Patent ID: 8995688
Filing Date: 2015-03-31
Classification: H04R

Abstract:
1. A communication system, comprising: a plurality of connected portable hearing-assistive electronic units, each unit having a set of controls that can be operated by a user of the unit and a headset equipped with a directional microphone and headphones that can be worn by the user of the unit; each unit being capable of receiving, transmitting, amplifying and simultaneously sending multiple audio signals to and from the users of the connected units, enabling users to hear selected multiple audio signals coming into the connected units at the same time; wherein said users are selected from the group consisting of persons who are hard of hearing and persons who have ordinary hearing; said multiple audio signals being selected from the group comprising a signal from each user's voice being transmitted from the directional microphone located in his/her headset and signals from any other source of audio input coming into the connected units; each signal being systematically routed through an amplifier to a set of controls located on each unit, such that each signal has its own designated control for adjusting its volume among the set of controls located on each unit; enabling the user of each unit to separately adjust the volume of each audio input coming into the connected units as desired, whereby a personally blended signal of the volume-adjusted audio inputs is created for each user and routed to each user's headphones; allowing the users to share the multiple audio inputs coming into the connected units while at the same time allowing them to adjust the volumes of said multiple audio inputs relative to one another; allowing the users to wear headsets while talking with each other and listening to another source of audio input at the same time; enabling the hard of hearing user to match the volume of his/her own voice to the volumes of the other voice inputs coming into the connected units and to turn up the volume of any of the voice inputs coming from the other users relative to the volume of any audio inputs coming from other sources of sound into the connected units; an electrical connection, the “user connector”, which connects the headset of each user to his/her connection site on one of the connected units; receivers on each of the units capable of receiving audio input signals from the voice of each user and from another source of audio input into one or more of the connected units; an electrical connection, the “inter-unit connector”, which transmits audio signals coming into any connected unit, back and forth between the other connected units; an electrical circuit that separately routes each audio input signal coming into any of the connected units through an amplifier connected to the set of controls on the unit; the sets of controls allowing users of each unit to separately and continuously adjust the volume of each audio input signal coming into the unit as he/she desires; the volume-adjusted audio input signals then being routed by the electrical circuit from the amplifier through an audio signal combiner which combines all of the audio input signals that have been volume-adjusted by each user into a separate combined set of audio output signals for each unit, each set maintaining the relative volumes of the audio signals making up the set as personally adjusted by each user; and each combined set of audio output signals being sent back to the headphones of each respective user via the user connectors; whereby resulting in an improved listening experience for users who are hard of hearing; whereby the hard of hearing user does not feel the need to raise his/her voice to an unpleasant level while using the system since he/she can hear his/her own voice as well as the other voice inputs that have been volume-adjusted using his/her set of controls and as the hard of hearing user can turn up the volume of each of the user voice inputs over the volume of the audio inputs coming from any other sources of sound until he/she can hear the inputs from the voices of all the users as clearly as possible; whereby resulting in an improved listening experience for users having ordinary hearing; and whereby the user with ordinary hearing does not have to raise his/her voice to an uncomfortable level in order to be heard by the hard of hearing user during the period of use.