Patent ID: 11962348
Assignee: NATUS MEDICAL INCORPORATED
Field: Medical technology (Instruments)
Classification: CPC H  A | IPC A  H

Claim 19:
20. An audiometer system comprising:
an audiometer device comprising:
an audiometer DSP unit configured to:
generate tone signals responsive to a user input signal;
generate masking signals responsive to a user input masking signal;
convert the tone signals to a plurality of stimulus data packets;
convert the masking signals to a plurality of masking data packets; and
arrange the stimulus data packets and masking data packets into time division multiplexed (TDM) data packets;

an audiometer baseband processing unit positioned in communication with the audiometer DSP unit and configured to convert the TDM data packets to a plurality of TDM audiometer frames; and
an audiometer light-based transceiver positioned in communication with the audiometer baseband processing unit and configured to transmit the plurality of TDM audiometer frames;

a first transducer comprising:
a first transducer light-based transceiver positionable within a field of view of the audiometer light-based transceiver, the first transducer light-based transceiver configured to receive the plurality of TDM audiometer frames from the audiometer light-based transceiver;
a first transducer baseband processing unit positioned in communication with the first transducer light-based transceiver and configured to:
receive the plurality of TDM audiometer frames from the first transducer light-based transceiver; and
convert the plurality of TDM audiometer frames to transducer TDM data packets;

a first transducer processor unit positioned in communication with the first transducer baseband processing unit and configured to:
receive the extracted TDM data packets from the first transducer baseband processing unit;
extract the stimulus data packets from the transducer TDM data packets, defining extracted stimulus data packets; and
convert the extracted stimulus data packets into a patient stimulus signal; and

a first audio speaker positioned in communication with the transducer processor unit and configured to generate a sound responsive to the audio signal; and

a second transducer comprising:
a second transducer light-based transceiver positionable within a field of view of the audiometer light-based transceiver, the second transducer light-based transceiver configured to receive the plurality of TDM audiometer frames from the audiometer light-based transceiver;
a second transducer baseband processing unit positioned in communication with the second transducer light-based transceiver and configured to:
receive the plurality of TDM audiometer frames from the second transducer light-based transceiver; and
extract the TDM data packets from the TDM audiometer frames, defining extracted TDM data packets; and

a second transducer processor unit positioned in communication with the second transducer baseband processing unit and configured to:
receive the extracted TDM data packets from the second transducer baseband processing unit;
extract the masking data packets from the extracted TDM data packets, defining extracted masking data packets; and
convert the extracted masking data packets into a masking audio signal; and

a second audio speaker positioned in communication with the second transducer processor unit and configured to:
receive the masking audio signal from the transducer processor unit; and
generate a masking sound responsive to the masking audio signal;

wherein the sound generated by the audio speaker of the second transducer is generated simultaneously with the sound generated by the audio speaker of the first transducer;
wherein the audio speaker of the first transducer is positioned in audio communication with a first ear of a patient; and
wherein the audio speaker of the second transducer is positioned in audio communication with a second ear of the patient.