Noise reduction system for hearing assistance devices

• US 9,204,227 B2
• Filed: 02/24/2014
• Issued: 12/01/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Starkey Laboratories Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Starkey Laboratories Incorporated
• Inventors: Woods, William S.
• Primary Examiner(s): EASON, MATTHEW A
• Application Number:
  US14/188,104
• Publication Number:
  US 20140348359A1
• Time in Patent Office: 645 Days
• Field of Search: 381/23.1, 381312-331, 704/500
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2225/49 Reducing the effects of electromagnetic noise on the functioning of hearing aids, by, e.g. shielding, signal processing adaptation, selective (de)activation of electronic parts in hearing aid
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2410/01 Noise reduction using microphones having different directional characteristics
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2410/05 Noise reduction with a separate noise microphone
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/453 electronically
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/552 Binaural

Abstract

Disclosed herein is a system for binaural noise reduction for hearing assistance devices using information generated at a first hearing assistance device and information received from a second hearing assistance device. In various embodiments, the present subject matter provides a gain measurement for noise reduction using information from a second hearing assistance device that is transferred at a lower bit rate or bandwidth by the use of coding for further quantization of the information to reduce the amount of information needed to make a gain calculation at the first hearing assistance device. The present subject matter can be used for hearing aids with wireless or wired connections.

Claims

1. A system for binaural noise reduction, the system comprising:

a first hearing assistance device configured to be worn in a first ear of a wearer; and

a second hearing assistance device configured to be worn in a second ear of the wearer,

wherein the first hearing assistance device includes a first processor configured to compute a first gain estimate for a first sound played at the first ear using first noise reduction calculations based on a first received sound at the first hearing assistance device, combined with second coded noise reduction calculations based on a second sound received at the second hearing assistance device, the second coded noise reduction calculations transferred wirelessly from the second hearing assistance device at a bit rate that is reduced by increasing a level of quantization from a rate necessary to transmit the information prior to coding.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the second hearing assistance device includes a second processor configured to compute a second gain estimate for a second sound played at the second ear using second noise reduction calculations based on a second received sound at the second hearing assistance device, combined with first coded noise reduction calculations based on the first received sound at the first hearing assistance device, the first coded noise reduction calculations transferred wirelessly from the first hearing assistance device at a bit rate that is reduced by increasing a level of quantization from a rate necessary to transmit the information prior to coding.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the first processor is configured to perform processing to compensate for hearing impairment.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the second processor is configured to perform processing to compensate for hearing impairment.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein the first processor is configured to perform a quartile quantization to produce first coded noise reduction calculations.

6. The system of claim 2, wherein the second processor is configured to perform a quartile quantization to produce second coded noise reduction calculations.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first hearing assistance device and the second hearing assistance device is a hearing aid.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first hearing assistance device and the second hearing assistance device is a cochlear implant.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the hearing aid includes an in-the-ear (ITE) hearing aid.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the hearing aid includes a behind-the-ear (BTE) hearing aid.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein the hearing aid includes an in-the-canal (ITC) hearing aid.

12. The system of claim 7, wherein the hearing aid includes a receiver-in-canal (RIC) hearing aid.

13. The system of claim 7, wherein the hearing aid includes a completely-in-the-canal (CIC) hearing aid.

14. The system of claim 7, wherein the hearing aid includes a receiver-in-the-ear (RITE) hearing aid.

15. A method, comprising:

performing first noise reduction calculations based on a first received sound at a first hearing assistance device;

wirelessly receiving second coded noise reduction calculations based on a second sound received at the second hearing assistance device, the second coded noise reduction calculations received at a bit rate that is reduced by increasing a level of quantization from a rate necessary to transmit the information prior to coding;

decoding the second coded noise reduction calculations; and

computing a first gain estimate for a first sound played at a first ear of a wearer using the first noise reduction calculations and the decoded second noise reduction calculations.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein performing first noise reduction calculations includes converting the first received sound into first side complex frequency domain samples, including phase and amplitude information.

17. The method of claim 16, comprising coding phase and amplitude information to produce coded phase and amplitude information.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the coding includes generating a quartile quantization.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the coding includes continuously variable slope delta modulation coding.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein decoding the second coded noise reduction calculations includes converting the second coded noise reduction calculations to original dynamic range information.