Oticon A/s

Andreas Thelander Bertelsen

Michael Syskind Pedersen

Jesper Bruun Jensen

Jan Mark De Haan

Matias Tofteby Bach

Kåre Tais Christensen

Franz Treue

Rasmus Glarborg Jensen

Thomas Kaulberg

Mojtaba Farmani

Morten Christophersen

Martin Bergmann

Sigurdur Sigurdsson

Angela Josupeit

Claus Forup Corlin Jespersgaard

Anders Vinther Olsen

Gusztáv Lõcsei

Stefan Gram

Karsten Bonke

Carsten Scheel

Henrik Bay

Morten Pedersen

Bent Krogsgaard

Jacob Mikkelsen

Justyna Walaszek

Nels Hede Rohde

Asger Heidemann Andersen

Ulrik Kjems

Thomas Bentsen

Michael Smed Kristensen

Anders Brødløs Olsen

Adis Bjelosevic

A hearing assistive device comprises a multi-microphone system for providing a processed input signal. The multi-microphone system comprises a multitude of microphones for picking up sound from an environment; and a beamformer filter configured to. The hearing assistive device further comprises an attachment element configured to fix the hearing assistive device to the body or clothes of a person. The multi-microphone system is configurable to operate in at least two modes in dependence of a mode control signal, A) a directional mode and B) an omni-directional mode wherein said multi-microphone system is configured to provide said processed input signal as a substantially directional signal, and as a substantially omni-directional signal, respectively. The attachment element is configured to provide an electric signal indicative of a current state of the attachment element. The hearing assistive device further comprises a mode controller for providing said mode control signal in dependence of said electric signal indicative of a current state of the attachment element.

Hearing assistive device comprising an attachment element

The present disclosure provides methods and systems for reducing noise induced in one or more components in a hearing aid. The present disclosure provides methods for reducing noise induced in telecoils.

Noise reduction method and system

A binaural hearing aid system includes first and second hearing aids configured to be worn by a user at or in respective first and second ears of the user, each of the first and second hearing aids including: at least one input transducer configured to pick up a sound at the at least one input transducer and to convert the sound to at least one electric input signal representative of the sound, the sound at the at least one input transducer including a mixture of a target signal and noise; a controller for evaluating the sound at the at least one input transducer and providing a control signal indicative of a property of the sound; a transceiver configured to establish a communication link between the first and second hearing aids allowing the exchange of the control signal between the first and second hearing aids; a transmitter for establishing an audio link for transmitting the at least one electric input signal, or a processed version thereof, to another device. The controller is configured to: transmit the locally provided control signal to, and receive a corresponding remotely provided control signal from the opposite hearing aid via the communication link, and to compare the locally provided and the remotely provided control signals and to provide a comparison control signal in dependence thereof, and to transmit the at least one electric input signal, or a processed version thereof, to the another device via the audio link in dependence of the comparison control signal.

Binaural hearing aid system and a hearing aid comprising own voice estimation

A hearing aid includes a) at least one input unit for providing a time-frequency representation Y(k,n) of an electric input signal representing sound consisting of target speech and noise signal components, where k and n are frequency band and time frame indices, respectively, b) a noise reduction system configured to b1) determine an a posteriori signal to noise ratio estimate &#x3b3;(k,n) of the electric input signal, and to b2) determine an a priori signal to noise signal ratio estimate &#x3b6;(k,n) of the electric input signal from the a posteriori signal to noise ratio estimate &#x3b3;(k,n) based on a recursive algorithm providing non-linear smoothing. The a posteriori signal to noise ratio estimate of said electric input signal is provided as a mixture of first and second different a posteriori signal to noise ratio estimates. The invention may be used in audio processing devices, such as hearing aids, headsets, etc.

Audio processing device and a method for estimating a signal-to-noise-ratio of a sound signal

A sound capture device configured to be worn by a person and/or to be located on a surface is configured to pick up target sound from a target sound source s. The sound capture device comprises a) an input unit providing a multitude of electric input signals, each comprising a target signal component and a noise signal component; b) a directional noise reduction system comprising a beamformer unit coupled to said multitude of input signals and configured to provide an estimate of the target sound s. The beamformer unit comprises b1) target maintaining, reference beamformer providing a current reference signal; and b2) a target cancelling beamformer providing a current target cancelling sign. The directional noise reduction system is configured to operate in at least two modes in dependence of a mode control signal, 1) in a directional mode and 2) in a non-directional, omni-directional mode. The sound capture device further comprises c) antenna and transceiver circuitry for establishing an audio link to another device, and to transmit said estimate of the target sound s to said another device, and d) a mode controller for determining said mode control signal in dependence of said current reference signal and said current target cancelling signal. A method of operating a sound capture device is further disclosed.

Portable device comprising a directional system

A hearing device, e.g. a hearing aid, is configured to be worn by a user at or in an ear or to be fully or partially implanted in the head at an ear of the user. The hearing device comprises a) an input unit for providing at least one electric input signal in a time frequency representation k, m, where k and m are frequency and time indices, respectively, and k represents a frequency channel, the at least one electric input signal being representative of sound and comprising target signal components and noise components; and b) a signal processor comprising b1) an SNR estimator for providing a target signal-to-noise ratio estimate for said at least one electric input signal in said time frequency representation; and b2) an SNR-to-gain converter for converting said target signal-to-noise ratio estimate to respective gain values in said time frequency representation. The signal processor comprises a neural network, wherein the weights of the neural network have been trained with a plurality of training signals. A method of operating a hearing aid is further disclosed. The invention may e.g. be used in audio devices, such as hearing aids, headsets, mobile telephones, etc., operating in noisy acoustic environments.

Hearing device comprising a noise reduction system

An audio processing device comprises a) at least one input unit for providing a time-frequency representation Y(k,n) of an electric input signal representing sound consisting of target speech and noise signal components, where k and n are frequency band and time frame indices, respectively, b) a noise reduction system configured to b1) determine a first signal to noise ratio estimate &#x3b3;(k,n) of said electric input signal, and to b2) determine a second signal to noise signal ratio estimate &#x3b6;(k,n) of said electric input signal from said first signal to noise ratio estimate &#x3b3;(k,n) based on a recursive algorithm providing non-linear smoothing, and wherein a determination of said one or more bias and/or smoothing parameters comprises the use of supervised learning, e.g. one or more neural networks. The invention may be used in audio processing devices, such as hearing aids, headsets, ear phones, active ear protection systems, handsfree telephone systems, mobile telephones, etc.

A hearing aid comprises a BTE-part adapted for being located behind an ear (ear) of a user, and comprising a) a multitude M of microphones, which&#x2014;when located behind the ear of the user&#x2014;are characterized by respective transfer functions, H(&#x3b8;, &#x3c6;, r, k), representative of propagation of sound from sound sources S to the respective microphones b) a memory unit comprising complex, frequency dependent constants W(k)', i=1, . . . , M, c) a beamformer filtering unit for providing a beamformed signal Y as a weighted combination of the microphone signals using said complex, frequency dependent constants The frequency dependent constants are determined to provide a resulting transfer function(&#x3b8;, &#x3c6;,)=&#x3a3;()&#xb7;(&#x3b8;, &#x3c6;,),so that a difference between the resulting transfer function H(&#x3b8;, &#x3c6;, r, k) and a transfer function H(&#x3b8;, &#x3c6;, r, k) of a microphone located close to or in the ear canal fulfils a predefined criterion.

Hearing aid comprising a directional microphone system

An audio processing device comprises a) at least one input unit for providing a time-frequency representation Y(k,n) of an electric input signal representing sound consisting of target speech and noise signal components, where k and n are frequency band and time frame indices, respectively, b) a noise reduction system configured to: determine a first signal to noise ratio estimate &#x3b3;(k,n) of said electric input signal, and determine a second signal to noise signal ratio estimate &#x3b6;(k,n) of said electric input signal from said first signal to noise ratio estimate &#x3b3;(k,n) based on a recursive algorithm providing non-linear smoothing, and wherein parameters of said smoothing are determined in dependence of the first and/or the second signal to noise ratio estimates corresponding to a multitude of frequency band indices. The invention may be used in hearing aids, headsets, ear phones, active ear protection systems, handsfree telephone systems, mobile telephones, etc.

A hearing aid comprises a) first and second microphones b) an adaptive beamformer filtering unit comprising, b1) a memory comprising a first and second sets of complex frequency dependent weighting parameters representing a first and second beam patterns, b3) an adaptive beamformer processing unit providing an adaptation parameter &#x3b2;(k) representing an adaptive beam pattern, b4) a memory comprising a fixed adaptation parameter &#x3b2;(k) representing a third, fixed beam pattern, b5) a mixing unit providing a resulting complex, frequency dependent adaptation parameter &#x3b2;(k) as a combination of said fixed and adaptively determined frequency dependent adaptation parameters &#x3b2;(k) and &#x3b2;(k), respectively, and b6) a resulting beamformer (Y) for providing a resulting beamformed signal Ybased on first and second microphone signals, said first and second sets of complex frequency dependent weighting parameters, and said resulting complex, frequency dependent adaptation parameter &#x3b2;(k).

Hearing device comprising a beamformer filtering unit

A hearing aid comprises a BTE-part adapted for being located behind an ear (ear) of a user, and comprising a) a multitude M of microphones, which&#x2014;when located behind the ear of the user&#x2014;are characterized by respective transfer functions, H(&#x3b8;, &#x3c6;, r, k), representative of propagation of sound from sound sources S to the respective microphones b) a memory unit comprising complex, frequency dependent constants W(k)', i=1, . . . , M, c) a beamformer filtering unit for providing a beamformed signal Y as a weighted combination of the microphone signals using said complex, frequency dependent constants The frequency dependent constants are determined to provide a resulting transfer function(&#x3b8;,&#x3c6;,)=&#x3a3;()&#xb7;(&#x3b8;,&#x3c6;,),so that a difference between the resulting transfer function H(&#x3b8;, &#x3c6;, r, k) and a transfer function H(&#x3b8;, &#x3c6;, r, k) of a microphone located close to or in the ear canal fulfills a predefined criterion.

An audio processing device comprises a) at least one input unit for providing time-frequency representation Y(k,n) of an electric input signal representing sound consisting of target speech and noise signal components, where k and n are frequency band and time frame indices, respectively, b) a noise detection and/or reduction system configured to b1) determine an a posteriori signal to noise ratio estimate &#x3b3;(k,n) of said electric input signal, and to b2) determine an a priori target signal to noise signal ratio estimate &#x3b6;(k,n) of said electric input signal from said a posteriori signal to noise ratio estimate &#x3b3;(k,n) based on a recursive decision directed algorithm. The application further relates to a method of of estimating an a priori signal to noise ratio. The invention may e.g. be used for the hearing aids, headsets, ear phones, active ear protection systems, handsfree telephone systems, mobile telephones, etc.

Growing community of inventors

Smørum, Denmark

Andreas Thelander Bertelsen