A hearing system includes a hearing instrument for capturing a sound signal from an environment of the hearing instrument. The captured sound signal is processed, and the processed sound signal is output to a user of the hearing instrument. In a speech recognition step, the captured sound signal is analyzed to recognize speech intervals, in which the captured sound signal contains speech. In a speech enhancement procedure performed during recognized speech intervals, the amplitude of the processed sound signal is periodically varied according to a temporal pattern that is consistent with a stress rhythmic pattern of the user. A method for operating the hearing instrument is also provided.

Methods and systems are described herein for improving audio for hearing impaired content consumers. An example method may comprise determining a content asset. Closed caption data associated with the content asset may be determined. At least a portion of the closed caption data may be determined based on a user setting associated with a hearing impairment. Compensating audio comprising a frequency translation associated with at least the portion of the closed caption data may be generated. The content asset may be caused to be output with audio content comprising the compensating audio and the original audio.

A method fits a digital hearing aid having an input transducer, a signal processing device and an output transducer. The signal processing device is configured to form an evaluation unit, a comparator unit, and a pre-amplification unit. An acoustic test signal is generated by an external testing device while the hearing aid is worn by a hearing-aid wearer. A digital test input signal is generated by the input transducer on the basis of the acoustic test signal. A sound pressure-dependent test quantity is determined on the basis of the digital test input signal by the evaluation unit. A deviation between the sound pressure-dependent test quantity and a reference quantity stored in the signal processing device is determined by the comparator unit. A pre-amplification by the pre-amplification unit is adjusted on the basis of the determined deviation.

A method and apparatus for sound enhancement are provided in this invention. The method comprises: obtaining sound signals and converting the sound signals into digital signals; decomposing the digital signals to obtain a plurality of IMFs or pseudo-IMFs; selectively amplifying the amplitudes of the IMFs and pseudo-IMFs; reconstituting the selectively amplified IMFs or pseudo-IMFs to obtain reconstituted signals and converting the reconstituted signals into analog signals. The present invention is based on the Hilbert-Huang transform. Through the present invention, the sound can be selectively amplified, and only the high-frequency consonants in the sound are amplified without vowel, which effectively improves the clarity of the enhanced sound. The present invention overcomes the problems in the current sound enhancement method which makes the sound louder without increasing the clarity.

A hearing aid comprises a) an ITE-part adapted for being located at or in an ear canal of the user, b) a forward path for processing sound from the environment of the user. The forward path comprises b1) at least one first input transducer providing at least one first electric input signal representing said sound as received at the respective at least one first microphone, said at least one first input transducer being located to allow picking up sound from the environment of the user, b2) an audio signal processor comprising a gain unit for applying a frequency and/or level dependent prescribed gain to compensate for a hearing impairment of the user to said at least one first electric input signal, or a signal or signals originating therefrom, and configured to provide a processed signal in dependence thereof, b3) an output transducer for providing stimuli perceivable as sound to the user in dependence of said processed signal. The hearing aid further comprises c) at least one second input transducer providing at least one second electric input signal representing said sound as received at the at least one second input transducer, the at least one second input transducer being located in said ITE-part to pick up sound at the eardrum of the user, d) a correlator configured to determine a correlation measure between the at least one second electric input signal, or a signal originating therefrom, and a signal of the forward path and e) a gain modifier configured to modify said gain of the gain unit in dependence of said correlation measure. A method of operating a hearing aid is further disclosed.

Presented herein are techniques that make use of objective measurements obtained in response to acoustic stimulation signals. More specifically, at least one measure of outer hair cell function and at least one measure of auditory nerve function are obtained from a tonotopic region of an inner ear of a recipient of a hearing prosthesis. The at least one measure of auditory nerve function and the least one measure of outer hair cell function are then analyzed relative to one another.

The invention relates to a method for processing an acoustic input signal, preferably a speech signal, said method comprising the following steps: a) receiving a digital representation (S.sub.in) of an acoustic input signal, b) calculating at least one statistical parameter (P) of the digital representation (S.sub.in) of the acoustic input signal, c) calculating a compression ratio function (CR.sub.f) based—on a prescribed constant compression ratio (CR.sub.pr), said prescribed constant compression ratio (CR.sub.pr) uniformly mapping acoustic input signals of a selected magnitude to acoustic output signals of a selected magnitude, and—on at least one statistical parameter (P) calculated in step b), and d) applying the non-uniform compression ratio function (CR.sub.f) according to step c) on the digital representation (S.sub.in) of the acoustic input signal delivering a digital representation (S.sub.out) of an enhanced acoustic output signal.

A hearing system contains a hearing instrument and the hearing instrument is configured to support the hearing of a hearing-impaired user. The hearing instrument is operated via an operating method. The method includes capturing a sound signal from an environment of the hearing instrument, processing the captured sound signal to at least partially compensate the hearing-impairment of the user and outputting the processed sound signal to the user. The captured sound signal is analyzed to recognize speech intervals, in which the captured sound signal contains speech. During recognized speech intervals, at least one time derivative of an amplitude and/or a pitch of the captured sound signal is determined. The amplitude of the processed sound signal is temporarily increased, if the at least one derivative fulfills a predefined criterion.

Presented herein are techniques for enhancing a hearing prosthesis recipient's perception of multiple frequencies present in received sound signals. The hearing prosthesis is configured to extract a plurality of frequencies from the received sound signals and to use the plurality of frequencies to modulate the amplitudes of different stimulation pulse sequences that are to be delivered to the recipient via different stimulation channels. The hearing prosthesis may also adapt a stimulation resolution of the stimulation pulse sequences when delivering the modulated stimulation pulses sequences to the recipient.

An aspect of the disclosure is to provide a method and a hearing aid system comprising; a microphone unit configured to receive an acoustical input and provide an audio signal based on the acoustical input, and wherein the audio signal includes a sound pressure level; a storing unit including a normal hearing loudness model, a loudness scheme, a stimulation model and a coding parameter model; a sound output unit configured to stimulate auditory nerve fibers of a recipient of the hearing aid system based on audible stimulations; a processing unit configured to; extract a normal hearing loudness based on the sound pressure level and the normal hearing loudness model, and the normal hearing loudness model includes a plurality of normal hearing loudness as a function of a plurality of sound pressure levels; transform the normal hearing loudness to a secondary hearing loudness according to a loudness scheme; determine a stimulation level within a dynamic range of a recipient of the hearing aid system based on the secondary hearing loudness and the stimulation model, where the stimulation model includes a relation between a plurality of stimulation levels and a plurality of secondary hearing loudness; determine one or more stimulation coding parameters based on the coding parameter model, where the coding parameter model includes a relation between the determined stimulation level and the one or more stimulation coding parameters; and wherein the processing unit is configured to generate the audible stimulations based on the determined one or more stimulation coding parameters and provide the audible stimulations via the sound output unit to the auditory nerve fibers of the recipient of the hearing aid system such that the recipient perceives the secondary hearing loudness.