Methods and apparatus for improved noise reduction for hearing assistance devices

• US 8,737,654 B2
• Filed: 04/07/2011
• Issued: 05/27/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/12/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Starkey Laboratories Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Starkey Laboratories Incorporated
• Inventors: Merks, Ivo, Woods, William S., Zhang, Tao, Perz, Dominic
• Primary Examiner(s): Ensey, Brian
• Assistant Examiner(s): FALEY, KATHERINE A
• Application Number:
  US13/081,964
• Publication Number:
  US 20110249844A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,146 Days
• Field of Search: 381/317
• US Class Current: 381/317
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2225/43 Signal processing in hearing aids to enhance the speech intelligibility
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2460/01 Hearing devices using active noise cancellation
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/356 Amplitude, e.g. amplitude shift or compression
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/505 using digital signal processing

Abstract

Disclosed herein, among other things, are methods and apparatus for improved noise reduction for hearing assistance devices. In various embodiments, a hearing assistance device includes a microphone and a processor configured to receive signals from the microphone. The processor is configured to perform noise reduction which adjusts maximum gain reduction as a function of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and which reduces the strength of its maximum gain reduction for intermediate signal-to-noise ratio levels to reduce speech distortion. In various embodiments, the hearing assistance device includes a memory configured to log noise reduction data for user environments. Also provided are methods to further adjust the noise reduction based on the logged information.

Claims

1. A hearing assistance device, comprising:

a microphone; and

a processor configured to receive signals from the microphone; and

wherein the processor is configured to perform noise reduction which adjusts maximum gain reduction as a function of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and which reduces the strength of its maximum gain reduction for signal-to-noise ratio levels indicative of a signal of interest to reduce speech distortion,

wherein the signal-to-noise ratio includes a time-varying coefficient of constancy (TVCC) to provide an estimate of the signal of interest compared to noise, and wherein the maximum gain reduction is minimized when the TVCC equals 0.

2. The device of claim 1, further comprising a memory configured to log noise reduction data for user environments.

3. The device of claim 2, wherein the processor is configured to use the logged noise reduction data to provide a recommendation to change settings of the noise reduction to decrease speech distortion and improve speech audibility and intelligibility.

4. The device of claim 2, wherein the processor is configured to use the logged noise reduction data to automatically changing settings of the noise reduction to decrease speech distortion and improve speech audibility and intelligibility.

5. The device of claim 1, wherein the maximum gain reduction is approximately 3 dB when the TVCC equals 0.

6. The device of claim 1, wherein the maximum gain reduction is increased when the TVCC is greater than or less than 0.

7. The device of claim 6, wherein the maximum gain reduction is increased to approximately 10 dB.

8. The device of claim 1, wherein the maximum gain reduction includes a single microphone noise reduction algorithm (SMNR).

9. A method, comprising:

receiving signals from a hearing assistance device microphone in user environments;

adjusting maximum gain reduction as a function of signal-to-noise ratio to perform noise reduction; and

reducing the strength of the maximum gain reduction for signal-to-noise ratio levels indicative of a signal of interest to reduce speech distortion,

wherein the signal-to-noise ratio includes a time-varying coefficient of constancy (TVCC) to provide an estimate of the signal of interest compared to noise, and wherein the maximum gain reduction is increased when the TVCC is greater than or less than 0.

10. The method of claim 9, farther comprising logging noise reduction data for the user environments.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising providing a recommendation to change settings of the noise reduction based on the logged data to decrease speech distortion improve speech audibility and intelligibility.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising automatically changing settings of the noise reduction based on the logged data to decrease speech distortion and improve speech audibility and intelligibility.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein logging noise reduction data includes logging which device memories have been used and how often the device memories have been used.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein logging noise reduction data includes logging average gain reduction during speech plus noise.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein logging noise reduction data includes logging average gain reduction during noise only.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein logging noise reduction data includes logging average gain reduction during machine noise.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein logging noise reduction data includes logging average gain reduction during wind noise.

18. The method of claim 10, wherein logging noise reduction data includes logging time and frequency that a user spends in the environments.

19. The method of claim 9, wherein the maximum gain reduction is minimized when the TVCC equals 0.

20. The method of claim 9, wherein the maximum gain reduction is approximately 3 dB when the TVCC equals 0.