The present disclosure relates to an apparatus having a directional microphone system having adaptable directionality and a remote object detection unit configured to detect a remote object by detecting a transmitted signal reflected from the object, the directionality of the directional microphone system may be modified or adapted based on the detection of the remote object.

In some examples, a system includes a storage device; and processing circuitry having access to the storage device. The processing circuitry is configured to receive information indicative of a media dataset, where the media dataset corresponds to an object; and analyze the media dataset to compute a corresponding set of operating condition weight values. Additionally, the processing circuitry is configured to compare the set of operating condition weight values corresponding to the media dataset with a plurality of sets of reference operating condition weight values that each correspond to a different reference media dataset of a plurality of reference media datasets; and determine, based on the comparison of the set of operating condition weight values with the plurality of sets of reference operating condition weight values, an indication of a capability of a trained machine learning model to correctly verify the object in the media dataset.

A monaural intrusive speech intelligibility predictor unit comprises: first and second input units for providing time-frequency representations s(k,m) and x(k,m) of noise-free and noisy and/or processed versions of a target signal, respectively, k being a frequency bin index, k=1, 2, . . . , K, and m being a time index; first and second envelope extraction units for providing time-frequency sub-band representations of the signals s.sub.j(m) and x.sub.j(m), j being a frequency sub-band index, j=1, 2, . . . , J; first and second time-frequency segment division units for dividing the time-frequency sub-band representations s.sub.j(m) and x.sub.j(m) into time-frequency segments S.sub.m and X.sub.m corresponding to a number N of successive samples of the sub-band signals; an intermediate speech intelligibility calculation unit adapted for providing intermediate speech intelligibility coefficients d.sub.m estimating an intelligibility of said time-frequency segment X.sub.m, based on said time-frequency segments S.sub.m and X.sub.m or normalized and/or transformed versions {tilde over (S)}.sub.m, and {tilde over (X)}.sub.m thereof; and a final monaural speech intelligibility calculation unit for calculating a final monaural speech intelligibility predictor d estimating an intelligibility of said noisy and/or processed version x of the target signal by combining said intermediate speech intelligibility coefficients d.sub.m, or a transformed version thereof, over time. A hearing aid comprises a monaural, intrusive intelligibility predictor unit, and a configurable signal processor adapted to control or influence the processing of one or more electric input signals representing environment sound to maximize the final speech intelligibility predictor d. A binaural hearing aid system comprises first and second hearing aids.

As disclosed, a hearing prosthesis that receives audio provided by an external device will also receive from the external device a control signal that indicates one or more characteristics of the audio, such as a specification of a dynamic range of the audio content, a specification of latency-sensitivity of the audio content, or various other characteristics of the audio. The hearing prosthesis then responds to receipt of the control signal by automatically configuring its sound processor in a manner based at least in part on the indicated one or more characteristics of the audio content, to help facilitate processing of the received audio.

A system and method for differentially locating and modifying audio sources that includes receiving multiple audio inputs from a set of distinct locations; determining a multi-dimensional audio map from the audio inputs; acquiring a set of positional audio control inputs applied to the audio map, each audio control input comprising a location and audio processing property; and generating an audio output according to the audio control inputs and the audio inputs. The audio control inputs capable of configuration through manual, automatic, computer vision analysis, and other configuration modes.

Earpieces and methods for acute sound detection and reproduction are provided. A method can include measuring an external ambient sound level (xASL), monitoring a change in the xASL for detecting an acute sound, estimating a proximity of the acute sound, and upon detecting the acute sound and its proximity, reproducing the acute sound within an ear canal, where the ear canal is at least partially occluded by an earpiece. Other embodiments are disclosed.

A hearing aid device is adjusted based on augmented reality. A virtual sound object, such as a bird, is added to a recording of a real-world environment, such as a tree of a forest. Alternatively, a virtual environment may be added to a real-world sound object. The thereby created acoustic—and optionally also visual—scene is then used to optimize the adjustment of the hearing aid device. The adjustment may be done by a user using at least one user control, such as a volume control.

A hearing aid system assists a user's ability to hear. The system has a hearing aid instrument worn on the user's head. A sound signal from the user's surroundings is recorded and converted into input audio signals by two input transducers. The input audio signals are processed in a signal processing step for generating an output audio signal, which is output by an output transducer. The input audio signals or audio signals derived therefrom by pre-processing are direction-dependently damped by an adaptive beamformer according to the stipulation of a variable directivity with a directional strength to generate a directed audio signal. The directivity is varied with a specified adaptation speed such that the energy content of the directed audio signal is minimized. The adaptation speed and/or the directional strength are variably set on a basis of an analysis of the input audio signals or of the pre-processed audio signals.

A method operates a hearing instrument that is worn in or at the ear of a user. The method includes capturing a sound signal from an environment of the hearing instrument; analyzing the captured sound signal to recognize own-voice intervals, in which the user speaks, and foreign-voice intervals, in which at least one different speaker speaks; and determining, from the recognized own-voice intervals and foreign-voice intervals, at least one turn-taking feature. From the at least one turn-taking feature a measure of the sound perception by the user is derived. Predefined action for improving the sound perception is taken if the measure or the at least one turn-taking feature fulfill a predefined criterion.

A hearing aid and a hearing aid output voice adjustment method thereof are disclosed. The hearing aid includes a microphone, a voice output adjustment module, a voice player, and a voice processing module. The microphone is used for receiving an input voice. The voice player is used for outputting an output voice. The voice processing module is used for receiving the input voice and modifying to the output voice, wherein the voice processing module is used for adjusting sound output energies of at least N steps, wherein the sound output energy of the nth step is greater than that of the n−1th step, 2≤n≤N, N≥3. When the voice processing module adjusts the sound output energy of the Nth step, the voice output adjustment module also simultaneously reduces at least a portion of frequencies of the input voice.