Method of manufacturing an individually shaped hearing device or hearing aid
View Patent ↗The present invention provides a method of providing input parameters for the fitting process of individually shaped or customized hearing devices by storing geometry data during the manufacturing process into data storage and selectively reading out data from this data storage during the manufacturing and/or fitting process of the hearing device. To improve the quality and to reduce the time required for the fitting process, all the data available from the manufacturing process, e.g. the geometry data, may be used during the final fitting process at the dispenser's office.
1. Method of providing input parameters for a fitting process of an individually shaped or customized hearing device, comprising the steps of:
storing geometry data during a manufacturing process of the hearing device into a data storage;
storing parameter data used during the manufacturing process of the hearing device into the data storage; and
selectively reading out the geometry and/or parameter data from the data storage during the fitting process of the hearing device for estimating at least one of the following quantities:
vent loss, reduction of an occlusion effect, real ear occluded gain, and real ear to coupler difference for a low frequency range;
microphone location effect, beam-forming correction for higher frequencies, and feedback threshold estimation;
estimation of a residual volume, and distance to an ear drum;
real ear to coupler difference for a high frequency range; and
open ear gain.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the data storage is a shared data storage, located at one or more locations, and accessible via online connections from any other location.
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the connection is established via the Internet.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the data storage is located directly in the hearing device memory.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the storing steps comprises storing available geometry and/or parameter data of an order and/or ear impression and/or shell modeling process into the data storage.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the geometry data is selected from the group consisting of:
cross sectional area of the hearing device, shape of a cross section, and length of a vent geometry;
vent microphone distances, microphone positions, depth of the hearing device in a concha, height of the concha, and width of the concha; and
length of the hearing device, and an averaged ear canal cross section.