Hearing Aid Design

[vinit2100]

Hi,
Please find the attached image. This product is called miniTEK from SIEMENS. This device connects to Hearing Aid via Bluetooth. I am planning to design the same for my hearing aid. So where should i start to design this device.please guide me.
Please go through the link below
https://sg.hearing.siemens.com/products/wireless/minitek/technology/

 

[hevans1944]

Please tell us what hearing aid you intend to hack: manufacturer, model number, year of manufacture.

Unless this is a "hearing aid" you wear in a box on your chest with speaker "button" ear pieces to convey sound to your ears, I doubt you will have the technical acumen to modify a commercial hearing aid. I base this opinion on the content of your previous posts on "Analog Switch Help".

 

[vinit2100]

I just want to know the working principle of that device miniTEK. Im working in a company , that manufactures hearing aid as one of the product. we are planning to implement miniTEK like device for our hearing aid.please guide me to this

 

[BobK]

Does you hearing aid have a wireless interface? If not, you are out of luck. The principle is simple. The hearing aid has a wireless receiver that can accept audio from the little box that is the transmitter. Various audio sources can be connected to the transmitter box. My father-in-law has a hearing aid with similar functionality. I believe there is even a standard for the wireless communication.

Bob

 

[hevans1944]

The miniTEk (and similar devices) uses Bluetooth technology to communicate with various third-party Bluetooth-equipped devices such as cell phones, MP3 players, TVs, etc. for the purpose of transmitting digital audio from these devices to Siemens binaural hearing aids via frequency-shift modulation using the Siemens e2e wireless 2.0 near-field communications technology. Unless your hearing aid includes this proprietary technology, your miniTEK clone has little or no chance of working.

Note that near-field communication technology is very short range, on the order of 30 cm or so. Siemens developed this to allow synchronization between two ear pieces for better binaural hearing. The ability to add a nearby Bluetooth transceiver to connect audio from third-party Bluetooth-enabled devices was just a dividend of the e2e wireless 2.0 technology. Removing the Bluetooth capability to a separate box was essential to minimizing the size of the hearing aid.

 

[vinit2100]

Our hearing Aid consists of Telecoil when the person wants to communicate through telephone. So the main purpose is to give a bluetooth compatibily to existing hearing aid.

 

[hevans1944]

You could possibly use the Telecoil to couple an audio signal from a "miniTek-like" clone into the hearing aid, but your device would be large, ungainly, and would have to be held against the hearing aid, like a telephone handset, to work. The range of the Telecoil pickup is quite small... a few centimeters at best. So, unless your hearing aid is one of the larger pocket-sized models worn on the chest, there is virtually no hope that a miniTek-like device can be made to work with it.

 

[vinit2100]

Our Hearing Aid has two modes of operation Microphone mode and telecoil mode.

 

[vinit2100]

back to miniTek. This is basically a Bluetooth streaming device. so in the attached image miniTek connect to hearing Aid via Bluetooth. and transmits audio signals. So in the hearing aid part there will be any Bluetooth transceiver ?

 

[hevans1944]

The miniTek DOES NOT connect to the hearing aid via Bluetooth. There is no Bluetooth transceiver in the hearing aid because it would be too big. The Bluetooth transceiver is in the miniTek. The miniTek uses a proprietary near-field analog FM communication technology to send audio to the hearing aid. Called "e2e wireless 2.0" by Siemens, presumably "e2e" means "ear to ear" because it is intended to allow the two hearing aids (one in each ear) to communicate with each other. The same "e2e" near-field communication is also used to communicate analog sound signals from the miniTek to the two hearing aids over very short distances, on the order of a few dozen centimeters at most. Bluetooth is capable of distances on the order of a few dozen meters. Without the near-field communication capability in your hearing aid it is impossible to duplicate the functionality of the miniTek.

Your hearing aids have only two means to inject sound into the hearing aids: a microphone or an inductive-loop pick-up (or telecoil, for use with telephone handsets and possibly cell phones). Unless you want to modify them with some type of near-field communication technology, which may or may not infringe on Siemens patents, it is not possible to provide a miniTek-like product for your hearing aids.

Re-read my post #5 above and quit beating a dead horse.

 

[vinit2100]

i got another alternative solution. There will be a FM transmitter kept at a distance and the hearing impaired person will be having a Fm receiver which he wears around his neck. having a inductive loop.. and the telecoil in the hearing aid picks up this signals from neck loop.

 

[hevans1944]

If you think you can couple audio signals to a hearing aid telecoil from an inductive loop worn around the neck, go for it. Please post to the forum how that worked out for you.