Method, device and system for increasing a person's ability to suppress non-wanted auditory percepts

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9743197-B2
Application number	US-201615061000-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 4, 2016
Priority date	Mar 6, 2015
Publication date	Aug 22, 2017
Grant date	Aug 22, 2017

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a method for reducing a listener's task-irrelevant auditory perception, the method comprising providing a measuring device or system configured for measuring the listener's alpha, beta gamma and/or theta activity and providing a generation device or system configured for generating an alpha, beta, gamma and/or theta activity boosting signal that, when provided to the listener will increase the listener's ongoing alpha, beta, gamma and/or theta activity. The listener's alpha, beta, gamma and/or theta activity is measured and if the measured alpha, beta, gamma and/or theta activity is below a predefined threshold, the listener's ongoing alpha, beta, gamma and/or theta activity is increased by the provision of the alpha, beta, gamma and/or theta activity boosting signal to the listener. This results in the listener's ongoing alpha, beta, gamma and/or theta activity being increased, resulting in facilitating reduction of task-irrelevant auditory perception, such as the auditory perception of noise or tinnitus, and thereby also increasing the listener's ability to understand speech under adverse listening conditions. The present disclosure further suggests using the listener's measured alpha, beta, gamma and/or theta activity to judge if the listener is ready to understand speech, and if this is not the case to delay a speech signal until a sufficiently high activity is present.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for reducing a listener's task-irrelevant auditory perception using a hearing instrument or system, such as a hearing aid, comprising at least one input transducer configured to pick up the sound field in which the instrument or system is situated thereby providing an input signal, a signal processor configured to process the input signal, and an output transducer outputting the processed input signal, the method comprising the steps of:
providing in the hearing instrument or system a measuring device or system configured for measuring the listener's alpha, beta, gamma and/or theta activity;
providing in the hearing instrument or system a generation device or system configured for generating an alpha, beta, gamma and/or theta activity boosting signal that, when provided to the listener will increase the listener's ongoing alpha activity;
with said measuring device or system, establishing a first measure of the listener's alpha, beta, gamma and/or theta activity;
if the first measured alpha, beta, gamma and/or theta activity is below a predefined threshold, increasing the listener's ongoing alpha, beta, gamma and/or theta activity by the provision of said alpha, beta, gamma and/or theta activity boosting signal to the listener, and establishing a delayed version of said input signal,
after a defined time interval establishing a second measure of the listener's alpha, beta, gamma and/or theta activity;
if by the second measure it is determined that the user's alpha, beta, gamma and/or theta activity is at or above a predefined threshold providing said delayed version of the input signal either with or without further processing to an output transducer in said device.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein after the defined time interval provided the user's alpha, beta, gamma and/or theta activity is below the predefined threshold, providing said alpha, beta, gamma and/or theta activity boosting signal to the listener and
after a further instance of the defined time interval if the user's alpha, beta, gamma and/or theta activity is above the predefined threshold, providing the delayed version of the input signal, if after the further instance of the defined time interval the user's alpha, beta, gamma and/or theta activity is below the predefined threshold and the time since the first measurement does not exceed a maximum delay time threshold, repeating boost step and the delay step,
if the time since the first measurement exceed a maximum delay time threshold providing the delayed version of the input signal to the user via the output transducer.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the defined time interval for repeating the measurement of the listener's alpha, beta, gamma and/or theta activity is less than 100 milliseconds, such as less than 50 milliseconds, such as less than 25 milliseconds, such as less than 10 milliseconds, such as less than 5 milliseconds, such as less than 1 millisecond.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the determination that a difficult listening situation exists is based on measured signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio of said input signal.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the listener's alpha, beta, gamma and/or theta activity is determined based on measured EEG, optionally, wherein the listener's alpha, beta, gamma and/or theta activity is determined based on measurements of any of the group of parameters comprising EOG, ECG and skin resistance.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said boost of alpha, beta, gamma and/or theta activity is obtained through neural entrainment.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the peak frequency of the alpha, beta, gamma and/or theta activity boosting signal corresponds to the individual listener's alpha, beta, gamma and/or theta activity.

8. A hearing instrument, such as a hearing aid, configured for reducing a user's task-irrelevant auditory perception, comprising:
an indicator for indicating to the hearing instrument that a situation comprising task-irrelevant auditory perception is present;
an input transducer configured to pick up the sound field in which the hearing instrument is situated thereby providing an input signal for further processing in the hearing instrument;
a measuring device or system configured for measuring the user's alpha, beta, gamma and/or theta activity;
a generation device or system configured for generating an alpha, beta, gamma and/or theta activity boosting signal that, when provided to the user will increase the user's ongoing alpha, beta, gamma and/or theta activity;
a boosting signal providing device or system configured for providing the user with said alpha, beta, gamma and/or theta activity boosting signal;
a processor for processing said input signal and providing the processed signal to the user through an output transducer,
an alpha, beta, gamma and/or theta activity level decision unit;
an adjustable delay;
wherein the alpha, beta, gamma and/or theta activity decision unit is configured such that when the user's measured alpha, beta, gamma and/or theta activity is below a predefined threshold, the alpha, beta, gamma and/or theta activity decision unit provides a delay control signal to the adjustable delay, whereby the input signal provided by the input transducer is delayed a period of time.

9. The hearing instrument according to claim 8 , in which said indicator is a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) estimator configured to estimate SRN between a wanted signal and a background noise signal thereby providing a SRN signal corresponding to the estimated SNR.

10. The hearing instrument according to claim 8 , in which said measuring device or system configured for measuring the user's alpha, beta, gamma and/or theta activity comprises an EEG sensor.

11. The hearing instrument according to claim 8 , in which said measuring device or system configured for measuring the user's alpha, beta, gamma and/or theta activity comprises one or more sensors belonging to the group comprising EOG sensors, ECG sensors and skin resistance sensors.

12. The hearing instrument according to claim 8 , wherein said boost of alpha, beta, gamma and/or theta activity is obtained through neural entrainment.

13. The hearing instrument according to claim 1 , wherein the peak frequency of the alpha, beta, gamma and/or theta activity boosting signal corresponds to the individual user's alpha, beta, gamma and/or theta activity.

14. A signal processing system configured to execute the method according to claim 1 .

15. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the defined time interval for repeating the measurement of the listener's alpha, beta, gamma and/or theta activity is less than 100 milliseconds, such as less than 50 milliseconds, such as less than 25 milliseconds, such as less than 10 milliseconds, such as less than 5 milliseconds, such as less than 1 millisecond.

16. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the determination that a difficult listening situation exists is based on measured signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio of said input signal.

17. The method according to claim 3 , wherein the determination that a difficult listening situation exists is based on measured signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio of said input signal.

18. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the listener's alpha, beta, gamma and/or theta activity is determined based on measured EEG, optionally, wherein the listener's alpha, beta, gamma and/or theta activity is determined based on measurements of any of the group of parameters comprisi

Assignees

• Oticon As

Inventors

• Petersen Eline Borch
• Lunner Thomas
• Pontoppidan Niels Henrik

Classifications

• H04R2225/43

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

• A61K47/6883

  Polymer-drug antibody conjugates, e.g. mitomycin-dextran-Ab; DNA-polylysine-antibody complex or conjugate used for therapy · CPC title

• A61N1/36039

  fitting procedures · CPC title

• A61B5/125

  objective methods · CPC title

• H04R25/50 Primary

  Customised settings for obtaining desired overall acoustical characteristics · CPC title