Selection of communication connections in hearing aids
View Patent ↗A hearing aid and a corresponding method are provided in which address data and/or channel data with respect to a plurality of signal sources are stored in a memory of the hearing aid. As a result of a priority-driven address management system, the hearing aid user can very conveniently automatically engage in communication with an interface having the highest priority.
1. A hearing aid, comprising:
a hearing aid housing designed to be worn as a conventional hearing aid including within:
an acoustic signal input and an acoustic signal;
a radio interface configured to receive radio signals from a plurality of external signal sources and to directly convert the radio signals into electrical signals representing address data of said plurality of external signal sources;
a memory device configured to store said address data; and
an address management system configured to allocate priorities to the plurality of external signal sources whoso address data are stored in said memory device; and
wherein one of the signal sources can be automatically selected based on a priority or on a basis of an external control signal or can be manually selected using a push-button.
2. The hearing aid according to claim 1 , further comprising:
an input unit connected to the memory device and configured to initiate storing at least one of address data and channel date.
3. The hearing aid according to claim 2 , wherein the input unit includes a push-button.
4. The hearing aid according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a signal generator device for generating an acoustic signal when signals from a signal source of said external signal sources with a higher priority are received during a reception of signals from a signal source of said external signal sources with a lower priority.
5. The hearing aid according to claim 1 , wherein the radio interface is a bluetooth interface.
6. The method according to claim 5 , further comprising:
generating an audio signal by the hearing aid when signals from an external signal source with a higher, second priority are received during reception of signals from an external signal source with a first priority.
7. The hearing aid according to claim 1 , wherein:
the radio interface is a bluetooth interface;
the external signal sources are bluetooth signal sources; and
the address date are bluetooth address date.
8. The hearing device according to claim 1 , wherein:
the radio interface is configured to simultaneously receive radio signals from a plurality of external signal sources and to directly and convert the simultaneously received radio signals into electrical signals; and
the address management system is configured to allocate priorities to the plurality of simultaneously received external signal sources.
9. The hearing aid device according to claim 1 , wherein:
the memory device is configured to dynamically store said address data when the radio interface receives the radio signals; and
the address management system is configured to allocate priorities to the plurality of external signal sources whose said address data were dynamically stored in said memory device.
10. A method for operating a hearing aid, comprising, within a housing of the hearing aid:
receiving radio signals from a plurality of external signal sources;
directly converting the received radio signals from one of the plurality of external signal sources into electrical signals representing address date of said plurality of external signal sources;
storing said address date; and
allocating priorities to the plurality of external signal sources whose address date are stored;
automatically selecting based on a priority or on a basis of an external control signal or can be manually selected using a push-button.
11. The method according to claim 10 , further comprising
manually presetting presenting at least one of address data and channel date having the highest priority or the highest priorities.
12. The method according to claim 10 , further comprising:
actuating an input unit connected to a memory device of the hearing aid; and
storing at least one of address data and channel date by the actuating of the input unit of the hearing aid.
13. The method according to claim 10 , further comprising:
automatically selecting one of the signal sources baaed on a priority or based on an external control signal or manual selection.
14. The method according to claim 10 , further comprising:
manually selecting one of the external signal sources.
15. The method according to claim 10 , further comprising:
providing a bluetooth standard receiver for the reception of the radio signals.