Hearing system comprising a hearing aid and an external processing device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12432505-B2
Application number	US-202318187715-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 22, 2023
Priority date	Mar 25, 2022
Publication date	Sep 30, 2025
Grant date	Sep 30, 2025

Abstract

A hearing system comprises at least one hearing aid (HA) configured to be worn by a user at or in an ear of the user, and an external, portable processing device (EPD). The at least one hearing aid comprises a) at least one HA-input transducer for providing at least one HA-electric input signal representing sound in the environment of the hearing aid; b) a configurable noise reduction system for reducing noise in the at least one HA-electric input signal or in a signal originating therefrom based on a resulting set of noise reduction parameters; c) a noise reduction controller configured to determine a local set of noise reduction parameters; and d) a data receiver configured to receive data via a communication link from the external processing device. The external processing device comprises A) at least one EPD-input transducer for providing at least one EPD-electric input signal representing sound in the environment of the external processing device; B) a parameter estimator for providing an external set of noise reduction parameters configured to reduce noise in the at least one EPD-electric input signal, or in the at least one HA-electric input signal, or in a signal originating therefrom; and C) a data transmitter configured to transmit data, including said external set of noise reduction parameters, via said communication link to the hearing aid. The noise reduction controller is configured to determine said resulting set of noise reduction parameters based on said local set of noise reduction parameters, or on said external set of noise reduction parameters, or on a mixture thereof, in dependence of a noise reduction control signal. A hearing aid and a method of operating a hearing system is further disclosed.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A hearing system comprising at least one hearing aid (HA) configured to be worn by a user at or in an ear of the user, and an external, portable processing device (EPD);
the at least one hearing aid comprising:
at least one HA-input transducer for providing at least one HA-electric input signal representing sound in the environment of the hearing aid;
a configurable noise reduction system for reducing noise in the at least one HA-electric input signal or in a signal originating therefrom based on a resulting set of noise reduction parameters;
a noise reduction controller configured to determine a local set of noise reduction parameters;
a data receiver configured to receive data via a communication link from the external processing device;

the external processing device comprising;
at least one EPD-input transducer for providing at least one EPD-electric input signal representing sound in the environment of the external processing device;
a parameter estimator for providing an external set of noise reduction parameters configured to reduce noise in the at least one EPD-electric input signal, or in the at least one HA-electric input signal, or in a signal originating therefrom;
a data transmitter configured to transmit data, including said external set of noise reduction parameters, via said communication link to the hearing aid,

wherein said noise reduction controller is configured to determine said resulting set of noise reduction parameters based on said local set of noise reduction parameters, or on said external set of noise reduction parameters, or on a mixture thereof, in dependence of a noise reduction control signal,
a signal quality estimator or separate signal quality estimators configured to estimate an external signal quality parameter of the at least one EPD-electric input signal, or a signal originating therefrom, and a local signal quality parameter of the at least one HA-electric input signal, or of a signal originating therefrom,
a comparator configured to compare the local signal quality parameter with the external signal quality parameter provided by the signal quality estimators, and wherein the comparator is configured to provide the noise reduction control signal in dependence thereof.

2. A hearing system according to claim 1 wherein the noise reduction controller is configured to determine the noise reduction control signal in dependence of the signal quality parameter of the at least one EPD-electric input signal, and/or of the at least one HA-electric input signal, or in a signal originating therefrom.

3. A hearing system according to claim 1 wherein the signal quality parameter of the HA- or EPD-electric input signals comprises one or more of a signal to noise ratio, a level, a voice activity parameter, a speech intelligibility indicator, and a bit error rate.

4. A hearing system according to claim 1 wherein the hearing aid is configured to detect whether said external set of noise reduction parameters are received in the hearing aid from the external processing device, and to provide a reception control signal representative thereof.

5. A hearing system according to claim 4 wherein the noise reduction controller is configured to base the resulting set of noise reduction parameters solely on the local set of noise reduction parameters in case no noise reduction parameters are received in the hearing aid from the external processing device as indicated by said reception control signal.

6. A hearing system according to claim 1 configured to base the resulting set of noise reduction parameters on a mixture of the local and external set of noise reduction parameters provided as a weighted combination of the local set of noise reduction parameters and the external set of noise reduction parameters, wherein the weights of a given weighted combination depend on the respective local and external signal quality parameters (SQE-L, SQE-X) of the at least one HA-electric input signal and the at least one EPD-electric input signal.

7. A hearing system according to claim 6 wherein the individual weights of the hearing aid and the external processing device are adapted to scale with their respective signal quality parameters, respectively.

8. A hearing system according to claim 1 comprising a sound scene classifier for classifying an acoustic environment around the hearing system and providing a sound scene classification signal representative of a current acoustic environment around the hearing system.

9. A hearing system according to claim 8 , wherein the sound scene classification signal is representative of an estimate of the complexity of the current sound scene.

10. A hearing system according to claim 1 configured to control the communication link to allow enabling/disabling the transmission of data by the external processing device, or reception of data by the hearing aid, in dependence of a link control signal.

11. A hearing system according to claim 10 , wherein the hearing system comprises a sound scene classifier for classifying an acoustic environment around the hearing system and providing a sound scene classification signal representative of a current acoustic environment around the hearing system, and wherein the hearing system is configured to control the communication link in dependence of the sound scene classification signal.

12. A hearing system according to claim 1 wherein the parameter estimator of the external processing device comprises a deep neural network.

13. A hearing system according to claim 1 configured to provide a limitation on the noise reduction parameters applied to the at least one HA electric input signal or to a signal originating therefrom by the noise reduction system of the hearing aid.

14. A hearing system according to claim 13 , wherein the hearing system comprises a signal quality estimator or separate signal quality estimators configured to estimate an external signal quality parameter of the at least one EPD-electric input signal, or a signal originating therefrom, and a local signal quality parameter of the at least one HA-electric input signal, or of a signal originating therefrom, wherein the maximum amount of noise reduction depends on said signal quality parameter, or
wherein the hearing system comprises a sound scene classifier for classifying an acoustic environment around the hearing system and providing a sound scene classification signal representative of a current acoustic environment around the hearing system, wherein the maximum amount of noise reduction depends on said sound scene classification signal.

15. A hearing system according to claim 1 comprising a distance estimator or a delay estimator configured to estimate a distance or a delay, respectively, between the at least one hearing aid and the external processing device.

16. A hearing system according to claim 15 wherein the distance estimator or the delay estimator is configured to estimate the distance or delay, respectively, between the at least one hearing aid and the external processing device in dependence of a correlation between an envelope of the noise reduction parameters provided by the external processing device and an envelope of the at least one HA electric input signal or of a signal originating therefrom.

17. A hearing system according to claim 16 wherein the noise reduction controller is configured to only apply the noise reduction gain estimates provided by the external processing device if a time lag between the respective envelopes is smaller than a threshold-value.

Assignees

• Oticon As

Inventors

• Pedersen Michael Syskind
• Jensen Jesper
• Rohde Nels Hede
• Sathyapriyan Vasudha

Classifications

• H04R2225/43

  Signal processing in hearing aids to enhance the speech intelligibility · CPC title

• H04R25/407

  Circuits for combining signals of a plurality of transducers · CPC title

• H04R1/1083

  Reduction of ambient noise (active noise reduction per se G10K11/175; protective devices for the ear, e.g. providing acoustic protection A61F11/06) · CPC title

• H04R25/507 Primary

  implemented by neural network or fuzzy logic · CPC title

• H04R25/554 Primary

  using a wireless connection, e.g. between microphone and amplifier or using Tcoils · CPC title