Advanced Bionics Ag

Siemens Audiologische Technik Gmbh

Sonova Ag

Siemens Medical Instruments Pte. Ltd.

Sivantos Pte. Ltd.

Josef Chalupper

Volkmar Hamacher

Reinier Kortekaas

Michael Boretzki

Uwe Rass

Ullrich Sigwanz

Matthias Fröhlich

Elmar Fichtl

Christian Weistenhöfer

Smita S Agrawal

Volker Kuehnel

Kristin Rohrseitz

Maxi Susanne Moritz

Thomas Hopf

Patrick Mergell

Joachim Thiemann

Raphael Sebastian Koning

Gunnar Geissler

Markus Fruhmann

Werner Lipski

Manuel Christoph Kohl

Beate Anna Maria Krämer

George Kobrick

An exemplary sound processor is configured to direct a cochlear implant to apply standard electrical stimulation representative of frequencies in an audio signal that are within an upper region to a cochlea of a first ear of a recipient by way of a plurality of electrodes in accordance with a frequency allocation table that maps frequencies in the upper region of the audible frequency range of the recipient to the plurality of electrodes, the upper region of the audible frequency range comprising frequencies above and including a cutoff frequency, and direct the cochlear implant to apply electrical stimulation representative of frequencies in the audio signal that are within a lower region of the audible frequency range to the cochlea of the first ear by way of a most apical electrode and one or more compensating electrodes included in the plurality of electrodes in accordance with an electrode stimulation configuration.

Systems and methods for optimizing spectral resolution for a hearing system

An exemplary spatial enhancement system performs frequency-specific localization and speech comprehension enhancement. Specifically, the system receives an audio signal presented to a recipient of a hearing device, and generates, based on the audio signal, a first frequency signal and a second frequency signal. The first frequency signal includes a portion of the audio signal associated with a first frequency range, and the second frequency signal includes a portion of the audio signal associated with a second frequency range. Based on the first and second frequency signals, the system generates an output frequency signal that is associated with the first and second frequency ranges and that is configured for use by the hearing device in stimulating aural perception by the recipient. This generating of the output frequency signal includes processing the first frequency signal to apply a localization enhancement and processing the second frequency signal to apply a speech comprehension enhancement.

Systems and methods for frequency-specific localization and speech comprehension enhancement

An exemplary sound processor is configured to maintain data representative of a frequency allocation table that maps frequencies in an upper region of an audible frequency range of a recipient to a plurality of electrodes located within a cochlea of the first ear, direct a cochlear implant to apply standard electrical stimulation representative of frequencies in an audio signal that are within the upper region to the cochlea of the first ear by way of the plurality of electrodes in accordance with the frequency allocation table, and direct the cochlear implant to apply phantom electrical stimulation representative of frequencies in the audio signal that are within a lower region of the audible frequency range to the cochlea of the first ear by way of a most apical electrode and one or more compensating electrodes included in the plurality of electrodes in accordance with a phantom electrode stimulation configuration.

There is provided a fitting device configured to be communicatively connected to first stimulation device comprising an implantable electric stimulation device including a plurality of stimulation channels for electrical stimulation of a patient's ipsilateral ear at various stimulation sites according to a electrical stimulation signal and a second stimulation device selected from the group consisting of a device for acoustic stimulation of the patient's ipsilateral ear and a device for acoustic stimulation of the patient's contralateral ear according to an acoustic stimulation signal for adjusting the first stimulation device and the second stimulation device.

Fitting device for bimodal hearing stimulation system

An exemplary sound processor is configured to maintain data representative of a frequency allocation table that maps frequencies in an upper region of an audible frequency range to a plurality of electrodes located within a cochlea of the first ear, receive an audio signal, direct a cochlear implant to apply standard electrical stimulation representative of frequencies in the audio signal that are within the upper region to the cochlea of the first ear by way of the plurality of electrodes in accordance with the frequency allocation table, and direct the cochlear implant to apply phantom electrical stimulation representative of frequencies in the audio signal that are within a lower region of the audible frequency range to the cochlea of the first ear by way of a most apical electrode and one or more compensating electrodes included in the plurality of electrodes in accordance with a phantom electrode stimulation configuration.

An exemplary system comprises a first and second hearing device associated with a first and second ear of a user, respectively. The first hearing device is configured to detect a first audio signal representative of audio content, generate a first intermediate signal representation (ISR) corresponding to the first audio signal, the first ISR comprising a sparsely-encoded non-audio signal having a complexity measure that is below a threshold, and transmit the first ISR to the second hearing device. The second hearing device is configured to detect a second audio signal representative of the audio content, generate a second ISR corresponding to the second audio signal, and transmit the second ISR to the first hearing device. The first hearing device is further configured to generate, based on the first and second ISRs, an output audio signal, and provide the output audio signal to the first ear of the user.

Systems and methods for data exchange between binaural hearing devices

The present invention pertains to a method for adjusting a hearing device to personal preferences and needs of a user. The proposed method comprises providing initial settings and target settings for signal processing parameters of the hearing device, the user operating the user control element to provide an input for adjusting the current settings so as to meet the personal preferences and needs of the user, adjusting the current settings based on the initial settings and the target settings in dependence of the input to provide adjusted settings for the signal processing parameters. Thereby the user control element is located at the hearing device and/or a hearing device accessory such as a smartphone or tablet. Moreover, the present invention provides a system structured and configured to carry out the proposed method.

Method and system for adjusting a hearing device to personal preferences and needs of a user

A bimodal hearing stimulation system comprises an implantable stimulation assembly for applying neural stimulation to a patient's hearing according to an electrical stimulation signal; an acoustic stimulation unit for applying acoustic stimulation to the patient's hearing according to an acoustic stimulation signal; and a sound processor for generating the electric stimulation signal and the acoustic stimulation signal from an input audio signal. The sound processor is configured to divide the input audio signal into a plurality of frequency bands. The sound processor comprises a weighting unit for dynamically determining for each of the frequency bands a relative loudness weight of the electric stimulation and a relative loudness weight of the acoustic stimulation as a function of the present level of the input audio signal in the respective frequency band. The sound processor is configured to apply the weighting function when generating the electric stimulation signal and the acoustic stimulation signal.

Bimodal hearing stimulation system

A system includes a first device for neural stimulation of a patient's ipsilateral ear and a second hearing stimulation device, wherein the stimulation mode of the second stimulation device is different from that of the first stimulation device. The system further includes a fitting device for adjusting the first stimulation device and the second stimulation device. The fitting device includes a graphical user interface configured to present an acoustic level audiogram representation of aided acoustic and electric behavioral values for the first and second stimulation devices.

Bimodal hearing stimulation system and method of fitting the same

There is provided a hearing assistance system comprising an auditory prosthesis device for neural stimulation of a patient's hearing at one of the patient's ears and a hearing aid for acoustic stimulation of the patient's hearing at the same one or the other one of the patient's ears.

System for combined neural and acoustic hearing stimulation

A system for stimulation of a patient's ipsilateral cochlea, having at least two spaced apart patient-worn microphones for providing first and second audio signals from ambient sound; a sound processor for generating an ipsilateral auditory nerve stimulation signal in a plurality of output channels from at least one of the input audio signals; and a stimulation assembly for being implanted within the ipsilateral cochlea and having a plurality of stimulation channels for ipsilateral stimulation of the patient's hearing according to the ipsilateral auditory nerve stimulation signal. The sound processor comprising a DOA unit for determining periodically a main direction of incidence of ambient sound from a sound source by analyzing the first and second audio signals, and a directional information coding unit for coding information concerning the determined main direction of incidence in the ipsilateral auditory nerve stimulation signal in manner to enable the patient to localize the sound source.

System and method for neural hearing stimulation

There is provided a system comprising a first device for neural stimulation of a cochlea of a patient's ipsilateral ear; a second hearing stimulation device selected from the group consisting of a device for neural stimulation of the cochlea of the patient's contralateral ear, a device for acoustic stimulation of the patient's ipsilateral ear and a device for acoustic stimulation of the patient's contralateral ear and comprising means for stimulation of the respective ear; and a fitting device for adjusting at least one of the first stimulation device and the second stimulation device according to a response of the patient to combined stimulation by the first stimulation device and the second stimulation device.

System comprising a cochlear stimulation device and a second hearing stimulation device and a method for adjustment according to a response to combined stimulation

High-quality adjustment of a hearing apparatus, and in particular of a hearing aid, is accelerated. In the adjusting method, a percentile analysis is carried out in order to obtain at least one frequency response of the hearing apparatus. Any discrepancy between the frequency response and an intended gain characteristic is determined. The setting of the hearing apparatus is then changed, such that the discrepancy is reduced. In order to check the effect of the setting change, a current frequency response after variation of the setting is determined by providing a constant noise signal or a single sinusoidal sweep at the input of the hearing apparatus and level measurement at the output. This frequency response measurement can be carried out as a second step considerably more quickly than the very precise percentile analysis at the start of the process.

Method for tuning a hearing device using a percentile analysis, and tuning device

The usefulness and sensitivity of a hearing-test method that can be performed over the Internet should be improved. To this end, it is proposed that meaningless syllables, so-called logatomes, are presented to a test person in fluctuating interference noise. Hence, the test can be offered internationally without change and there is no need to calibrate a computer used by the test person.

Hearing-test method

There is described a hearing device especially for musicians. For this purpose a hearing device is proposed, in whose housing a music device is integrated with which tones or signals can be emitted via the signal processor and the loudspeaker to the hearing device wearer. This music device can, for example, be a tuner with tone pitch analysis or sound playback, a metronome and/or a tone pitch processing unit. A remote control for receiving pieces of music and for playback via a hearing device may also be provided.

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Paunzhausen, Germany

Josef Chalupper