ASSISTIVE LISTENING SYSTEM WITH DISPLAY AND SELECTIVE VISUAL INDICATORS FOR SOUND SOURCES

A portable assistive listening system for enhancing sound for hearing impaired individuals includes a functional hearing aid and a separate handheld digital signal processing (DSP) device. The invention focuses on a handheld DSP device that provides a visual cue to the user representing the source of an intermittent incoming sound. It is known that it is easier to distinguish and recognize sounds when the user has knowledge of the sound source. The system provides for various wired and/or wireless audio inputs from, for example, a television, a wireless microphone on a person, a doorbell, a telephone, a smoke alarm, etc. The wireless audio sources are linked to the DSP and can be identified as a particular type of source. For example, the telephone input is associated with a graphical image of a telephone, and the smoke alarm is associated with a graphical image of a smoke alarm. The DSP is configured and arranged to monitor the audio sources and will visually display the graphical image of the input source when sound input is detected from the input. Accordingly, when the telephone rings, the DSP device will display the image of the phone as a visual cue to the user that the phone is ringing. Additionally, the DSP will turn on backlight of the display as an added visual cue that there is an incoming audio signal.