. 2 is a schematic of an in-the-ear hearing aid 100 with an ear shell 104 and a faceplate 102 placed in an ear canal of a user as observed in a direction being orthogonal to an axis of the ear canal but parallel with a plane of the faceplate 102. A first dotted line (forming a rectangle with sides being parallel with the sides of the paper) shows an orientation of the battery 106 according to a restriction that the battery 106 must be placed in this orientation, such as the battery 106 having a center axis being orthogonal to a plane of the faceplate 102. This restriction may result in an unnecessarily large in-the-ear hearing aid. A second dotted line (forming a rectangle being angled ca. 60° with respect to the rectangle formed by the first dotted line) shows an alternative orientation of the battery 106 which may be the result of an optimization with a view to reduce or minimize a size of the in-the-ear hearing aid, and which may result in a smaller in-the-ear hearing aid than what is possible to design with the restriction that the battery 106 must be oriented as indicated by the first dotted line.

[0082] FIG. 3 illustrates a method according of the disclosure, showing a method for providing an in-the-ear hearing aid, such as an in-the-ear hearing aid according to the first aspect, said method comprising: [0083] Obtaining 232 data, such as three-dimensional data, representative of a shape and/or size of an ear canal of a specific person, such as the part of an ear canal extending at least partially from the outer ear to the middle ear, [0084] establishing (234) a digital model of the ear shell, such as the custom ear shell, of the hearing aid for said ear canal based on said data,

[0085] wherein said providing includes determining 233 a position and/or orientation of a battery 106 in said ear shell 104, which position and/or orientation increases or maximizes a distance from the outer ear to the faceplate 102, and wherein the method is further comprising, such as comprising in this order: [0086] Providing 236 the ear shell 104, such as via three-dimensional printing (optionally with protrusions enabling interference fit with battery) according to said data representative of an ear shell for said ear canal, [0087] Attaching 238, such as via gluing or interference fit, the battery 106 to the ear shell, [0088] Attaching 240 a faceplate 102 to the ear shell.

[0089] The method may be seen as a sequence, but may alternatively simply define individual steps that may be interchanged with other steps or have intermediate steps between them.

[0090] As used, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well (i.e. to have the meaning “at least one”), unless expressly stated otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “includes,” “comprises,” “including,” and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof. It will also be understood that when an element is referred to as being “connected” or “coupled” to another element, it can be directly connected or coupled to the other element but an intervening elements may also be present, unless expressly stated otherwise. Furthermore, “connected” or “coupled” as used herein may include wirelessly connected or coupled. As used herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items. The steps of any disclosed method is not limited to the exact order stated herein, unless expressly stated otherwise.

[0091] It should be appreciated that reference throughout this specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” or “an aspect” or features included as “may” means that a particular feature, structure or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the disclosure. Furthermore, the particular features, structures or characteristics may be combined as suitable in one or more embodiments of the disclosure. The previous description is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to practice the various aspects described herein. Various modifications to these aspects will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other aspects.

[0092] The claims are not intended to be limited to the aspects shown herein, but is to be accorded the full scope consistent with the language of the claims, wherein reference to an element in the singular is not intended to mean “one and only one” unless specifically so stated, but rather “one or more.” Unless specifically stated otherwise, the term “some” refers to one or more.

[0093] Accordingly, the scope should be judged in terms of the claims that follow.