Mobile device that provides sound enhancement for hearing device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2026082165-A1
Application number	US-202519331387-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Sep 17, 2025
Priority date	Sep 1, 2020
Publication date	Mar 19, 2026
Grant date	—

Abstract

A system includes a mobile device that receives an audio signal from a microphone of the mobile device. The mobile device processes the audio signal via a neural network to obtain a speech-enhanced audio signal. The system includes an ear-wearable device comprising a data interface operable to communicate with the external data interface of the mobile device. The ear-wearable device includes an audio processing path coupled to the data interface and is operable to receive the speech-enhanced audio signal and reproduce the speech-enhanced audio in an ear of a user.

First claim

1 - 20 . (canceled)

21 . A system, comprising:
a mobile device comprising:
a microphone;
an external data interface; and
a processor coupled to the microphone and the external data interface, the processor configured with instructions to:
receive an audio signal from the microphone;
receive an ambient descriptor signal that includes a classification of an ambient audio signal or an estimate of a background noise level;
select a neural network from a plurality of neural networks based on the ambient descriptor signal; and
process the audio signal via the neural network to obtain a speech-enhanced audio signal; and

an ear-wearable device comprising:
a data interface operable to communicate with the external data interface of the mobile device;
an audio processing path coupled to the data interface and operable to receive the speech-enhanced audio signal and reproduce the speech-enhanced audio in an ear of a user.

22 . The system of claim 21 , wherein the ear-wearable device comprises a sensor configured to detect the ambient audio signal, and wherein the ear-wearable device is operable to send the ambient descriptor signal to the mobile device.

23 . The system of claim 21 , wherein the ear-wearable device comprises a sound processor configured to modify the speech enhanced audio to compensate for hearing loss of the user before reproducing the speech-enhanced audio.

24 . The system of claim 21 , wherein the ear-wearable device comprises a sensor configured to detect speech of the user, and wherein the ear-wearable device is operable to send a suppression signal to the mobile device via the data interface in response to detecting the speech, the mobile device modifying the speech-enhanced audio signal to reduce interference of the speech with the speech-enhanced audio signal in response to the suppression signal.

25 . The system of claim 24 , wherein the modifying the speech enhanced audio signal comprises suppressing the speech-enhanced audio signal.

26 . The system of claim 24 , wherein the audio processing path comprises a second neural network that detects the speech of the user.

27 . The system of claim 21 , wherein the neural network comprises any of a feed-forward neural network, a recurrent neural network, and a convolutional neural network.

28 . The system claim 21 , wherein processing the audio signal via the neural network to obtain the speech-enhanced audio signal comprises:
transforming the audio signal from a time domain signal to a frequency domain signal; mapping features of the frequency domain signal to an input layer of the neural network; producing a ratio mask from the neural network and apply the ratio mask to the frequency domain signal; and inverse-transforming the masked frequency domain signal to a time domain to obtain the speech-enhanced signal.

29 . The system of claim 28 , wherein processing the audio signal via the neural network to obtain the speech-enhanced audio signal further comprises:
performing side-chain processing on the audio signal to determine disturbances to the audio signal; and using an output of the side-chain processing to perform postprocessing on the ratio masked frequency domain signal before the inverse-transform.

30 . The system of claim 29 , wherein the side-chain processing comprises own-voice detection of speech of the user using the microphone of the mobile device and a second microphone of the mobile device, the own-voice detection based on at least one phase differences, level differences, and coherence between the microphone and the second microphone.

31 . The system of claim 29 , wherein the side-chain processing comprises at least one of environment detection and background noise level estimation.

32 . The system of claim 21 , wherein processing the audio signal via the neural network to obtain the speech-enhanced audio signal comprises:
transforming the audio signal from a time domain signal to a latent representation; mapping features of the latent representation to an input layer of the neural network; and inverse-transforming an output of the neural network to the speech-enhanced signal.

33 . A method, comprising:
receiving an audio signal from a microphone of a mobile device; receiving an ambient descriptor signal that includes a classification of an ambient audio signal or an estimate of a background noise level; selecting, based on the ambient descriptor signal, a neural network from a plurality of neural networks; processing the audio signal via the neural network, wherein the neural network is operable on a processor of the mobile device to obtain a speech-enhanced audio signal; sending the speech-enhanced audio signal to a data interface of an ear-wearable device for output via a receiver of the ear-wearable device.

34 . The method of claim 33 , further comprising:
detecting, by the ear-wearable device, the ambient audio signal; and determining the ambient descriptor signal based on the ambient audio signal.

35 . The method of claim 34 , further comprising:
sending, by the ear-wearable device and to the mobile device, the ambient descriptor signal.

36 . The method of claim 33 , wherein the ambient descriptor signal includes the classification of the ambient audio signal and the estimate of the background noise level.

37 . The method of claim 33 , further comprising reproducing the speech-enhanced audio in an ear of a user via an audio processing path of the ear-wearable device.

38 . The method of claim 33 , wherein processing the audio signal via the neural network to obtain the speech-enhanced audio signal comprises:
transforming the audio signal from a time domain signal to a frequency domain signal; mapping features of the frequency domain signal to an input layer of the neural network; producing a ratio mask from the neural network and apply the ratio mask to the frequency domain signal; and inverse-transforming the masked frequency domain signal to a time domain to obtain the speech-enhanced signal.

39 . The method of claim 33 , further comprising, wherein processing the audio signal via the neural network to obtain the speech-enhanced audio signal comprises:
transforming the audio signal from a time domain signal to a latent representation; mapping features of the latent representation to an input layer of the neural network; and inverse-transforming an output of the neural network to the speech-enhanced signal.

40 . A computer-readable medium storing instructions operable by a processor of a mobile device to perform:
coupling the mobile device to an ear-wearable device; receiving an audio signal from a microphone of the mobile device; receiving an ambient descriptor signal that includes a classification of an ambient audio signal or an estimate of a background noise level; selecting, based on the ambient descriptor signal, a neural network from a plurality of neural networks; processing the audio signal via the neural network to obtain a speech-enhanced audio signal; and sending the speech-enhanced audio to an ear-wearable device, the ear-wearable device receiving the speech-enhanced audio signal and reproducing the speech-enhanced audio in an ear of a user.

Assignees

• Starkey Labs Inc

Inventors

• Zhang Tao
• Marquardt Daniel

Classifications

• H04R2225/55

  Communication between hearing aids and external devices via a network for data exchange · CPC title

• H04R2225/43

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

• H04R2225/41

  Detection or adaptation of hearing aid parameters or programs to listening situation, e.g. pub, forest · CPC title

• H04R25/558

  Remote control, e.g. of amplification, frequency · CPC title

• H04R25/04

  comprising pocket amplifiers · CPC title