Panasonic Corporation

Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.

Gempo Ito

Yoshiaki Takagi

Takashi Katayama

Kazuhiro Iida

Eiji Noguchi

Kazutaka Abe

Kenichi Terai

Ko Mizuno

Isao Kakuhari

Yasuhito Watanabe

Kazue Fusakawa

Atsunobu Murase

Hikaru Takato

Megumi Yokokura

Provided is a hearing-ability measurement device and a method thereof for measuring a masking curve more correctly and in a shorter time. A test sound generation unit generates a test sound including a probe and a masker, and outputs the test sound from a test sound output unit. A perception examination unit examines whether or not the subject perceives the probe. An adjustment unit adjusts acoustic properties of the test sound, based on a result of the examination. Here, kinds of adjusted acoustic properties are different between the situation of prove perception success and the situation of prove perception failure. As a result, the masking curve is directly tracked and the measurement is performed more correctly and in a shorter time.

Hearing-ability measurement device and method thereof

A hearing aid processing apparatus includes audio input units that receive input audio; hearing aid signal processing units that generate first and second output signals each having different frequency characteristics, from the input audio received by the audio input units, based on the characteristics of the band pass filter having the greatest bandwidth among virtual band pass filters composing an auditory filter of a listener. A first audio output unit outputs, as an audio, the first output signal generated by the hearing aid signal processing unit to the left ear of the listener; and a second audio output unit outputs, as an audio, the second output signal generated by the hearing aid signal processing unit to the right ear of the listener.

Hearing aid processing apparatus, adjustment apparatus, hearing aid processing system, hearing aid processing method, and program and integrated circuit thereof

A hearing assistance suitability determining device () according to the present invention is a hearing assistance suitability determining device () which determines a suitability () of a subject for dichotic hearing assistance, and includes: a hearing ability information obtaining unit () which obtains left-ear hearing ability information () and right-ear hearing ability information () each of which indicates a hearing ability for frequencies; a hearing ability type determining unit () which determines, among hearing ability types each of which is defined by a tendency in a change of the hearing ability with respect to the frequencies, a hearing ability type () of the hearing ability indicated by the left-ear hearing ability information () and the right-ear hearing ability information (); and a suitability deciding unit () which determines, with reference to a suitability database (), the suitability () of the subject for the dichotic hearing assistance based on a suitability corresponding, in the suitability database (), to the hearing ability type () determined by the hearing ability type determining unit (), the suitability database () showing a correspondence relationship between each of the hearing ability types and one of suitabilities of the subject for dichotic hearing assistance.

Hearing assistance suitability determining device, hearing assistance adjustment system, and hearing assistance suitability determining method

A hearing aid used for a low tone frequency band, a hearing aid used for a high tone frequency band, and a controller that compares sound pressure of the high tone frequency band split by a frequency band analyzer of the hearing aid used for the high tone frequency band with sound pressure of the high tone frequency band split by a frequency band analyzer of the hearing aid used for the low tone frequency band. If the sound pressure of the high tone frequency band of the hearing aid used for the low tone frequency band is higher by at least a specific amount than the sound pressure of the high tone frequency band of the hearing aid used for the high tone frequency band, the sound pressure of the high tone frequency band of the hearing aid used for the high tone frequency band is raised.

Hearing aid device

To provide a hearing aid system () performing dichotic-listening binaural hearing aid processing which improves the clarity of speech and maintains the spatial perception ability. Each of first and second hearing aid devices () includes a sound pickup unit () and an output unit () outputting a sound indicated by a suppressed acoustic signal. The hearing aid system () includes: a first band suppression unit () generating the suppressed acoustic signal indicating the sound outputted from the output unit (), by suppressing a signal in a first suppression-target band out of the acoustic signal outputted from the sound pickup unit (); and a second band suppression unit () generating the suppressed acoustic signal indicating the sound outputted from the output unit (), by suppressing a signal in a second suppression-target band out of the acoustic signal outputted from the sound pickup unit (). The suppressed acoustic signals indicating the sounds outputted respectively from the output units () include, in common, a signal in a non-voice band included in the acoustic signal.

System, method, program, and integrated circuit for hearing aid

A hearing aid for improving diminished hearing caused by reduced temporal resolution includes: a speech input unit which receives a speech signal from outside; a speech analysis unit which detects a sound segment and a segment acoustically regarded as soundless from the speech signal received by the speech input unit and detects a consonant segment and a vowel segment within the detected sound segment; and a signal processing unit which temporally increments the consonant segment detected by the speech analysis unit and temporally decrements at least one of the vowel segment and the segment acoustically regarded as soundless detected by the speech analysis unit.

Hearing aid and hearing-aid processing method

The present invention is to provide a sound image localization apparatus which can prevent the lowering of the amplitude of the sound image localizing signal, the occurrence of clipping, and deterioration of the sound image localization component of the sound image localizing signal. The sound image localization apparatus according to the present invention comprises a frequency component analyzing unitwhich analyzes the frequency component obtained from the sound source signal, a frequency component analyzing unitwhich analyzes the frequency component obtained from the head-related transfer function that corresponds to the target position, a frequency component comparing/correcting unitwhich decides whether a clipping occurs from a particular frequency range by comparing the frequency component of the analyzed sound source signal with the frequency component of the head-related transfer function, and a sound image localization processing unitwhich outputs to acoustic device, a sound image localizing signal whose amplitude component corresponding to a particular frequency range of the sound source signal or a head-related transfer function is suppressed when the frequency component comparing/correcting unitdetermines that a clipping has occurred.

Sound image localization apparatus

An acoustic image localization apparatus according to the present invention that outputs sound from a plurality of speakers so as to localize an acoustic image at a predetermined position on a space as viewed from a listener, the acoustic image localization apparatus comprising: amplitude characteristic adjusting means for adjusting an amplitude frequency characteristic of an inputted acoustic signal such that the acoustic image is localized at a position rotated by a first angle about a position of a listener toward an upper direction from a facing position of the listener; and a plurality of level adjusting means, provided so as to respectively correspond to the plurality of speakers, for adjusting a level of the acoustic signal outputted from the amplitude characteristic adjusting means and for outputting, to a corresponding speaker, the acoustic signal whose level has been adjusted, wherein each of the level adjusting means adjusts the level of the acoustic signal, which is outputted from the amplitude characteristic adjusting means, to a level of the corresponding speaker such that the acoustic image is localized at the predetermined position rotated by a second angle about the position of the listener toward one of directions orthogonal to the rotated directions from the position rotated by the first angle.

Acoustic image localization apparatus, acoustic image localization system, and acoustic image localization method, program and integrated circuit

It is an object of the present invention to provide a sound image localization apparatus which can localize a sound image with ease correctly for many listeners. Herein disclosed is a sound image localization apparatus, in which a directional band information storage unitis adapted to store therein directional bands in advance calculated for respective directions, a control filter computing unitis adapted to read a directional band corresponding to a target position information from a directional band information storage unitupon receiving target position information, calculate a control filter coefficient in such a manner that the maximum value of a sensation level for which masking is taken into consideration is matched with the directional band thus read, output the control filter coefficient to a sound image localization processing unit. Upon receiving the control filter coefficient from the control filter computing unit, the sound image localization processing unitis adapted to convolve the control filter coefficient thus received to an inputted sound source signal, carry out sound image localization processing on the sound source signal, and output a sound signal whose sound image has been localized as a sound image localization signal to a sound reproducing device, not shown, such as, for example, headphones, a speaker, and/or the like.

A sound image control device filters transfer functions Hand Hindicating transfer characteristics of a sound from an acoustic transducer () to entrances to respective ear canals () and () as well as filtering transfer functions Hand Hfrom an acoustic transducer () to the entrances to the respective ear canals () and () and generates second transfer functions Hand Hindicating transfer characteristics of a sound to the entrances to the respective ear canals () and () from a target sound source () at a location different from the sound sources, the sound image control device being equipped with correction filters () and () that (i) store characteristic functions Eand Efor performing filtering operations on the first transfer functions H, H, H, and Hand (ii) generate the second transfer functions Hand Hfrom the first transfer functions H, H, H, and Husing such characteristic functions Eand E

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Kanagawa, Japan

Gempo Ito