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, 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,each of the left and right hearing assistance devices comprisinga) a plurality 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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the binaural hearing assistance system being 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, whereinthe left and right hearing assistance devices each further comprise a voice activity detector for identifying respective time segments of an input signal where a human voice is present, andthe hearing assistance system is configured toestablish an interaural wireless communication link between the left and right hearing assistance devices for exchanging data between the left and right hearing assistance devices, such exchanged data including voice activity detector data and data indicating direction, distance or range to a target signal source, andsynchronize 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.
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Abstract
A binaural hearing assistance system includes left and right hearing assistance devices, and a user interface. 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
18 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, 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,
each of the left and right hearing assistance devices comprising a) a plurality 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; the binaural hearing assistance system being 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, wherein the left and right hearing assistance devices each further comprise a voice activity detector for identifying respective time segments of an input signal where a human voice is present, and the hearing assistance system is configured to establish an interaural wireless communication link between the left and right hearing assistance devices for exchanging data between the left and right hearing assistance devices, such exchanged data including voice activity detector data and data indicating direction, distance or range to a target signal source, and 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 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)
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18. 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 the plurality 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, wherein the left and right hearing assistance devices each perform voice activity detection to identify respective time segments of an input signal where a human voice is present, and the method further comprises establishing an interaural wireless communication link between the left and right hearing assistance devices for exchanging data between the left and right hearing assistance devices, such exchanged data including voice activity detection data and data indicating direction, distance or range to a target signal source, and synchronizing respective multi-channel beamformer filtering operations performed by the left and right hearing assistance devices so that both beamformer filtering operations focus on the location of the target signal source.
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Specification