Providing information to a user through somatosensory feedback

摘要

A hearing device may provide hearing-to-touch sensory substitution as a therapeutic approach to deafness. Through use of signal processing on received signals, the hearing device may provide better accuracy with the hearing-to-touch sensory substitution by extending beyond the simple filtering of an incoming audio stream as found in previous tactile hearing aids. The signal processing may include low bitrate audio compression algorithms, such as linear predictive coding, mathematical transforms, such as Fourier transforms, and/or wavelet algorithms. The processed signals may activate tactile interface devices that provide touch sensation to a user. For example, the tactile interface devices may be vibrating devices attached to a vest, which is worn by the user. The vest may also provide other types of information to the user.

主权项

1. An apparatus, comprising:
an input device; a processing module configured to control an array of tactile interface devices and coupled to the input device, wherein the processing module is configured to control the array of tactile interface devices by performing the steps of:
receiving samples of a data signal from the input device;selecting a window of samples from the received samples of the data signal;transforming the data samples of the window of samples into spatial patterns by transforming an N-dimensional signal of a first rate within the window of samples into a higher K-dimensional signal of a second slower rate, wherein the second rate corresponds to a rate capable of conveyance to a user through the array of tactile interface devices; andgenerating control signals for operating the array of tactile interface devices by mapping the spatial patterns to one or more devices of the array of tactile interface devices.