Hearing aid and feedback canceller

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016007126-A1
Application number	US-201514791959-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jul 6, 2015
Priority date	Jul 7, 2014
Publication date	Jan 7, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A hearing aid according to an embodiment of the present disclosure includes: a microphone configured to convert sound into an electric signal and output a first signal; a receiver configured to convert the third signal that is generated by performing predetermined hearing aid processing on a second signal, into sound; a first feedback removal unit having an adaptive filter configured to adaptively estimate a first transfer function of a sound feedback path from the receiver to the microphone; and a second feedback removal unit having a fixed filter configured to receive the third signal and use a fixed filter coefficient based on a second transfer function of a vibration feedback path from the receiver to the microphone. The second signal is generated by removing from the first signal, output signals from the adaptive filter and the fixed filter.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A hearing aid comprising:
a microphone configured to convert sound into an electric signal and output a first signal; a hearing aid processing unit configured to perform predetermined hearing aid processing on a second signal generated based on the first signal to generate a third signal; a receiver configured to convert the third signal into sound; a first feedback removal unit having an input filter configured to attenuate a predetermined low-frequency band component included in the third signal, and an adaptive filter configured to receive an output signal from the input filter and adaptively estimate a first transfer function of a sound feedback path from the receiver to the microphone; and a second feedback removal unit having a fixed filter configured to receive the third signal and use a fixed filter coefficient based on a second transfer function of a vibration feedback path from the receiver to the microphone, wherein the first feedback removal unit and the second feedback removal unit are connected in parallel to each other, and the second signal is generated by removing from the first signal an output signal from the adaptive filter included in the first feedback removal unit and an output signal from the fixed filter included in the second feedback removal unit.

2 . The hearing aid according to claim 1 , wherein
the second feedback removal unit includes a first subtraction unit configured to subtract from the first signal an output signal from the fixed filter and output a fourth signal, and the first feedback removal unit includes a second subtraction unit configured to subtract from the fourth signal an output signal from the adaptive filter and output the second signal.

3 . The hearing aid according to claim 1 , wherein the hearing aid is switchable between a first operation mode in which to operate both of the first and second feedback removal units and a second operation mode in which to operate only the second feedback removal unit.

4 . The hearing aid according to claim 2 , wherein the hearing aid is switchable between a first operation mode in which to operate both of the first and second feedback removal units and a second operation mode in which to operate only the second feedback removal unit.

5 . A hearing aid comprising:
a microphone configured to convert sound into an electric signal and output a first signal; a hearing aid processing unit configured to perform predetermined hearing aid processing on a second signal generated based on the first signal to generate a third signal; a receiver configured to convert the third signal into sound; a telephone coil configured to convert a magnetic signal into an electric signal and output a fifth signal; a first feedback removal unit having an input filter configured to attenuate a predetermined low-frequency band component included in the third signal, and an adaptive filter configured to receive an output signal from the input filter and adaptively estimate a first transfer function of a sound feedback path from the receiver to the microphone; a second feedback removal unit having a fixed filter configured to receive the third signal and use a fixed filter coefficient based on a second transfer function of a vibration feedback path from the receiver to the microphone; and a third feedback removal unit having a fixed filter configured to receive the third signal and use a fixed filter coefficient based on a third transfer function of a magnetic field feedback path from the receiver to the telephone coil, wherein the second signal is generated by removing an output signal from the first feedback removal unit, an output signal from the second feedback removal unit, and an output signal from the third feedback removal unit, based on the first signal and the fifth signal.

6 . A feedback canceller comprising:
a first conversion device configured to convert sound into an electric signal and output a first signal; a signal processing unit configured to perform predetermined hearing aid processing on a second signal generated based on the first signal to generate a third signal; a second conversion device configured to convert the third signal into sound; a first feedback removal unit having an input filter configured to attenuate a predetermined low-frequency band component included in the third signal, and an adaptive filter configured to receive an output signal from the input filter and adaptively estimate a first transfer function of a sound feedback path from the receiver to the microphone; and a second feedback removal unit having a fixed filter configured to receive the third signal and use a fixed filter coefficient based on a second transfer function of a vibration feedback path from the receiver to the microphone, wherein the first feedback removal unit and the second feedback removal unit are connected in parallel to each other, and the second signal is generated by removing from the first signal an output signal from the adaptive filter included in the first feedback removal unit and an output signal from the fixed filter included in the second feedback removal unit.

7 . The feedback canceller according to claim 6 , wherein
the second feedback removal unit includes a first subtraction unit configured to subtract from the first signal an output signal from the fixed filter and output a fourth signal, and the first feedback removal unit includes a second subtraction unit configured to subtract from the fourth signal an output signal from the adaptive filter and output the second signal.

Assignees

• Rion Co

Inventors

• Sunohara Masahiro

Classifications

• H04R2460/01

  Hearing devices using active noise cancellation · CPC title

• H04R2225/43

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

• H04R25/453 Primary

  electronically · CPC title

• G10K2210/3055

  Transfer function of the acoustic system · CPC title

• G10K11/175

  using interference effects; Masking sound · CPC title