GENERAL PURPOSE DEVICE TO ASSIST THE HARD OF HEARING

摘要

An approach to notifying a person who is hard of hearing of audible events based on a configurable device. The device has microphones and associated buttons mounted on its surface. The user programs the device by depressing a selected button longer than a preconfigured time to place the device in listen mode. The user generates the desired audible event and the device records the audible event. The selected button is depressed again to instruct the device to associate the audible event with a visual alarm indicator of colored/flashing lights and/or a text projection. The device listens for the audible event and activates the visual alarm indicator when the device detects the audible event.

主权项

1. A method for notifying a person who is hard of hearing of audible events, the method comprising:
selecting one or more audible events for visual alarm activation based on configuring a device, comprising a plurality of microphones, to record a sound, generating the sound and configuring the device to associate the sound with an audible event wherein the one or more audible events are associated with a unique at least one of one or more visual alarm indicators associated with the device; detecting at least one of the one or more audible events based on an audible event sound level being greater that a predetermined sound level wherein the audible event is at least one of a smoke detector alarm, a fire alarm, an air raid alarm, a natural disaster alarm and a noxious gas alarm; determining a direction of the audible event based on a pitch of the audible event wherein a plurality of microphones are configured such that each microphone is tuned to a different frequency for detecting the audible event; responsive to detecting the at least one of the one or more audible events and determining the direction of the audible event, activating the unique at least one of the one or more visual alarm indicators associated with the at least one of the one or more audible events and the direction wherein the one or more visual alarm indicators comprises projecting a preconfigured text message associated with receipt of the audible event; and responsive to receiving an acknowledgment associated with the at least one of the one or more audible events, deactivating the at least one of the one or more visual alarm indicators.