Method for operating a hearing aid, and hearing aid

Abstract

A method operates a hearing aid where the hearing aid generates an input signal from acoustic signals from the environment. The hearing aid has a signal processor which is configured to modify the input signal and thereby generate an output signal. The signal processor has an automatic gain control for modifying the input signal, and has a compressor that can be operated with a compression scheme. The environment is divided into a plurality of directions of which one is selected by a direction determination unit as a relevant direction. The input signal is modified in a direction-dependent manner by the compressor being operated with a compression scheme, which is set dependent on the relevant direction, so that acoustic signals from the relevant direction are emphasized compared to acoustic signals from other directions.

Claims

1. A method for operating a hearing aid, which comprises the steps of: generating, via the hearing aid, an input signal from acoustic signals from an environment, the hearing aid having a signal processor configured to modify the input signal and thereby generate an output signal, wherein in order to modify the input signal the signal processor having an automatic gain controller with a compressor, which can be operated with a compression scheme; subdividing the environment into a plurality of directions, one of the directions is selected by means of a direction determination unit as a relevant direction; and modifying the input signal in a direction-dependent manner by the compressor being operated with the compression scheme which is set depending on the relevant direction, so that acoustic signals from the relevant direction are emphasized compared to acoustic signals from other directions, wherein the compression scheme is selected from a set of compression schemes containing: a speech scheme for emphasizing speech components, and a sound scheme for adapting only to a hearing profile of a user of the hearing aid.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the direction determination unit has a beam former, by means of the beam former the environment is subdivided into the plurality of directions, which is used to determine the relevant direction.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the compression scheme is defined by at least one compression parameter, and the compression scheme is set depending on the relevant direction by the compression parameter being modified depending on the relevant direction.

4. The method according to claim 1, which further comprises modifying the input signal direction-dependently only if a directed acoustic signal is detected in the environment, and wherein otherwise the input signal is modified independently of a direction.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein several of the plurality of directions are selected as the relevant direction.

6. The method according to claim 1, which further comprises subdividing the environment into exactly four directions, namely front, rear, left and right.

7. A method for operating a hearing aid, which comprises the steps of: generating, via the hearing aid, an input signal from acoustic signals from an environment, the hearing aid having a signal processor configured to modify the input signal and thereby generate an output signal, wherein in order to modify the input signal the signal processor having an automatic gain controller with a compressor, which can be operated with a compression scheme; subdividing the environment into a plurality of directions, one of the directions is selected by means of a direction determination unit as a relevant direction; modifying the input signal in a direction-dependent manner by the compressor being operated with the compression scheme which is set depending on the relevant direction, so that acoustic signals from the relevant direction are emphasized compared to acoustic signals from other directions, wherein the compressor having a plurality of instances which can be operated with different instance schemes, wherein a particular instance scheme is configured to emphasize a particular type of acoustic signal, the method which further comprises the substeps of: feeding the input signal to the plurality of instances, which then generate a corresponding number of modified input signals, which are then combined together to form the output signal; and adjusting a relative proportion of the modified input signals to one another in the output signal depending on the relevant direction, so that the compression scheme is set as a mixture of the instance schemes.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein: the input signal has a plurality of directed input signals, each of which is assigned to one of the plurality of directions; for each of the directed input signals, the compressor has one instance which is operated with a respective instance scheme; and one of the directed input signals is fed to a respective instance so that the compression scheme is set as the mixture of the instance schemes.

9. The method according to claim 7, wherein for each of the directions a respective instance scheme for a respective directed input signal is set depending on a type of acoustic signal in an assigned direction.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the compression scheme, namely the respective instance scheme which is set, is selected from a set of compression schemes containing: a speech scheme for emphasizing speech components, and a sound scheme for adapting only to a hearing profile of a user of the hearing aid.

11. A hearing aid, comprising: a signal processor having an automatic gain controller with a compressor being operated with a compression scheme and a direction determination unit; and the hearing aid being programmed to: generate an input signal from acoustic signals from an environment; subdivide the environment into a plurality of directions, one of the directions is selected by means of said direction determination unit as a relevant direction; modify the input signal in a direction-dependent manner by the compressor being operated with the compression scheme which is set depending on the relevant direction, so that acoustic signals from the relevant direction are emphasized compared to acoustic signals from other directions resulting in a modified input signal; perform one of: a) select the compression scheme from a set of compression schemes containing: a speech scheme for emphasizing speech components, and a sound scheme for adapting only to a hearing profile of a user of the hearing aid; or b) form the compressor to have a plurality of instances which can be operated with different instance schemes, wherein a particular instance scheme is configured to emphasize a particular type of acoustic signal: b1) feed the input signal to the plurality of instances, which then generate a corresponding number of modified input signals, which are then combined together to form the output signal; and b2) adjust a relative proportion of the modified input signals to one another in the output signal depending on the relevant direction, so that the compression scheme is set as a mixture of the instance schemes; or c) provide the input signal with a plurality of directed input signals, each of the directed input signals being assigned to one of the plurality of directions, for each of the directed input signals, the compressor has one instance which is operated with a respective instance scheme, and one of the directed input signals is fed to a respective instance so that the compression scheme is set as the mixture of the instance schemes; and generate an output signal from the modified input signal.

12. A method for operating a hearing aid, which comprises the steps of: generating, via the hearing aid, an input signal from acoustic signals from an environment, the hearing aid having a signal processor configured to modify the input signal and thereby generate an output signal, wherein in order to modify the input signal the signal processor having an automatic gain controller with a compressor, which can be operated with a compression scheme; subdividing the environment into a plurality of directions, one of the directions is selected by means of a direction determination unit as a relevant direction; modifying the input signal in a direction-dependent manner by the compressor being operated with the compression scheme which is set depending on the relevant direction, so that acoustic signals from the relevant direction are emphasized compared to acoustic signals from other directions, wherein: the input signal has a plurality of directed input signals, each of which is assigned to one of the plurality of directions; for each of the directed input signals, the compressor has one instance which is operated with a respective instance scheme; and one of the directed input signals is fed to a respective instance so that the compression scheme is set as the mixture of the instance schemes.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING

(1) FIG. 1 is an illustration of a hearing aid;

(2) FIG. 2 is a block wiring diagram of the hearing aid;

(3) FIG. 3 is a block wiring diagram of a further hearing aid;

(4) FIG. 4 is a graph showing a compression scheme;

(5) FIG. 5 is an illustration of a subdivision of an environment into a plurality of directions; and

(6) FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a compressor with a plurality of instances; and

(7) FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a compressor which has a plurality of instances to which the complete input signal is fed.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

(8) Referring now to the figures of the drawings in detail and first, particularly to FIG. 1 thereof, there is shown an exemplary embodiment of a hearing aid 2. The hearing aid 2 has a signal processor 4. The hearing aid 2 is configured to be either monaural or binaural, thus it has either one or two separate devices, each of which is worn in or on the ear. FIG. 1 shows only one individual device. The hearing aid 2 is used in the present case to treat a hearing-impaired user N. The hearing aid 2 has at least one microphone 7 and at least one speaker 6. The example individual device shown in FIG. 1 has two microphones 7 and one speaker 6, which here is arranged externally with respect to a housing 8 so that the hearing aid 2 shown is a so-called RIC device.

(9) The signal processor 4 is configured to provide direction-dependent compression. Two exemplary embodiments are shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. Each of these shows a block wiring diagram of the hearing aid 2. The signal processor 4 generally includes an automatic gain control 10, AGC for short, which in turn has a compressor 12. The signal processor 4 also has a direction determination unit 14, by means of which the compressor 12 is controlled. To this end, the direction determination unit 14 determines a relevant direction R, depending on which the compressor 12 is controlled.

(10) The signal processor 4 is generally supplied with an input signal E, which is generated by a microphone 7. The input signal E is then fed to the AGC 10, which modifies the input signal E and forwards it as an output signal A for output to the speaker 6. In the present case, the input signal E is also used to determine the relevant direction R, i.e. for direction determination and is fed to the direction determination unit 14 for this purpose. As a result of the direction determination the compressor 12 is then set. The behavior of the compressor 12 is defined by a compression scheme K, which is then changed depending on the relevant direction R in order to obtain an emphasis of a relevant sound source in said direction.

(11) An example compression scheme K is shown in FIG. 4, here in a representation as a gain G as a function of an input level EP, i.e. of a level of the input signal E. The compression scheme K shown has a knee point 16, which defines two level ranges with different compression ratios. At a lower level range a constant gain is implemented, while at an upper level range the gain is reduced with increasing input level. The compression scheme is then changed as a function of the relevant direction R, for example, by the knee point 16 being shifted to bring about a change in behavior of the compressor 12.

(12) The environment of the user N is divided into a plurality of directions, for example, as shown in FIG. 5, into four directions front V, rear H, left L and right S. From these directions, the direction determination unit 14 selects one as the relevant direction R and this is the direction which will then be emphasized over the other directions. For this purpose, the input signal E is modified in a direction-dependent way by the compressor 12 being operated with a compression scheme K, which is dependent on the relevant direction R. Thus, the information as to the direction in which a relevant sound source is located is used to modify the input signal E selectively and to reproduce this sound source more clearly for the user N.

(13) The relevant direction R is selected according to its relevance to the user N. In particular, a direction is relevant if a sound source of a particular type is present there, for example, a person speaking, or if the sound source has a higher volume than other sound sources in the same direction, i.e. a higher sound level, for example a person speaking in a crowd. To determine the relevant direction R the input signal E is analyzed by the direction determination unit 14 and this analysis is used as a basis for determining the direction in which a sound source is located which is relevant to the user N, so that this direction R is then selected as the relevant direction. For example, for this purpose the hearing aid 2 has a classifier, not shown, to assign sound sources in the environment to a specific type, so that the direction selected as the relevant direction R is that in which a sound source of a particular type is located.

(14) In FIG. 2 an input signal E is now generated by a single microphone 7 and fed to the compressor 12 and to the direction determination unit 14. The direction determination unit 14 determines, on the basis of the input signal E, a relevant direction R and thereby controls the compressor 12, by changing the compression scheme K depending on the relevant direction R. A modified input signal Emod is thus generated dependent on direction, which is then output via the speaker 6 as an output signal A.

(15) In FIG. 3 the direction determination unit 14 has a beam former 30, which from an input signal E from a plurality of multiple microphones 7 generates a plurality of directed input signals Eger, i.e., the input signal E is decomposed into a plurality of directed input signals Eger. Each of the directed input signals Eger is assigned to one of the directions and is thus generated only or at least predominantly from acoustic signals from this one direction. The directed input signals are then fed to the compressor 12 where they are modified separately, so that a plurality of modified input signals Emod is generated, which are then combined to form the output signal A.

(16) A possible design of the suitable compressor 12 is shown in FIG. 6. The compressor 12 shown there has a plurality of instances 18, to each of which one of the directed input signals Eger is fed. These instances 18 are therefore also referred to as direction instances. In addition, each instance 18 is operated with a separate instance scheme, which is set depending on the relevant direction R. Each directed input signal Eger is thus modified separately and therefore a separate compression scheme, namely the respective instance scheme, is used for each direction, which means that the acoustic signals from each individual direction are optimally compressed independently of the acoustic signals of the other directions. The modified input signals Emod are then mixed together in a mixer 20. In particular, a relative proportion of the modified input signals Emod is adjusted at the output signal A in such a way that an optimal compression scheme K is obtained overall.

(17) FIG. 7 shows the compressor 12, which has a plurality of instances 18, to which the complete input signal E is fed. In contrast to FIG. 6, where a different signal, namely one directed input signal Eger each, is fed to each instance 18, in FIG. 7 the same signal is fed to each of the instances 18, in this case the input signal E. The individual instances 18 are operated with different instance schemes, so that the input signal E is modified in a different way in every instance 18 and different modified input signals Emod are obtained, which are then combined in a mixer 20 to form the output signal. The individual instances 18 in this case are also referred to as compression instances. In contrast, a plurality or all of the instances 18 in FIG. 6 are also operated with the same instance scheme as required. The different instance schemes in FIG. 7 in the present case are designed for different sound sources and, in general, different situations, thus one of the instance schemes is a speech scheme for emphasizing speech, and the other instance scheme is a sound scheme which implements the optimally realistic reproduction of acoustic signals of the environment, and matched to the hearing loss of the user N.

(18) In an alternative design, not shown, the embodiments of FIGS. 6 and 7 are combined in such a way that instead of being fed to each of the individual instances 18 in FIG. 6, a respective directed input signal Eger is fed to a plurality of instances 18 as in FIG. 7, in order, for example, to implement a mixture of different instance schemes for a single direction. For the specific case of FIG. 6 and 7, the compressor 12 would then have eight instances, namely one instance with a speech scheme and one with a sound scheme for each direction.

(19) The following is a summary list of reference numerals and the corresponding structure used in the above description of the invention: 2 hearing device 4 signal processor 6 loudspeaker/receiver 7 microphone 8 housing 10 Automatic Gain control AGC 12 compressor 14 direction determination unit 16 knee point 18 instance 20 mixer A output signal E input signal Eger directed input signal Emod modified input signal EP input level G gain H rear K compression scheme L left N user R relevant direction S right V front