H04R25/405

Hearing aid system for estimating acoustic transfer functions

A hearing aid system comprises a hearing aid, and a portable auxiliary device' adapted to establish a communication link between them. The hearing aid comprises a microphone providing an electric input signal, a signal processor, and an output unit. The auxiliary device comprises a microphone providing an auxiliary electric input signal, and a user control interface allowing a user to initiate a specific calibration mode of operation of the hearing aid system. The signal processor of the hearing aid is configured to receive corresponding time segments of said electric input signal and said auxiliary electric input signal to provide an estimate of an acoustic transfer function from said microphone of said auxiliary device to said microphone of said hearing aid. A method of operating a hearing aid system is further disclosed. The invention may e.g. be used in various applications related to own voice detection and estimation.

Partial HRTF compensation or prediction for in-ear microphone arrays

In some embodiments, an ear-mounted sound reproduction system is provided. The system includes an ear-mountable housing that sits within the pinna of the ear and occludes the ear canal. In some embodiments, the ear-mountable housing includes a plurality of external-facing microphones. Because the external-facing microphones may be situated within the pinna of the ear but outside of the ear canal, the microphones will experience some, but not all, of the three-dimensional acoustic effects of the pinna. In some embodiments, sound is reproduced by an internal-facing driver element of the housing using a plurality of filters applied to the signals received by the plurality of external-facing microphones to preserve three-dimensional localization cues that would be present at the eardrum in the absence of the housing, such that the housing is essentially transparent to the user. In some embodiments, techniques are provided for deriving the plurality of filters.

Hearing aid comprising a record and replay function
11589173 · 2023-02-21 · ·

A hearing aid comprises a) an input transducer; b) an output transducer; c) an input buffer connected to the input transducer configured to store audio data representing one or more time segments of an electric input signal; d) an own voice detector for providing an own voice control signal, and e) a combiner allowing to insert audio data from the input buffer in a forward audio signal path. The hearing aid further comprises f) an input controller configured to control storage of a time segment of the electric input signal in dependence of said own voice control signal; and g) an output controller configured to select audio data from said one or more time segments of the electric input signal currently stored in the input buffer for insertion in the forward path in dependence of an output control signal originating from the user.

Hearing device comprising a speech presence probability estimator
11503414 · 2022-11-15 · ·

A hearing device, e.g. a hearing aid, comprises a) a multitude of input units, each providing an electric input signal representing sound in the environment of the user in a time-frequency representation, wherein the sound is a mixture of speech and additive noise or other distortions, e.g. reverberation, b) a multitude of beamformer filtering units, each being configured to receive at least two, e.g. all, of said multitude of electric input signals, each of said multitude of beamformer filtering units being configured to provide a beamformed signal representative of the sound in a different one of a multitude of spatial segments, e.g. spatial cells, around the user, c) a multitude of speech probability estimators each configured to receive the beamformed signal for a particular spatial segment and to estimate a probability that said particular spatial segment contains speech at a given point in time and frequency, wherein at least one, e.g. all, of the multitude of speech probability estimators is/are implemented as a trained neural network, e.g. a deep neural network. The invention may e.g. be used in hearing aids or communication devices, such as headsets, or telephones, or speaker phones.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING AN ARRANGEMENT OF TWO FIRST-ORDER DIRECTIONAL MICROPHONES ARRANGED IN TANDEM TO FORM A SECOND-ORDER DIRECTIONAL MICROPHONE SYSTEM
20220360916 · 2022-11-10 ·

Systems and methods for arranging two first-order directional microphones in tandem to form a second-order directional microphone system of an amplified listening device are provided. The amplified listening device includes a first directional microphone configured to provide a first electrical signal having a first phase, and a second directional microphone reversed in space and configured to provide a second electrical signal having a second phase opposite the first phase. Microphone inlet ports of the first and second directional microphones are linearly aligned in a same plane. The rear microphone inlet ports of the first and second directional microphones are positioned adjacent each other. The amplified listening device includes a resistive summing circuit without phase inverting circuitry. The resistive summing circuit is configured to combine the first electrical signal and the second electrical signal to generate a second order directional response.

A HEARING AID SYSTEM FOR ESTIMATING ACOUSTIC TRANSFER FUNCTIONS

A hearing aid system comprises a hearing aid, and a portable auxiliary device’ adapted to establish a communication link between them. The hearing aid comprises a microphone providing an electric input signal, a signal processor, and an output unit. The auxiliary device comprises a microphone providing an auxiliary electric input signal, and a user control interface allowing a user to initiate a specific calibration mode of operation of the hearing aid system. The signal processor of the hearing aid is configured to receive corresponding time segments of said electric input signal and said auxiliary electric input signal to provide an estimate of an acoustic transfer function from said microphone of said auxiliary device to said microphone of said hearing aid. A method of operating a hearing aid system is further disclosed. The invention may e.g. be used in various applications related to own voice detection and estimation.

A Gesture Detection System
20230098116 · 2023-03-30 ·

The present invention discloses a gesture detection system comprising a linear capacitive slider sensor configured to sense when a finger is close to the sensor surface, or is touching or is lifted or moved away from the sensor surface, and a direction of movements of the finger across the sensor surface, and when the finger is lifted away from the sensor surface, a combination of finger movements across the sensing surface is interpreted as a detectable gesture by the gesture detection system.

Hearing aid comprising binaural processing and a binaural hearing aid system

A hearing aid comprises an input unit providing an electric input signal representing sound, a wake word detector configured identifying a particular wake word based on said electric input signal, and providing a wake word control signal indicative of whether, or with what probability, the wake word is detected, or an own voice detector estimating whether, or with what probability, the electric input signal originates from the voice of the user and providing an own voice control signal indicative thereof, transceiver circuitry establishing a communication link to another hearing aid allowing the transmission and/or reception of the electric input signal to/from the other hearing aid, and a pre-processor controlling the transceiver circuitry in dependence of the wake word control signal or the own voice control signal. A binaural hearing aid system and a method of operating a hearing aid are further disclosed.

HEARING DEVICE COMPRISING A MICROPHONE ADAPTED TO BE LOCATED AT OR IN THE EAR CANAL OF A USER

A hearing device, e.g. a hearing aid, configured to be worn by a user, comprises a) two or more input transducers (e.g. microphones) wherein said two or more input transducers during use of the hearing device are arranged with a distance between them; b) a directional system comprising a directional algorithm configured to provide a directional pattern in dependence of said distance. The hearing device is configured to estimate a current value of said distance, or an equivalent acoustic delay, or beamformer weights of said directional system, thereby the directional performance can be optimized to the individual user.

Cognitive benefit measure related to hearing-assistance device use

A computing system comprising one or more electronic computing devices receives data from a hearing-assistance device. The computing system determines, based on the data received from the hearing-assistance device, a cognitive benefit measure for a wearer of the hearing-assistance device. The cognitive benefit measure being an indication of a change of a cognitive benefit of the wearer of the hearing-assistance device attributable to use of the hearing-assistance device by the wearer of the hearing-assistance device. The computing device outputs an indication of the cognitive benefit measure.