HEARING AID DEVICE FOR HANDS FREE COMMUNICATION

• US 20150163602A1
• Filed: 12/05/2014
• Published: 06/11/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oticon A/S (William Demant Fonden)
• Original Assignee: Oticon A/S (William Demant Fonden)
• Inventors: PEDERSEN, Michael Syskind, JENSEN, Jesper, DE HAAN, Jan Mark
• Granted Patent: US 10,341,786 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 2225/39 Aspects relating to automatic logging of sound environment parameters and the performance of the hearing aid during use, e.g. histogram logging, or of user selected programs or settings in the hearing aid, e.g. usage logging
• 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 2225/55 Communication between hearing aids and external devices via a network for data exchange
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2499/11 Transducers incorporated or for use in hand-held devices, e.g. mobile phones, PDA's, camera's
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/30 Monitoring or testing of hearing aids, e.g. functioning, settings, battery power
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/305 Self-monitoring or self-testing
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/407 Circuits for combining signals of a plurality of transducers
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/43 Electronic input selection or mixing based on input signal analysis, e.g. mixing or selection between microphone and telecoil or between microphones with different directivity characteristics H04R25/407 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/552 Binaural
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/554 using a wireless connection, e.g. between microphone and amplifier or using Tcoils

Abstract

The present invention regards a hearing aid device at least one environment sound input, a wireless sound input, an output transducer, electric circuitry, a transmitter unit, and a dedicated beamformer-noise-reduction-system. The hearing aid device is configured to be worn in or at an ear of a user. The at least one environment sound input is configured to receive sound and to generate electrical sound signals representing sound. The wireless sound input is configured to receive wireless sound signals. The output transducer is configured to stimulate hearing of the hearing aid device user. The transmitter unit is configured to transmit signals representing sound and/or voice. The dedicated beamformer-noise-reduction-system is configured to retrieve a user voice signal representing the voice of a user from the electrical sound signals. The wireless sound input is configured to be wirelessly connected to a communication device and to receive wireless sound signals from the communication device. The transmitter unit is configured to be wirelessly connected to the communication device and to transmit the user voice signal to the communication device.

Claims

1. A hearing aid device configured to be worn in or at an ear of a user comprising,

at least one environment sound input for receiving sound and generating an electrical sound signal representing sound,

a wireless sound input for receiving wireless sound signals,

an output transducer configured to stimulate hearing of the hearing aid device user, electric circuitry,

a transmitter unit configured to transmit signals representing sound and/or voice, and

a dedicated beamformer-noise-reduction-system configured to retrieve a user voice signal representing the voice of a user from the electrical sound signal,

wherein the wireless sound input is configured to be wirelessly connected to a communication device and to receive wireless sound signals from the communication device, and

wherein the transmitter unit is configured to be wirelessly connected to the communication device and to transmit the user voice signal to the communication device.

2. The hearing aid device according to claim 1, wherein the hearing aid device comprises a voice activity detection unit configured to detect if a voice signal of the user is present in the electrical sound signals.

3. The hearing aid device according to claim 2, wherein the hearing aid device is configured to activate a wireless sound receiving mode when the wireless sound input is receiving wireless sound signals.

4. The hearing aid device according to claim 1, wherein the dedicated beamformer-noise-reduction-system comprises a beamformer configured to process the electrical sound signal by suppressing predetermined spatial directions of the electrical sound signals generating a spatial sound signal.

5. The hearing aid device according to claim 4, wherein the hearing aid device comprises a memory configured to store data and wherein the beamformer is configured to use values of predetermined spatial direction parameters representing an acoustic transfer function stored in the memory to suppress the predetermined spatial directions of the electrical sound signals.

6. The hearing aid device according to claim 5, wherein the values of the predetermined spatial direction parameters were determined in a beamformer dummy head model system.

7. The hearing aid device according to claim 6, wherein said values of the predetermined spatial direction parameters represent the acoustic transfer function from a mouth of said dummy head sound source to said at least one environment sound input of the hearing aid device.

8. The hearing aid device according to claim 2, wherein the electric circuitry is configured to estimate a noise power spectral density of a disturbing background noise from sound received with the at least one environment sound input when the voice activity detection unit detects an absence of a voice signal of the user in the electrical sound signal.

9. The hearing aid device according to claim 8 wherein the values of the predetermined spatial direction parameters are determined in dependence of the noise power spectral density of the disturbing background noise.

10. The hearing aid device according to claim 2 configured to update spatial direction parameters, termed the look vector, of the beamformer when the voice activity detection unit detects a presence of a voice signal of the user in the electrical sound signal.

11. The hearing aid device according to claim 1, wherein the beamformer-noise-reduction-system comprises a single channel noise reduction unit, and wherein the single channel noise reduction unit is configured to reduce noise in the electrical sound signals.

12. The hearing aid device according to claim 11, wherein the single channel noise reduction unit is configured to use a predetermined noise signal representing disturbing background noise of sound received with the at least one environment sound input to remove the noise in the electrical sound signals.

13. The hearing aid device according to claim 12, wherein the predetermined noise signal used to remove the noise in the electrical sound signals is determined by sound received by the at least one environment sound input when the voice activity detection unit detects an absence of a voice signal of the user in the sound signal.

14. The hearing aid device according to claim 1, comprising a controllable switch configured to establish a wireless connection between the hearing aid device and the communication device and wherein the switch is adapted to be activated by a user.

15. The hearing aid device according to claim 5, wherein the memory is configured to store a look-vector for each spectral frequency subband, derived from the own-voice inter-microphone covariance matrix.

16. The hearing aid system comprising a hearing aid device according to claim 1 and a mobile phone, wherein the hearing aid device is configured to be connected to the mobile phone, and wherein the mobile phone comprises a receiver unit configured to receive sound signals, a wireless interface to the public telephone network, and a transmitter unit configured to transmit wireless sound signals received by the wireless interface to the public telephone or data network.

17. A method for processing sound from the environment and a wireless sound signal in a hearing aid device configured to be worn in or at an ear of a user comprising the steps

providing at least one environment sound input for receiving sound and generating an electrical sound signal representing sound,

providing a wireless sound input for receiving wireless sound signals,

providing an output transducer configured to stimulate hearing of the hearing aid device user,

providing electric circuitry,

providing a transmitter unit configured to transmit signals representing sound and/or voice, and

providing a dedicated beamformer-noise-reduction-system configured to retrieve a user voice signal representing the voice of a user from the electrical sound signal,

configuring the wireless sound input to be wirelessly connected to a communication device and to receive wireless sound signals from the communication device, and

configuring the transmitter unit to be wirelessly connected to the communication device and to transmit the user voice signal to the communication device.

18. The method according to claim 17 providing that the hearing aid device is configured to be operated in various modes of operation, including one or more of a communication mode, a wireless sound receiving mode, a telephony mode, a silent environment mode, a noisy environment mode, a normal listening mode, a user speaking mode, or another mode.

19. A method for processing sound from the environment and a wireless sound signal comprising the steps:

receiving sound and generating electrical sound signals representing sound,

determining if a wireless sound signal is received,

activating a first processing scheme if a wireless sound signal is received, wherein the first processing scheme comprises the steps;

using the electrical sound signals to update a noise signal representing noise used for noise reduction,

using the noise signal to update values of predetermined spatial direction or transfer function parameters,

and activating a second processing scheme if no wireless sound signal is received, wherein the second processing scheme comprises the steps;

determining if the electrical sound signals comprise a voice signal representing voice,

activating the first processing scheme if a voice signal is absent in the electrical sound signals,

and activating a noise reduction scheme if the electrical sound signals comprise a voice signal, wherein the noise reduction scheme comprises the steps;

using the electrical sound signals to update the values of the predetermined spatial direction or transfer function parameters,

retrieving a user voice signal representing the user voice from the electrical sound signals, wherein

a spatial sound signal representing spatial sound is generated from the electrical sound signals using the predetermined spatial direction or transfer function parameters, and

a user voice signal is generated from the spatial sound signal using the noise signal to reduce noise in the spatial sound signal.

20. The use of the method according to claim 19 to train a hearing aid device to be used as an own-voice detector, said hearing aid device being configured to be worn in or at an ear of a user and comprising,

at least one environment sound input for receiving sound and generating an electrical sound signal representing sound,

a wireless sound input for receiving wireless sound signals,

an output transducer configured to stimulate hearing of the hearing aid device user, electric circuitry,

a transmitter unit configured to transmit signals representing sound and/or voice, and

a dedicated beamformer-noise-reduction-system configured to retrieve a user voice signal representing the voice of a user from the electrical sound signal,

wherein the wireless sound input is configured to be wirelessly connected to a communication device and to receive wireless sound signals from the communication device, and

wherein the transmitter unit is configured to be wirelessly connected to the communication device and to transmit the user voice signal to the communication device.