An in-ear hearing device includes a light source configured to emit light, a photodetector configured to detect the emitted light after the emitted light passes through tissue of a subject, a spout; an audio receiver configured to deliver a sound to the subject through the spout, and a dome configured to conform to a shape of a subject's ear canal when the hearing device is in the ear canal. An output of the light source and an input of the photodetector are separated by the dome, and the dome absorbs and/or reflects at least part of the emitted light. The photodetector may be a forward biased photodiode. The sensor device can be realized with power levels, circuitry components, and in package sizes, of hearing devices.

A hearing aid and method for use of the same are disclosed. In one embodiment, the hearing includes a body that at least partially conforms to the contours of the external ear and is sized to engage therewith. Various electronic components are contained within the body, including an electronic signal processor that is programmed with a preferred hearing range, which may be an about 10 Hz frequency to an about 30 Hz frequency range of sound corresponding to highest hearing capacity of a patient. Sound received at the hearing aid is converted to the preferred hearing range prior to output.

System and methods for processing audio signals are disclosed. In one implementation, a system may include at least one microphone configured to capture sounds from an environment of a user; a wearable camera configured to capture a plurality of images from the environment of the user; and at least one processor. The processor may be configured to receive at least one image of the plurality of images; receive at least one audio signal representative of the sounds captured by the at least one microphone; identify an item of information based on at least one of the at least one image or the at least one audio signal; determine at least a beginning of an informational time period for providing the item of information to the user; and transmit an informational audio signal representative of the item of information to a hearing interface device during the informational time period.

The present disclosure pertains to a method of automatic switching between omnidirectional (OMNI) and directional (DIR) microphone modes in a binaural hearing aid comprising a first microphone system for the provision of a first input signal, a second microphone system for the provision of a second input signal, where the first microphone system is adapted to be placed in or at a first ear of a user, the second microphone system is adapted to be placed in or at a second ear of said user, the method comprising a measurement step, where the spectral and temporal modulations of the first and second input signal are monitored, an evaluation step, where the spectral and temporal modulations of the first and second input signal are evaluated by the calculation of an evaluation index of speech intelligibility for each of said signals, and an operational step, where the microphone mode of the first and the second microphone systems of the binaural hearing aid are selected in dependence of the calculated evaluation indexes.

A hearing device has an acceleration sensor that measure along three mutually perpendicular measurement axis. A movement of the hearing aid wearer is deduced from acceleration data of the acceleration sensor issued in an acceleration signal, a movement plane of the movement of the hearing aid wearer is derived from the acceleration data, a movement axis and a movement direction of the movement are ascertained from the acceleration data, and the presence of a rotational movement of the head is deduced on the basis of the movement plane, the movement axis and the movement direction. A direction of view probability distribution is created from the detected rotational movements, in particular on the basis of a yaw angle ascertained in the process. The direction of view probability distribution specifies a probability that the actual direction of view of the hearing aid wearer extends along an assigned angle.

A hearing device comprises a processor configured to generate a virtual auditory display comprising a sound field, a plurality of disparate sound field zones, and a plurality of quite zones that provide acoustic contrast between the sound field zones. The sound field zones and the quiet zones remain positionally stationary within the sound field. One or more sensors are configured to sense a plurality of inputs from the wearer. The processor is configured to facilitate movement of the wearer within the sound field in response to a navigation input received from the one or more sensors. The processor is also configured to select one of the sound field zones for playback via a speaker or actuation of a hearing device function in response to a selection input received from the one or more sensors.

A method, including obtaining respective first reactions of a recipient to a series of sounds subjected to the recipient of a hearing prosthesis, the first reactions being directly related to the recipient's ability to hear the series of sounds, obtaining respective second reactions of the recipient to the series of sounds, the second reactions being different in kind than the first reactions, and fitting the hearing prosthesis based at least in part on both the first reactions and the second reactions.

Disclosed is a personal hearing device, an external acoustic processing device and an associated computer program product. The personal hearing device includes: a microphone, for receiving an input acoustic signal, wherein the input acoustic signal is a mixture of sounds coming from a first acoustic source and from other acoustic source(s); a speaker; and an acoustic processing circuit, for automatically distinguishing within the input acoustic signal the sound of the first acoustic source from the sound of other acoustic source(s); wherein the acoustic processing circuit further processes the input acoustic signal by having different modifications to the sound of the first acoustic source and to the sound of other acoustic source(s), whereby the acoustic processing circuit produces an output acoustic signal to be played on the speaker.

A hearing aid (10) and method for use of the same are disclosed. In one embodiment, the hearing (10) includes a body(112) that at least partially conforms to the contours of the external ear and is sized to engage therewith. Various electronic components are contained within the body (112), including an electronic signal processor (130) that is programmed with a preferred hearing range, which may be an about 10 Hz frequency to an about 30 Hz frequency range of sound corresponding to highest hearing capacity of a patient. Sound received at the hearing aid (10) is converted to the preferred hearing range prior to output.

A method operates a hearing aid where the hearing aid generates an input signal from acoustic signals from the environment. The hearing aid has a signal processor which is configured to modify the input signal and thereby generate an output signal. The signal processor has an automatic gain control for modifying the input signal, and has a compressor that can be operated with a compression scheme. The environment is divided into a plurality of directions of which one is selected by a direction determination unit as a relevant direction. The input signal is modified in a direction-dependent manner by the compressor being operated with a compression scheme, which is set dependent on the relevant direction, so that acoustic signals from the relevant direction are emphasized compared to acoustic signals from other directions.