University of Illinois

Other

Robert C Bilger

Albert S Feng

Bruce C Wheeler

William D O'Brien

Charissa R Lansing

Douglas L Jones

Chen Liu

Mark E Elledge

Carolyn J Bilger, Legal Representative

Michael E Lockwood

Carolyn T Bilger, Legal Representative

A hearing system has a first device and a second device. The first device acoustically couples to skin of a user of the hearing system and includes a sensor to detect acoustic signals. The second device includes a hearing stimulator arrangement to stimulate hearing of the user in response to the acoustic signals detected with the first device. The first device and second device are each operable to bidirectionally communicate through an ultrasonic communication link comprising at least a portion of the body of the user.

Intrabody communication with ultrasound

System () is disclosed including an acoustic sensor array () coupled to processor (). System () processes inputs from array () to extract a desired acoustic signal through the suppression of interfering signals. The extraction/suppression is performed by modifying the array () inputs in the frequency domain with weights selected to minimize variance of the resulting output signal while maintaining unity gain of signals received in the direction of the desired acoustic signal. System () may be utilized in hearing aids, voice input devices, surveillance devices, and other applications.

Interference suppression techniques

Disclosed is a hearing aid that includes a first component operable to receive an input and a second component operable to provide an output to at least one ear of a user of the hearing aid. The first component and the second component are electrically coupled together by a closed electrical circuit including at least one electrical conduction pathway formed by skin of the user between the first component and the second component. An electrical signal is transmitted from the first component to the second component with the closed electrical circuit. Communication between the first and second components can be one-way or two-way.

Intrabody communication for a hearing aid

A desired acoustic signal is extracted from a noisy environment by generating a signal representative of the desired signal with a processor. The processor receives aural signals from two sensors each at a different location. The two inputs to the processor are converted from analog to digital format and then submitted to a discrete Fourier transform process to generate discrete spectral signal representations. The spectral signals are delayed by a number of time intervals in a dual delay line to provide a number of intermediate signals, each corresponding to a different spatial location relative to the two sensors. Locations of the noise source and the desired source are determined and the spectral content of the desired signal is determined from the intermediate signal corresponding to the noise source locations. Inverse transformation of the selected intermediate signal followed by digital to analog conversion provides an output signal representative of the desired signal. Techniques to localize multiple acoustic sources are also disclosed. Further, a technique to enhance noise reduction from multiple sources based on two-sensor reception is described.

Binaural signal processing techniques

A desired acoustic signal is extracted from a noisy environment by generating a signal representative of the desired signal with processor (). Processor () receives aural signals from two sensors () each at a different location. The two inputs to processor () are converted from analog to digital format and then submitted to a discrete Fourier transform process to generate discrete spectral signal representations. The spectral signals are delayed to provide a number of intermediate signals, each corresponding to a different spatial location relative to the two sensors. Locations of the noise source and the desired source, and the spectral content of the desired signal are determined from the intermediate signal corresponding to the noise source locations. Inverse transformation of the selected intermediate signal followed by digital to analog conversion provides an output signal representative of the desired signal with output device (). Techniques to localize multiple acoustic sources are also disclosed. Further, a technique to enhance noise reduction from multiple sources based on two-sensor reception is described.

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Champaign, IL, United States of America

Robert C Bilger