Hearing device comprising a noise reduction system

    公开(公告)号:US11245993B2

    公开(公告)日:2022-02-08

    申请号:US16785167

    申请日:2020-02-07

    Applicant: Oticon A/S

    Abstract: A hearing device, e.g. a hearing aid, is configured to be worn by a user at or in an ear or to be fully or partially implanted in the head at an ear of the user. The hearing device comprises a) an input unit for providing at least one electric input signal in a time frequency representation k, m, where k and m are frequency and time indices, respectively, and k represents a frequency channel, the at least one electric input signal being representative of sound and comprising target signal components and noise components; and b) a signal processor comprising b1) an SNR estimator for providing a target signal-to-noise ratio estimate for said at least one electric input signal in said time frequency representation; and b2) an SNR-to-gain converter for converting said target signal-to-noise ratio estimate to respective gain values in said time frequency representation. The signal processor comprises a neural network, wherein the weights of the neural network have been trained with a plurality of training signals. A method of operating a hearing aid is further disclosed. The invention may e.g. be used in audio devices, such as hearing aids, headsets, mobile telephones, etc., operating in noisy acoustic environments.

    Hearing device comprising a beamformer filtering unit for reducing feedback

    公开(公告)号:US10932066B2

    公开(公告)日:2021-02-23

    申请号:US16271557

    申请日:2019-02-08

    Applicant: Oticon A/S

    Abstract: A hearing device, e.g. a hearing aid, comprises a) a multitude of input transducers for providing respective electric input signals representing sound in an environment of the user; b) an output transducer for providing stimuli perceivable to the user as sound based on said electric input signals or a processed version thereof; c) an adaptive beamformer filtering unit connected to said input unit and to said output unit, and configured to provide a spatially filtered signal based on said multitude of electric input signals and adaptively updated beamformer weights; and d) a feedback estimation unit providing feedback estimates of current feedback paths from said output transducer to each of said input transducers. The hearing device is configured to provide that at least one of said adaptively updated beamformer weights of the adaptive beamformer filtering unit is/are updated in dependence of said feedback path estimates. The application further relates to a method of suppressing feedback.

    Hearing device comprising a feedback reduction system

    公开(公告)号:US10820119B2

    公开(公告)日:2020-10-27

    申请号:US16449729

    申请日:2019-06-24

    Applicant: Oticon A/S

    Abstract: A hearing device, e.g. a hearing aid, comprises a) an input unit comprising a multitude of input transducers for providing respective electric input signals representing sound in an environment of the user; b) an output unit comprising an output transducer for providing stimuli perceivable to the user as sound based on said electric input signals or a processed version thereof; c) a spatial filter connected to said input unit and to said output unit, and configured to provide a spatially filtered signal based on said multitude of electric input signals and configurable beamformer weights; d) a spatial filter controller configured to apply first and/or second different sets of beamformer weights to said multitude of electric input signals, wherein said first set of beamformer weights is applied to provide spatial filtering of sound from said output transducer, and wherein said second set of beamformer weights is applied to provide spatial filtering of an external sound field. A method of operating a hearing device is further disclosed.

    Providing and transmitting audio signal

    公开(公告)号:US10659893B2

    公开(公告)日:2020-05-19

    申请号:US16131613

    申请日:2018-09-14

    Applicant: Oticon A/S

    Abstract: There is provided a system (100) comprising an audio streaming device (102) having an audio streaming device receiver (104) arranged for receiving a first audio signal (106) comprising a first audio content and a second audio signal (108) comprising a second audio content, the system furthermore comprising a memory device (110) arranged for storing a user defined setting (112), a processor (114) arranged for providing an output audio signal (116), said output audio signal comprising a combination of the first audio content, and the second audio content, wherein the output audio signal comprises a ratio of a level of the first audio content and a level of the second audio content, and the ratio is determined based on the user defined setting (112), and wherein the system is further comprising a system transmitter (118) arranged for wirelessly transmitting the output audio signal (116).

    Voice activity detection unit and a hearing device comprising a voice activity detection unit

    公开(公告)号:US10580437B2

    公开(公告)日:2020-03-03

    申请号:US15714260

    申请日:2017-09-25

    Applicant: Oticon A/S

    Abstract: A voice activity detection unit is configured to receive at least two electric input signals in a number of frequency bands and a number of time instances, k and m being frequency band and time indices, respectively, (k, m) defining a specific time-frequency tile of said electric input signal. The voice activity detection unit is configured to provide a resulting voice activity detection estimate comprising one or more parameters indicative of whether or not a given time-frequency tile contains or to what extent it comprises a target speech signal. The voice activity detection unit comprises a) a first detector for analyzing the time-frequency representation of the electric input signals and identifying spectro-spatial characteristics of said electric input signals, and b) and is configured for providing said resulting voice activity detection estimate in dependence of said spectro-spatial characteristics. The invention may be used in hearing aids, table microphones, speakerphones, etc.

    HEARING AID COMPRISING A DIRECTIONAL MICROPHONE SYSTEM

    公开(公告)号:US20190222942A1

    公开(公告)日:2019-07-18

    申请号:US16362056

    申请日:2019-03-22

    Applicant: Oticon A/S

    Abstract: A hearing aid comprises a BTE-part adapted for being located behind an ear (ear) of a user, and comprising a) a multitude M of microphones, which—when located behind the ear of the user—are characterized by respective transfer functions, HBTEi(θ, φ, r, k), representative of propagation of sound from sound sources S to the respective microphones b) a memory unit comprising complex, frequency dependent constants Wi(k)′, i−1, . . . , M, c) a beamformer filtering unit for providing a beamformed signal Y as a weighted combination of the microphone signals using said complex, frequency dependent constants The frequency dependent constants are determined to provide a resulting transfer function Hpinna(θ, φ, r, k)=Σi=1MWi(k)·HBTEi(θ, φ, r, k), so that a difference between the resulting transfer function Hpinna(θ, φ, r, k) and a transfer function HITE(θ, φ, r, k) of a microphone located close to or in the ear canal fulfils a predefined criterion.

    Microphone matching unit and hearing aid

    公开(公告)号:US10171921B2

    公开(公告)日:2019-01-01

    申请号:US15257333

    申请日:2016-09-06

    Applicant: Oticon A/S

    Abstract: The invention relates to a method and an apparatus for performing a microphone matching of a hearing aid comprising a first microphone, a second microphone and a receiver in a predetermined spatial arrangement to each other. The method comprises the steps of: generating an output sound signal by means of the receiver; picking up a first and second input sound signal by the first and second microphones while the output sound signal is generated; converting the first and second input sound signals into a first and second electrical microphone output signal by means of the microphones; determining a first and second microphone response of the microphones; determining a microphone response difference between the first microphone response and the second microphone response; determining a matching difference between the microphone response difference and a predetermined reference microphone response difference; and adapting at least a first microphone gain of the first microphone according to the matching difference to reduce the matching difference.

    Binaural hearing system configured to localize a sound source

    公开(公告)号:US09992587B2

    公开(公告)日:2018-06-05

    申请号:US15669020

    申请日:2017-08-04

    Applicant: Oticon A/S

    Abstract: A hearing aid system comprising a pair of hearing devices, e.g. hearing aids, worn at the ears of a user receives a target signal generated by a target signal source and transmitted through an acoustic channel to microphones of the hearing aid system. Due to (potential) additive environmental noise, a noisy acoustic signal is received at the microphones of the hearing system. An essentially noise-free version of the target signal is simultaneously transmitted to the hearing devices of the hearing system via a wireless connection. Based on a sound propagation model of the acoustic propagation channel from the target sound source to the microphones of the hearing aid system, and on relative transfer functions representing direction-dependent filtering effects of the head and torso of the user in the form of direction-dependent acoustic transfer functions from a microphone on one side of the head, to a microphone on the other side of the head, a direction-of-arrival (DoA) of the target sound signal relative to the user is determined using a maximum likelihood approach.

    Binaural hearing system
    70.
    发明授权

    公开(公告)号:US09712928B2

    公开(公告)日:2017-07-18

    申请号:US15010670

    申请日:2016-01-29

    Applicant: Oticon A/S

    Abstract: A binaural hearing system comprising left and right hearing devices is provided, each comprising an input unit providing an electric input signal representing an environmental sound; a noise reduction system for estimating and reducing a noise component of the electric input signal; antenna and transceiver circuitry allowing the exchange of data between the hearing devices. The binaural hearing system is—in a mode of operation, where a sound source is predominantly audible at a first one of the hearing devices—configured to transmit the estimate of the noise component determined in a second one of the hearing devices to the first hearing device and to use said estimate to reduce the noise component in the electric signal of the first hearing device and to provide a noise reduced signal in the first hearing device. Thereby improved noise reduction is provided for use, e.g. in hearing aids, in non-symmetric acoustic situations.

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