Binaural hearing assistance system comprising binaural noise reduction
First Claim
1. A binaural hearing assistance system comprising left and right hearing assistance devices adapted for being located at or in left and right ears of a user, or adapted for being fully or partially implanted in the head of the user, each of the left and right hearing assistance devices comprisinga) a multitude of input units IUi, i=1, . . . , M, M being larger than or equal to two, for providing a time-frequency representation Xi(k,m) of an input signal xi(n) at an ith input unit in a number of frequency bands and a number of time instances, k being a frequency band index, m being a time index, n representing time, the time-frequency representation Xi(k,m) of the ith input signal comprising a target signal component and a noise signal component, the target signal component originating from a target signal source;
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wherein the binaural hearing assistance system furthercomprises a user interface configured to communicate with said left and right hearing assistance devices and to allow a user to influence functionality of the left and right hearing assistance devices, andis configured to allow a user to indicate a direction to or a location of the target signal source relative to the user via said user interface, andis adapted to synchronize the respective multi-channel beamformer filtering units of the left and right hearing assistance devices so that both beamformer filtering units focus on the direction or location of the target signal source.
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Abstract
A binaural hearing assistance method and system comprising left and right hearing assistance devices and a user interface are provided. The left and right hearing assistance devices comprises a) at least two input units for providing a time-frequency representation of an input signal in a number of frequency bands and a number of time instances; and b) a multi-input unit noise reduction system comprising a multi-channel beamformer filtering unit operationally coupled to said at least two input units and configured to provide a beamformed signal. The binaural hearing assistance system is configured to allow a user to indicate a direction to or location of a target signal source relative to the user via said user interface.
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Citations
25 Claims
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1. A binaural hearing assistance system comprising left and right hearing assistance devices adapted for being located at or in left and right ears of a user, or adapted for being fully or partially implanted in the head of the user, each of the left and right hearing assistance devices comprising
a) a multitude of input units IUi, i=1, . . . , M, M being larger than or equal to two, for providing a time-frequency representation Xi(k,m) of an input signal xi(n) at an ith input unit in a number of frequency bands and a number of time instances, k being a frequency band index, m being a time index, n representing time, the time-frequency representation Xi(k,m) of the ith input signal comprising a target signal component and a noise signal component, the target signal component originating from a target signal source; - and
b) a multi-input unit noise reduction system comprising a multi-channel beamformer filtering unit operationally coupled to said multitude of input units IUi, i=1, . . . , M, and configured to provide a beamformed signal Y(k,m), wherein signal components from other directions than a direction of the target signal source are attenuated, whereas signal components from the direction of the target signal source are left un-attenuated or attenuated less than signal components from said other directions; wherein the binaural hearing assistance system further comprises a user interface configured to communicate with said left and right hearing assistance devices and to allow a user to influence functionality of the left and right hearing assistance devices, and is configured to allow a user to indicate a direction to or a location of the target signal source relative to the user via said user interface, and is adapted to synchronize the respective multi-channel beamformer filtering units of the left and right hearing assistance devices so that both beamformer filtering units focus on the direction or location of the target signal source. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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24. A method of operating a binaural hearing assistance system, the system comprising left and right hearing assistance devices adapted for being located at or in left and right ears of a user, or adapted for being fully or partially implanted in the head of the user, the binaural hearing assistance system further comprising a user interface configured to communicate with said left and right hearing assistance devices and to allow a user to influence functionality of the left and right hearing assistance devices,
the method comprising in each of the left and right hearing assistance devices a) providing a time-frequency representation Xi(k,m) of an input signal xi(n) at an ith input unit in a number of frequency bands and a number of time instances, k being a frequency band index, m being a time index, n representing time, M being larger than or equal to two, for the time-frequency representation Xi(k,m) of the ith input signal comprising a target signal component and a noise signal component, the target signal component originating from a target signal source; -
b) providing a beamformed signal Y(k,m) from said time-frequency representations Xi(k,m) of said multitude of input signals, wherein signal components from other directions than a direction of the target signal source are attenuated, whereas signal components from the direction of the target signal source are left un-attenuated or are attenuated less than signal components from said other directions in said beamformed signal Y(k,m); and configuring the binaural hearing assistance system to allow a user to indicate a direction to or a location of the target signal source relative to the user via said user interface, and synchronizing the respective multi-channel beamformer filtering units of the left and right hearing assistance devices so that both beamformer filtering units focus on the location of the target signal source. - View Dependent Claims (25)
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Specification