A cochlear implant system includes a cochlear implant configured to be implanted within a patient and a sound processor communicatively coupled to the cochlear implant. The sound processor detects a unique identifier of the cochlear implant and establishes, by way of a network, an active network link with a remote computing system located remotely from the cochlear implant system. The sound processor transmits the unique identifier of the cochlear implant to the remote computing system over the active network link and, in response, receives data representative of a sound processing program associated with the cochlear implant from the remote computing system over the active network link. The sound processor stores the received data representative of the sound processing program on a local storage facility associated with the sound processor. Corresponding systems and methods are also disclosed.

Presented herein are techniques for generating a hierarchical classification of a set of sound signals received at hearing prosthesis. The hierarchical classification includes a plurality of nested classifications of a sound environment associated with the set of sound signals received at hearing prosthesis, including a primary classification and one or more secondary classifications that each represent different characteristics of the sound environment. The primary classification represents a basic categorization of the sound environment, while the secondary classifications define sub-categories/refinements of the associated primary classification and/or other secondary classifications.

A system creates an audio profile. The audio profile may be stored in a database. For example, the audio profile may be securely stored in a database of a social network and associated with a user account. The audio profile may contain data describing the way in which the specific user hears and interprets sounds. Systems and applications which present sounds to the user may access the audio profile and modify the sounds presented to the user based on the data in the audio profile to enhance the audio experience for the user.

In one embodiment of the system, a programming interface is configured to communicate with a device. The system screens, via a speaker and a user interface associated with the device, a left earand separately, a right earof a patient. The system then determines a left ear hearing range and a right ear hearing range. The hearing ranges are modified with a subjective assessment of sound quality according to the patient. The subjective assessment of sound quality according to the patient may be a completed assessment of a degree of annoyance caused to the patient by an impairment of wanted sound.

A device and method that supplements sensory input, thereby providing a supplemented sensory environment, to induce plasticity within the central nervous system that effectively overcomes sensory-neural processing deficits or strengthens specific sensory-neural abilities. In one implementation, ear-level hearing devices are used to deliver therapeutic sound with specific acoustic features that serve as archetypes of stimulus features for which sensory-neural processing is compromised by a sensory-neural deficit.

A hearing aid comprises a forward path comprising a) at least two input transducers, each for picking up sound from the environment of the hearing aid and providing respective at least two electric input signals; b) a beamformer filter for filtering said at least two electric input signals or signals originating therefrom and providing a spatially filtered signal; c) a signal processor for processing one or more of said electric input signals or one or more signals originating therefrom, and providing one or more processed signals based thereon; and d) an output transducer for generating stimuli perceivable by the user as sound based on said one or more processed signals. The hearing aid further comprises e) a feedback estimation system for estimating a current feedback from the output transducer to each of the at least two input transducers and providing respective feedback measures indicative thereof; and f) a controller configured to receive said feedback measures from said feedback estimation system and to switch between two modes of operation of the hearing aid, a one-input transducer (e.g. omni-directional) mode of operation, and a multi-input transducer (directional) mode of operation, in dependence of the feedback measures. to. The application further relates to a method of operating a hearing aid. Thereby the gain provided by the hearing aid to the user (without a significant risk of howl) can be maximized.

A head-wearable hearing device includes: a housing; a microphone arrangement configured to generate a microphone signal in response to incoming sound; a digital signal processor configured to generate a processed output signal based on the microphone signal in accordance with one or more audio processing algorithms; an impact sensor configured to generate an impact pulse or impact signal in response to mechanical impact of the housing; and a reset circuit configured to apply a reset signal to the digital signal processor to place the digital signal processor in a predetermined logic state; wherein the reset circuit is configured to generate the reset signal in response to the impact pulse or the impact signal generated by the impact sensor.

A sound processing system measures one or more periauricular muscle signals from one or more periauricular muscles of a user. Additionally, the sound processing system computes, based on the periauricular muscle signals, an estimate of an angle corresponding to a direction of a current auditory attention locus of the user with respect to a reference point or plane. The sound processing system controls, based on the estimate of the angle, an operating characteristic of the sound processing system.

A method for operating a hearing device is specified. The hearing device has at least one microphone that picks up an input sound signal and converts it into an electrical input signal. The hearing device has a signal processing section that modifies the electrical input signal on the basis of an audiogram of a user and thereby generates a first electrical output signal. The hearing device has an active noise reduction system that generates a second electrical output signal in order to reject a noise component. The hearing device has a receiver that converts the first electrical output signal and the second electrical output signal into an output sound signal, for output to the user. The active noise reduction system is operated in parallel with the signal processing section. A corresponding hearing device is programmed to perform the method.

A method operates a hearing device in present surroundings such that noise cancellation of the hearing device is activated, so that ambient sounds are reduced for a user of the hearing device. A desired value for the voice volume of the user is determined for the present surroundings. An actual value for the voice volume of the user is measured. If the actual value is lower than the desired value, the hearing device takes a measure to prompt the user to speak more loudly. Additionally, a hearing device is configured to implement the method.