Sonova Ag

Sonova

Jean-Louis Durrieu

Xavier Gigandet

Samuel Bucher

Markus Hofbauer

Hannes Wuethrich

A method is disclosed for operating a hearing device, comprising a receiver and an active vent. The method includes 1) upon request to switch the active vent into a different state, estimating a transfer function (H, H) from the receiver to obtain a first transfer function (&#x124;), 2) subsequently switching the active vent, 3) subsequently estimating a transfer function (H, H) from the receiver to obtain a second transfer function (&#x124;), 4) comparing the first transfer function (&#x124;) to the second transfer function (&#x124;) to obtain a divergence measure (D), 5) concluding that the active vent has actually been switched into the different state if the divergence measure (D) exceeds a threshold (D).

Method for operating a hearing device

A hearing device component () comprises a sensor-unit () for receiving an audio-signal (AS), a separation device () for separating part-signals (PS) from the audio-signal (AS), a classification device () for classifying the part-signals (PS) separated from the audio-signals (AS), and a modulation device () for modulating the part-signals (PS), wherein the classification device () is communicatively coupled to the modulation device () and wherein the modulation device () is designed to enable a concurrent modulation of different part-signals (PS) with different modulation-functions depending on their classification.

Hearing device component, hearing device, computer-readable medium and method for processing an audio-signal for a hearing device

This invention relates to a method of managing adaptive feedback cancellation in a hearing device comprising at least a microphone (); a receiver (); and a signal processing circuitry, configured to receive from said microphone () an input signal (X, X, X) and to provide said receiver () with an output signal (Y, U, U). An external acoustic feedback path () defined by feedback sound (fb) traveling from the receiver () to the microphone () is represented by an external feedback path transfer function (). The signal processing unit comprises at least a gain unit (); a feedback canceller unit () comprising an adaptive filter element () configured to adaptively accommodate changes in said external acoustic feedback path transfer function (); and a frequency shift unit () configured to stabilize an adaptation of the feedback canceler unit (). The method according to the present invention comprises the steps of: estimating the external acoustic feedback path transfer function () by modeling/deriving a first estimated feedback path transfer function () to reflect the external acoustic feedback path transfer function (), by said feedback canceler unit (); compensating the input signal of the hearing device (X), based on the first estimated feedback path transfer function (), thereby generating a compensated input signal (X); providing at least part of the signal processing unit with the compensated input signal (X). The method further comprises the steps of: generating a probe signal (W), by an adaptation control block (); injecting the probe signal (W) into the output signal (Y) of the hearing device and letting the probe signal (W) be fed back to the microphone () through the external acoustic feedback path (); modeling/deriving at least a reference estimated feedback path transfer function (), based on a relation between the input signal (X) and the probe signal (w); comparing said at least a reference estimated feedback path transfer function () with said first estimated feedback path transfer function (), by a comparison unit () of said adaptation control block (); and controlling the adaptive filter element () and the frequency shift unit () based on a comparison between such at least a reference estimated feedback path transfer function () and the first estimated feedback path transfer function ().

Method of managing adaptive feedback cancellation in hearing devices and hearing devices configured to carry out such method

The present invention proposes a method for providing at least one indication regarding whether an input signal contains a tonal signal component. The proposed method comprises decomposing the input signal into a plurality of band-limited input signals and then for each of one or more of the plurality of band-limited input signals performing the following step: estimating parameters of a parametric tonal signal model adapted to model and predict a tonal-only signal component of a selected one of the one or more of the plurality of band-limited input signals; synthesizing based on the estimated parameters a corresponding predicted band-limited input signal; and determining a measure of mismatch between the selected band-limited input signal and the corresponding predicted band-limited input signal. Subsequently, the at least one indication is provided based on the measure of mismatch determined for at least one of the one or more of the plurality of band-limited input signals. Furthermore, a method for operating a hearing device is proposed, which employs such a method for detecting tonal signals, and a hearing device with a feedback canceller is presented, which relies on a tonal signal detector in order to improve feedback cancelling.

Method for detecting tonal signals, a method for operating a hearing device based on detecting tonal signals and a hearing device with a feedback canceller using a tonal signal detector

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Auenstein, Switzerland

Jean-Louis Durrieu