Sivantos Pte. Ltd.

Homayoun Kamkar-Parsi

Marko Lugger

Eghart Fischer

Tobias Daniel Rosenkranz

Umut Goekay

Martin Bouchard

Hala As'ad

Henning Puder

Jens Hain

Dianna Yee

Peter Nikles

Ulrich Giese

Maja Serman

Jürgen Reithinger

Juliane Borsum

Marc Aubreville

Ronny Hannemann

Juergen Reithinger

Michael Bürger

Manuel Busch

Umut Gökay

Robert Kasanmascheff

Sa'di Altamimi

Hala AS´AD

A method operates a hearing device system which has a hearing aid and a peripheral device which provides a voice-controlled digital assistant. A microphone signal from the hearing aid is examined for own voice components of the wearer of the hearing aid. If own voice components are detected by the hearing aid the microphone signal is examined for a pre-defined activation command for the digital assistant. If the activation command is recognized, a portion of the microphone signal representing the activation command and a subsequent speech sequence is processed by the hearing aid for a speech recognizer of the digital assistant using an algorithm. The processed portion of the microphone signal is transmitted to the peripheral device.

Hearing device system and method for operating same

A hearing aid has at least two input transducers and at least one output transducer. The input transducers generate an input signal from a sound signal from the surroundings. At least two directional signals with different directional characteristics are formed from the input signals and the directional signals are examined for the presence of a useful signal. A first weighting factor is assigned to the directional signal with the largest signal component of the useful signal and a second weighting factor is assigned to the other directional signals. The directional signals are multiplied by the respectively assigned weighting factor, and an output signal is then formed from the multiplication result. The output signal is converted into a sound signal by the output transducer.

Method for operating a hearing device, and hearing device

A method for operating a hearing aid which has an auditory canal microphone for capturing sound in the auditory canal of the wearer and an own voice recognition unit for carrying out an adaptive own voice recognition. Sound in the auditory canal is captured by the auditory canal microphone and a signal that corresponds to the sound is output by the auditory canal microphone, and training of the adaptive own voice recognition is controlled only based on the signal output by the auditory canal microphone. A corresponding hearing aid configured to carry out the method.

Method for operating a hearing aid, and hearing aid

A method operates a hearing aid system having a hearing instrument. An electro-acoustic input transducer of the hearing instrument generates an input signal from an acoustic signal from the environment, and an output signal is generated from the input signal by a signal processor. An output acoustic signal is generated from the output signal by an electro-acoustic output transducer of the hearing instrument. For at least one sub-process of the signal processing an artificial neural network is used which is implemented in the hearing instrument. A topology of the artificial neural network is defined and/or weights between individual neurons of the artificial neural network are selected according to an operation to be performed in the sub-process and/or according to an ambient situation and/or according to a user input by a user of the hearing aid system.

Method for operating a hearing aid system having a hearing instrument, hearing aid system and hearing instrument

A method operates a hearing system which has a hearing instrument worn in an ear. The method includes capturing a sound signal from an environment, processing the captured sound signal in dependence of a set of signal processing parameters, and outputting a processed sound signal to the user. The method further includes analyzing the captured sound signal to recognize own-voice intervals, in which the user speaks, analyzing the captured sound signal for an acoustic feature of the own voice of the user and/or analyzing a signal of a bio sensor. The bio sensor measures at least one non-acoustic vital function of the user and determines, from the acoustic feature and/or the non-acoustic vital function of the user, a measure of an emotional state of the user. A value of a signal processing parameter is adapted, within the own-voice intervals, to change the emotional state if a criterion is fulfilled.

Method for operating a hearing instrument and hearing system containing a hearing instrument

A method operates a hearing device. The hearing device has a microphone by which ambient sound is picked up and is converted into an input signal that has a wanted component and a noise component. A stationarity of the input signal is determined. A signal-to-noise ratio of the input signal is determined on a basis of a scaling factor. The scaling factor is determined on a basis of the stationarity, namely on a basis of a function that indicates the scaling factor on a basis of the stationarity of the input signal. A corresponding hearing device implements such a method.

A method operates a hearing instrument that is worn in or at the ear of a user. The method includes capturing a sound signal from an environment of the hearing instrument; analyzing the captured sound signal to recognize own-voice intervals, in which the user speaks, and foreign-voice intervals, in which at least one different speaker speaks; and determining, from the recognized own-voice intervals and foreign-voice intervals, at least one turn-taking feature. From the at least one turn-taking feature a measure of the sound perception by the user is derived. Predefined action for improving the sound perception is taken if the measure or the at least one turn-taking feature fulfill a predefined criterion.

Method for operating a hearing instrument and a hearing system containing a hearing instrument

A method operates a hearing system that has a first input transducer, a second input transducer and a signal processing device. An activity of a lateral useful signal source in an environment of the hearing system is ascertained by a first input signal being generated via an acoustic signal that impinges on the first input transducer, and a second input signal being generated via the acoustic signal that impinges on the second input transducer. A filtered input signal is generated via a directional notch filter based on the first and second input signals. A measure for attenuation that the directional notch filter causes is ascertained based on the filtered input signal and on the first and/or second input signals. The measure is compared with a reference, and from this comparison, the presence or absence of activity of the lateral useful signal source in the surroundings is inferred.

Method for operating a hearing system and hearing system

A method for directional signal processing for a hearing aid. First and second input transducers generate first and second input signals from an ambient acoustic signal. A forward signal and a backward signal are generated from the first and second input signals and a first directional parameter is determined as a linear factor of a linear combination of the forward and backward signals. The first directional signal has a maximum attenuation in a first direction. A correction parameter is ascertained such that a second directional signal has a defined relative attenuation in the first direction. The second directional signal is generated from the forward signal and the backward signal with the first directional parameter and the correction parameter or with the first directional signal and the omnidirectional signal based on the correction parameter. An output signal of the hearing aid is generated based on the second directional signal.

Method for directional signal processing for a hearing aid

A method for enhancing a signal directionality in a hearing instrument wherein first and second signals are generated by first and second input transducers that are spaced apart from one another. A first directional signal is derived from the first input signal and the second input signal by applying a second-to-first relative transfer function with respect to a first target angle to the second input signal. The second-to-first relative transfer function is a relative transfer function from the second input transducer to the first input transducer with respect to the first target angle. Similarly, a second directional signal is derived from the second input signal and the first input signal by applying a first-to-second relative transfer function with respect to a second target angle to the first input signal. An angle-enhanced signal is derived from the first directional signal and the second directional signal.

Method for enhancing signal directionality in a hearing instrument

The invention discloses a method for noise reduction in a binaural hearing aid, said binaural hearing aid comprising a first local unit and a second local unit, wherein the method comprises the following steps: generating a first main signal and a first auxiliary signal in the first local unit from an environment sound, and a second main signal in the second local unit from the environment sound, estimating a direction of arrival of a useful sound signal in the environment sound, assigning a first frequency range and a second frequency range, generating a first range beamformer signal in the first frequency range from the first main signal, the first auxiliary signal and the second main signal by imposing at least one spatial condition related to the estimated direction of arrival on the directional characteristic of the first range beamformer signal, generating a second range beamformer signal in the second frequency range from the first main signal and the second main signal by imposing at least one spatial condition related to the estimated direction of arrival on the directional characteristic of the second range beamformer signal, and generating a first local output signal from the first range beamformer signal and the second range beamformer signal, wherein the first local output signal is transduced into a first output sound by a first output transducer of the first local unit.

Method for beamforming in a binaural hearing aid

The invention proposes a method for improving the spatial hearing perception of a binaural hearing aid, said binaural hearing aid comprising a first local unit and a second local unit, wherein in the first local unit, a first input signal is generated from an environment sound by a first input transducer, and a first reference signal is derived from the first input signal, wherein in the second local unit, a second input signal is generated from the environment sound by a second input transducer, and a second reference signal is derived from the second input signal, wherein from the first reference signal and the second reference signal, a first binaural beamformer signal is derived, wherein from the first reference signal and the first binaural beamformer signal, a first coherence parameter is derived, wherein from the first coherence parameter, a first mixing parameter is derived, and wherein the first reference signal and the first binaural beamformer signal are mixed by means of the first mixing parameter in order to generate a first output signal.

Method for improving the spatial hearing perception of a binaural hearing aid

A method of operating a hearing apparatus and hearing apparatus having at least one of a first microphone or a second microphone which generate a first microphone signal and a second microphone signal respectively, the first microphone and the second microphone being arranged in at least one of a first hearing device and a second hearing device, a third microphone which generates a third microphone signal, the third microphone being arranged in an external device, and a signal processing unit, wherein in the signal processing unit the third microphone signal and at least one of the first microphone signal or the second microphone signal are processed together thereby producing an output signal with an enhanced signal to noise ratio compared to the first microphone signal and/or the second microphone signal.

Hearing apparatus

A hearing aid has a first input transducer that generates a first input signal from an ambient sound signal, a second input transducer that generates a second input signal from the sound signal and at least one output transducer. A first direction is assigned to a first useful signal source and a second direction is assigned to a second useful signal source, which is spatially separated from the first useful signal source. Based on the first input signal and the second input signal, a first reference signal oriented in the first direction and a second reference signal oriented in the second direction are formed. An output signal is formed on the basis of the first reference signal and the second reference signal, and the output signal is converted into a sound signal by the output transducer of the hearing aid.

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Erlangen, Germany

Homayoun Kamkar-Parsi