A hearing aid having hearing loss-compensating components, active occlusion reduction components, a vent, a tuned piston, and a flexible surround. The piston and the surround combination are assembled on the faceplate and cover the outside end of the vent that is situated on the faceplate. The piston and the surround combination minimize the adverse effects of walk-induced head vibrations.

Examples of canal hearing devices including a lateral section having a frequency shaping sound port system are disclosed. A lateral section includes an elongate sound channel for receiving an incoming sound and producing a frequency-shaped sound output. The hearing device includes a microphone, a speaker for transmitting sound to the eardrum, and a sound port to receive the frequency-shaped sound output from the elongate sound channel and provide a pathway for the frequency-shaped sound output to reach the microphone.

A receiver assembly comprising a first and a second receiver housing and a spout. The second receiver housing is positioned over a first sound outlet port of the first receiver housing and the spout is positioned over a second outlet port of the second receiver housing. An acoustic duct is located between the first and second receiver housing acoustically connecting the first sound outlet port to the spout and is provided with an acoustic mass.

An apparatus for a hearing instrument, the hearing instrument being configured to be at least partially placed in an ear canal of a wearer of the hearing instrument, the apparatus comprising: a sealing element configured to seal off the ear canal when the hearing instrument with the apparatus is at least partially positioned in the ear canal, wherein operation of the sealing element is controlled by an electric control signal, the sealing element being at least partially made from an electroactive material.

In one embodiment, a MEMS microphone can be coupled to an acoustic horn to provide various benefits and improvements including, but not limited to, at-a-distance acoustic signal reception with improvements in signal-to-noise ratio and directional preference.

A hearing signal processor processes an input sound signal and generates an electrical communications signal for an upper range of sound frequencies, and an acoustic communications signal for a lower range of sound frequencies. An implanted electrical stimulation subsystem includes an electrode array with one or more electrode contacts in an acoustically perceivable cochlear region retaining residual natural hearing. The electrical stimulation subsystem receives the electrical communications signal and delivers corresponding electrical stimulation signals to the electrode contacts for electrical stimulation of adjacent neural tissue. An external acoustic stimulation subsystem receives the acoustic communications signal and delivers corresponding amplified acoustic stimulation signals to the ear canal of the patient. The upper range and the lower range overlap and the electrical stimulation signals and the amplified acoustic stimulation signals are coordinated for simultaneous delivery to the acoustically perceivable cochlear region.

The present disclosure relates to a hearing device having a microphone, where most of the microphone is shielded by an outer shielding of the hearing device. An inlet in the outer shielding allows sound from outside the hearing aid to travel to the microphone to be picked up by it. However, the combination of the microphone and the inlet results in the microphone becoming more sensitive at some audible frequencies. A damping filter positioned in connection with the inlet acts to counter the acoustic effect of the inlet by damping sound in the audible frequency range, where the microphone has increased sensitivity.

In one aspect, a low frequency driver is provided having a diaphragm operable to produce sound, a front volume, and an outlet that receives sound from the front volume and directs sound out from the low frequency driver. The low frequency driver further includes a low-pass filter chamber in communication with the front volume.

An assistive listening device includes a set of microphones including an array arranged into pairs about a nominal listening axis with respective distinct intra-pair microphone spacings, and a pair of ear-worn loudspeakers. Audio circuitry performs arrayed-microphone short-time target cancellation processing including (1) applying short-time frequency transforms to convert time-domain audio input signals into frequency-domain signals for every short-time analysis frame, (2) calculating ratio masks from the frequency-domain signals of respective microphone pairs, wherein the calculation of a ratio mask includes both a frequency domain subtraction of signal values of a microphone pair and a scaling of a resulting frequency domain noise estimate by a pre-computed phase difference normalization vector, (3) calculating a global ratio mask from the plurality of ratio masks, and (4) applying the global ratio mask, and inverse short-time frequency transforms, to selected ones of the frequency-domain signals, thereby generating audio output signals for driving the loudspeakers. The circuitry and processing may also be realized in a machine hearing device executing a human-computer interface application.

A hearing system to activate an auditory system using cerebrospinal fluids includes at least one processor configured to receive an audio signal captured using a sound sensor (e.g., a microphone), extract temporal and spectral features from the audio signal, and create modulated ultrasound signals in a range of 20 Hz to 20 kHz with ultrasound carrier frequencies in the range of 50 kHz to 4 MHz, which are ultrasound frequencies that are well-suited to reach the cerebrospinal fluids (e.g., can pass across the skull/bones to reach the cerebrospinal fluids). The system further includes at least one ultrasonic transducer which receives the modulated signal and delivers the modulated signal to the body and activates the auditory system via vibration of cerebrospinal fluids that vibrate cochlear fluids, bypassing the normal conductive pathway that uses middle ear bones and minimizing bone conduction and distortion through the skull.