SELF-CALIBRATION OF MULTI-MICROPHONE NOISE REDUCTION SYSTEM FOR HEARING ASSISTANCE DEVICES USING AN AUXILIARY DEVICE
First Claim
1. A hearing assistance system comprising a hearing assistance device and an auxiliary device;
- the hearing assistance device comprisingHD-a) a multitude M of input units IUi, i=1, . . . , M, adapted to provide or to receive a time-frequency representation Si(k,m) of a signal si(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, and M being larger than or equal to two; and
HD-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 determine filter weights w(k,m) for providing a beamformed signal Y(k,m), wherein signal components from other directions than a direction of a 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;
the system comprising a user interface for activating a calibration mode in the auxiliary device and in the hearing assistance device;
the auxiliary device comprisingAD-a) an output transducer for converting an electric signal representative of a sound to an acoustic sound signal;
AD-b) a control unit for forwarding an electric calibration signal to the output transducer when said calibration mode is activated;
wherein the system is configured to estimate a look vector d(k,m) for a target signal originating from a target signal source located at a specific location relative to the user based on the electric calibration signal converted by the output transducer of the auxiliary device to an acoustic calibration sound signal, wherein said specific location relative to the user is the location of said output transducer of the auxiliary device.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The application relates to hearing assistance system (use and method) for calibrating a noise reduction system of a hearing assistance device. The system comprises a hearing assistance device, and an auxiliary device. The hearing assistance device comprises a multitude of input units, and a multi-channel beamformer filtering unit configured to determine filter weights for a beamformed signal. The system further comprises a user interface for activating a calibration mode. The auxiliary device comprises an output transducer for converting an electric calibration signal to an acoustic calibration sound signal. The system is configured to estimate a look vector for a target signal originating from a target signal source located at a specific location relative to the user based on the acoustic calibration sound signal.
190 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A hearing assistance system comprising a hearing assistance device and an auxiliary device;
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the hearing assistance device comprising HD-a) a multitude M of input units IUi, i=1, . . . , M, adapted to provide or to receive a time-frequency representation Si(k,m) of a signal si(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, and M being larger than or equal to two; and HD-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 determine filter weights w(k,m) for providing a beamformed signal Y(k,m), wherein signal components from other directions than a direction of a 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; the system comprising a user interface for activating a calibration mode in the auxiliary device and in the hearing assistance device; the auxiliary device comprising AD-a) an output transducer for converting an electric signal representative of a sound to an acoustic sound signal; AD-b) a control unit for forwarding an electric calibration signal to the output transducer when said calibration mode is activated; wherein the system is configured to estimate a look vector d(k,m) for a target signal originating from a target signal source located at a specific location relative to the user based on the electric calibration signal converted by the output transducer of the auxiliary device to an acoustic calibration sound signal, wherein said specific location relative to the user is the location of said output transducer of the auxiliary device. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20)
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19. A method of calibrating a multi-input unit noise reduction system of a hearing assistance device, the method comprising
a) Providing a hearing assistance device comprising the multi-input unit noise reduction system and a multitude M of input units, where M is larger than or equal to two; -
b) Providing an auxiliary device comprising an output transducer; c) Locating the auxiliary device within a predetermined distance of a user wearing said hearing assistance device, thereby defining a specific location of (the output transducer of) the auxiliary device relative to (the hearing assistance device of) the user; d) Initiating a calibration mode in the hearing assistance device and the auxiliary device; e) Providing an acoustic calibration signal by the output transducer of the auxiliary device; f) Providing a time-frequency representation Si(k,m) of the calibration signal si(n) at an ith input unit, i=1, 2, . . . , M, in a number of frequency bands and a number of time instances, k being a frequency band index and m being a time index, the method further comprising g) estimating a look vector d(k,m) for a target signal originating from a target signal source located in said specific location relative to the user based on said time-frequency representation Si(k,m) of the calibration signal si(n), i=1, 2, . . . , M; and h) determining optimal beam former weights based on said estimated look vector
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Specification