AUTOMATED METHOD OF CLASSIFYING AND SUPPRESSING NOISE IN HEARING DEVICES

• US 20130022223A1
• Filed: 01/25/2012
• Published: 01/24/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/25/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Board of Regents of the University of Texas System (University of Texas System)
• Original Assignee: Board of Regents of the University of Texas System (University of Texas System)
• Inventors: Kehtarnavaz, Nasser, Gopalakrishna, Vanishree Bijadi, Loizou, Philipos C.
• Granted Patent: US 9,364,669 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 381/317
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/0541 Cochlear electrodes
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/36038 Cochlear stimulation
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/1083 Reduction of ambient noise active noise reduction per se G10K11/175; protective devices for the ear, e.g. providing acoustic protection A61F11/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2225/41 Detection or adaptation of hearing aid parameters or programs to listening situation, e.g. pub, forest
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2225/43 Signal processing in hearing aids to enhance the speech intelligibility
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2225/51 Aspects of antennas or their circuitry in or for hearing aids
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2225/67 Implantable hearing aids or parts thereof not covered by H04R25/606
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/554 using a wireless connection, e.g. between microphone and amplifier or using Tcoils
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/558 Remote control, e.g. of amplification, frequency
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/70 Adaptation of deaf aid to hearing loss, e.g. initial electronic fitting

Abstract

The claimed invention is directed to a real-time noise classification and tuning system for cochlear implant and other hearing device applications. The system is capable of automatically selecting the optimized parameters of a noise suppression algorithm in response to different noisy environments. The feature vector and the classifier deployed in the system to automatically identify the background noise environment are selected so that the computation burden is kept low to achieve a real-time throughput. The results reported herein indicate improvement in speech enhancement when using this intelligent real-time hearing device system.

Claims

1. A hearing device system comprising a hearing device and a control device,

the control device comprising:

a signal interface that is adapted to receive data representing the acoustic environment external to the ear, and transmit an optimal algorithm to the hearing device; and

a module for analyzing the data representing the acoustic environment external to the ear, and calculating the optimal algorithm for digital signal processing, the control device being operable to be responsive to the acoustic environment data transmitted thereto to automatically derive the optimal algorithm based upon the data and to transmit the optimal algorithm to the hearing device;

wherein the hearing device is adapted to receive the optimal algorithm transmitted thereto by the control device and to perform speech enhancement in real time using the received optimal algorithm.

2. The hearing device system according to claim 1 further comprising a computer in communication with the control device for at least one of signal analysis, algorithm processing, and audiometric examination.

3. The hearing device system in accordance with claim 1, wherein the system is implemented on a smartphone platform.

4. The hearing device system of claim 1 further comprising a feature vector and a classifier.

5. The hearing device system of claim 1 wherein the hearing device is a hearing aid.

6. The hearing device system of claim 1, wherein the hearing device is a cochlear implant.

7. A method of operating a hearing device, the method comprising:

providing a hearing device and a control device, the control device comprising a signal interface that is adapted to receive data representing the acoustic environment external to the ear, and transmit an optimal algorithm to the hearing device; and

a module for analyzing the data representing the acoustic environment external to the ear, and calculating the optimal algorithm for digital signal processing, the control device being operable to be responsive to the acoustic environment data transmitted thereto to automatically derive the optimal algorithm based upon the data and to transmit the optimal algorithm to the hearing device;

wherein the hearing device is adapted to receive the optimal algorithm transmitted thereto by the control device and to perform speech enhancement in real time using the received optimal algorithm;

the method further comprising the steps of;

adjusting the hearing device in an audiometric process to adapt the hearing device to the hearing loss of the user;

deriving data representing the acoustic environment external to the ear;

transmitting the data representing the acoustic environment external to the ear to the control device;

analyzing the data representing the acoustic environment external to the ear and automatically calculating the optimal algorithm for performing speech enhancement;

transmitting the optimal algorithm to the hearing device; and

performing speech enhancement using the received optimal algorithm.

8. The method according to claim 7 wherein instructions executed by the control device, and which enable the control device to perform the audiometric process in cooperation with the hearing device, are stored within the control device.

9. The method according to claim 8 and further comprising providing a computer in communication with the control device for at least one of signal analysis, algorithm processing, and audiometric examination.

10. The method according to claim 7, wherein the hearing device is a hearing aid.

11. The method according to claim 7, wherein the hearing device is a cochlear implant.