Patent ID: 8126174

Claim:
A hearing device with a multi-stage activation circuit, a signal processing and amplification circuit a microphone and an output unit, comprising: a primary activation unit in a first stage of the activation circuit, an evaluation unit in a second stage of the activation circuit and to be activated by the primary activation unit; and a main activation unit in a third stage of the activation circuit, wherein the primary activation unit constantly monitors sound-induced input signals, activates the evaluation unit when a threshold level of the monitored input signals is exceeded, and forwards the sound-induced input signals to the activated evaluation unit, wherein the evaluation unit determines a feature of the forwarded input signals suitable for identifying and/or classifying a noise causing the respective signals, the evaluation unit having a storage unit having stored features associated to noises, wherein the main activation unit is activated by the evaluation unit when the feature determined by the evaluation unit indicates a noise that should be perceptible to the wearer of the hearing device, wherein the activated main activation unit activates further components such that a full activation of the hearing device occurs; and wherein the evaluation unit, the main activation unit, and the further components are automatically powered down when the preliminary activation unit determines that a minimum level of the input signals is not exceeded over a given time period.