674results about "Hearing aids signal processing" patented technology

An ear-worn device is provided that operates to isolate and individually treat the received speech of a target speaker or multiple target speakers from an audio input signal detected in a multi-speaker environment. The ear-worn device uses a machine learning model that receives a voice signature of each of one or more target speakers as input signals, to identify and isolate the component of the audio input signal attributable to the target speaker(s). Once isolated, the target speaker's speech may be enhanced, de-emphasized, or otherwise processed in a manner desired by the wearer of the ear-worn device. The wearer may use an external electronic device, e.g., a phone, to select one or more target speakers in a conversation and / or configure various settings associated with processing the speech on the ear-worn device.

The disclosure generally relates to a method, system and apparatus to improve a user's understanding of speech in real-time conversations by processing the audio through a neural network contained in a hearing device. The hearing device may be a headphone or hearing aid. In one embodiment, the disclosure relates to an apparatus to enhance incoming audio signal. The apparatus includes a controller to receive an incoming signal and provide a controller output signal; a neural network engine (NNE) circuitry in communication with the controller, the NNE circuitry activatable by the controller, the NNE circuitry configured to generate an NNE output signal from the controller output signal; and a digital signal processing (DSP) circuitry to receive one or more of controller output signal or the NNE circuitry output signal to thereby generate a processed signal; wherein the controller determines a processing path of the controller output signal through one of the DSP or the NNE circuitries as a function of one or more of predefined parameters, incoming signal characteristics and NNE circuitry feedback.

The disclosure generally relates to a method, system and apparatus to improve a user's understanding of speech in real-time conversations by processing the audio through a neural network contained in a hearing device. The hearing device may be a headphone or hearing aid. In one embodiment, the disclosure relates to an apparatus to enhance incoming audio signal. The apparatus includes a controller to receive an incoming signal and provide a controller output signal; a neural network engine (NNE) circuitry in communication with the controller, the NNE circuitry activatable by the controller, the NNE circuitry configured to generate an NNE output signal from the controller output signal; and a digital signal processing (DSP) circuitry to receive one or more of controller output signal or the NNE circuitry output signal to thereby generate a processed signal; wherein the controller determines a processing path of the controller output signal through one of the DSP or the NNE circuitries as a function of one or more of predefined parameters, incoming signal characteristics and NNE circuitry feedback.

The disclosure generally relates to a method, system and apparatus to improve a user's understanding of speech in real-time conversations by processing the audio through a neural network contained in a hearing device. The hearing device may be a headphone or hearing aid. In one embodiment, the disclosure relates to an apparatus to enhance incoming audio signal. The apparatus includes a controller to receive an incoming signal and provide a controller output signal; a neural network engine (NNE) circuitry in communication with the controller, the NNE circuitry activatable by the controller, the NNE circuitry configured to generate an NNE output signal from the controller output signal; and a digital signal processing (DSP) circuitry to receive one or more of controller output signal or the NNE circuitry output signal to thereby generate a processed signal; wherein the controller determines a processing path of the controller output signal through one of the DSP or the NNE circuitries as a function of one or more of predefined parameters, incoming signal characteristics and NNE circuitry feedback.

The disclosure generally relates to a method, system and apparatus to improve a user's understanding of speech in real-time conversations by processing the audio through a neural network contained in a hearing device. The hearing device may be a headphone or hearing aid. In one embodiment, the disclosure relates to an apparatus to enhance incoming audio signal. The apparatus includes a controller to receive an incoming signal and provide a controller output signal; a neural network engine (NNE) circuitry in communication with the controller, the NNE circuitry activatable by the controller, the NNE circuitry configured to generate an NNE output signal from the controller output signal; and a digital signal processing (DSP) circuitry to receive one or more of controller output signal or the NNE circuitry output signal to thereby generate a processed signal; wherein the controller determines a processing path of the controller output signal through one of the DSP or the NNE circuitries as a function of one or more of predefined parameters, incoming signal characteristics and NNE circuitry feedback.

The disclosure generally relates to a method, system and apparatus to improve a user's understanding of speech in real-time conversations by processing the audio through a neural network contained in a hearing device. The hearing device may be a headphone or hearing aid. In one embodiment, the disclosure relates to an apparatus to enhance incoming audio signal. The apparatus includes a controller to receive an incoming signal and provide a controller output signal; a neural network engine (NNE) circuitry in communication with the controller, the NNE circuitry activatable by the controller, the NNE circuitry configured to generate an NNE output signal from the controller output signal; and a digital signal processing (DSP) circuitry to receive one or more of controller output signal or the NNE circuitry output signal to thereby generate a processed signal; wherein the controller determines a processing path of the controller output signal through one of the DSP or the NNE circuitries as a function of one or more of predefined parameters, incoming signal characteristics and NNE circuitry feedback.

The disclosure generally relates to a method, system and apparatus for processing audio through a neural network contained in a hearing device. In one embodiment, the disclosure relates to an apparatus to enhance incoming audio signal. The apparatus includes a controller to receive an incoming signal and provide a controller output signal; neural network engine (NNE) circuitry in communication with the controller, the NNE circuitry activatable by the controller, the NNE circuitry configured to generate an NNE output signal from the controller output signal; and digital signal processing (DSP) circuitry to receive one or more of controller output signal or the NNE circuitry output signal to thereby generate a processed signal; wherein the controller determines a processing path of the controller output signal through one of the DSP or the NNE circuitries as a function of one or more of predefined parameters, incoming signal characteristics and NNE circuitry feedback.

The disclosure generally relates to a method, system and apparatus to improve a user's understanding of speech in real-time conversations by processing the audio through a neural network contained in a hearing device. The hearing device may be a headphone or hearing aid. In one embodiment, the disclosure relates to an apparatus to enhance incoming audio signal. The apparatus includes a controller to receive an incoming signal and provide a controller output signal; a neural network engine (NNE) circuitry in communication with the controller, the NNE circuitry activatable by the controller, the NNE circuitry configured to generate an NNE output signal from the controller output signal; and a digital signal processing (DSP) circuitry to receive one or more of controller output signal or the NNE circuitry output signal to thereby generate a processed signal; wherein the controller determines a processing path of the controller output signal through one of the DSP or the NNE circuitries as a function of one or more of predefined parameters, incoming signal characteristics and NNE circuitry feedback.

A hearing aid system comprises a hearing aid, and a portable auxiliary device’ adapted to establish a communication link between them. The hearing aid comprises a microphone providing an electric input signal, a signal processor, and an output unit. The auxiliary device comprises a microphone providing an auxiliary electric input signal, and a user control interface allowing a user to initiate a specific calibration mode of operation of the hearing aid system. The signal processor of the hearing aid is configured to receive corresponding time segments of said electric input signal and said auxiliary electric input signal to provide an estimate of an acoustic transfer function from said microphone of said auxiliary device to said microphone of said hearing aid. A method of operating a hearing aid system is further disclosed. The invention may e.g. be used in various applications related to own voice detection and estimation.

An auditory neural interface device for sound perception by an individual that may be used as a hearing aid. The auditory neural interface device includes a receiver configured to receive sound signals, a processor operably connected to the receiver and configured to encode a received sound signal as a multi-channel neurostimulation signal, and a neurostimulation device operably connected to the processor and configured to apply the multi-channel neurostimulation signal to a neurostimulation electrode of the individual. The neurostimulation signal is configured to directly stimulate afferent sensory neurons of the central nervous system of the individual and thereby to elicit, for each channel of the neurostimulation signal, one or more non-auditory, preferably somatosensory, perceptions in a cortex area of the individual. Each channel of the neurostimulation signal is associated with a different non-auditory perception.

A system may include a first ear-worn device worn by a first wearer and a second ear-worn device worn by a second wearer, in which the first ear-worn device is configured to generate an audio signal based on sound from its environment, generate a speech portion of the audio signal using a neural network-based noise-reduction pipeline in the first ear-worn device, and transmit the speech portion of the audio signal to the second ear-worn device. The first ear-worn device may be configured to determine whether to transmit the speech portion of the audio signal to the second ear-worn device based on an own-voice heuristic. The second ear-worn device may be configured to generate an output audio signal by applying a first weight to the speech portion of the first ear-worn device's audio signal and a second weight to the speech portion of its own audio signal.

A system for hearing assistance includes an array of microphones, which are configured be mounted in proximity to a head of a user of the system and to output electrical signals in response to first acoustic waves that are incident on the microphones. A speaker is configured for mounting in proximity to an ear of the user and configured to output second acoustic waves in response to a drive signal applied to the speaker. Processing circuitry is configured to generate the drive signal by amplifying and filtering the electrical signals using a beamforming filter that emphasizes first sounds that impinge on the array of microphones within a selected angular range while suppressing second sounds that are spoken by the user.

Apparatuses, systems, and techniques are presented to reduce noise in audio. In at least one embodiment, one or more neural networks are used to determine a noise signal in one or more speech signals.

A system, product and method comprising: capturing, by two or more microphones of a separate device physically separate from a hearable device of a user, a noisy audio signal from an environment of the user, wherein a plurality of people is present in the environment, the hearable device is used for providing audio output to the user; processing the noisy audio signal, thereby obtaining an enhanced audio signal, said processing comprises applying speech separation on the noisy audio signal to obtain a separate speech segment of a person of the plurality of people, wherein the speech separation utilizes an acoustic fingerprint of the person for extracting the separate speech segment of the person; and outputting the enhanced audio signal to the user via the at least one hearable device.

The invention provides an intelligent hearing aid method and device based on spectrum enhancement, and relates to the technical field of voice signal processing, and the method comprises the following steps: collecting an audio signal, and carrying out the preprocessing of the audio signal; converting the audio signal into a spectrogram, performing data annotation, and dividing the spectrogram into a training set, a verification set and a test set; creating a spectrum enhancement model and inputting a spectrogram of the training set for model training; performing multiple iterations on the spectrum enhancement model, performing hyper-parameter tuning until the model converges, and evaluating the model; and inputting a real-time audio signal, performing spectrum enhancement processing, and outputting. According to the invention, the frequency spectrum enhancement model is constructed and trained to perform frequency spectrum enhancement processing on the input audio signal, the frequency spectrum gain of the voice signal can be adaptively adjusted according to different noise types and noise intensities on different frequency bands, the quality of the voice signal is effectively improved, and the hearing aid effect is improved.

An illustrative hearing system may be configured to receive, from an input transducer included in a hearing device configured to be worn by a user, audio data representative of one or more audio signals presented to the user and acquire motion data representative of head movements of the user while the user wears the hearing device and / or own-voice data representative of an own-voice activity of the user. The hearing system may be further configured to determine, based the motion data and / or own-voice data, a listening state of the user with respect to the one or more audio signals and perform, based on the listening state, an operation associated with the hearing device.

A method for training a speech enhancement neural network for being executed on a hearing device comprises: providing a speech enhancement neural network, providing a speech style transfer algorithm for converting speech samples with a first speech style into speech samples with a second speech style, obtaining at least one training data set and applying supervised training on the speech enhancement neural network. The speech enhancement neural network has a network audio input for receiving an input audio signal, one or more network layers for predicting an enhanced audio signal and / or a filter mask for filtering the input audio signal, and a network output for outputting the enhanced audio signal and / or the filter mask. The at least one training data set comprises a training input audio signal comprising a speech sample and a target speech sample.

The present disclosure relates to a hearing apparatus comprising: a bone conduction sensor configured to convert bone vibrations of voice sound information into a bone conduction signal; a signal processing unit configured to implement a synthetic speech generation process, the synthetic speech generation process implementing a speech model; wherein the synthetic speech generation process receives the bone conduction signal as a control input and outputs a synthetic speech signal.

The invention discloses an intelligent exoskeleton bone auxiliary conduction hearing aid system capable of being remotely controlled and having an electroencephalogram control function, and relates to the technical field of intelligent rehabilitation robots and hearing aid devices. The wearable mechanical part comprises a flexible actuator, an elastic fabric base material, an inertial measurement unit IMU, a plantar pressure sensor array, a surface myoelectricity EMG sensor and an electroencephalogram EEG sensor. And the information processing communication part comprises a central controller, a bone conduction hearing aid module, a multi-mode sensor, an embedded SoC, a DSP / AI accelerator, a 4G / 5G / Wi-Fi module and a power management unit. The flexible exoskeleton walking aid system and the bone conduction hearing aid module are integrated, the electroencephalogram EEG sensor is additionally arranged to achieve the electroencephalogram control function, and cooperation of the three functions of movement assistance, auditory perception and neural intention recognition is achieved. A user can directly control the exoskeleton action mode through electroencephalogram signals, meanwhile, intelligent assistance of lower limb joints is obtained in the walking process, and environment sounds and voice prompts are clearly received in a bone conduction mode. According to the system, the perception ability, the control flexibility and the social participation degree of old people or rehabilitation patients who are inconvenient to move and accompanied with hearing impairment in a complex environment are remarkably improved, and more natural and convenient man-machine interaction experience is provided for users.

Some individuals may have hearing impairments and / or may be in situations that include impediments to hearing. The present disclosure relates to a method (800) comprising: generating (810) an audio signal based on sound received by one or more microphones of an open-ear device; and performing (820) a hearing enhancement process in response to user input, the hearing enhancement process comprising: detecting (830) a speech component of the audio signal; applying (840) a gain function to the speech component of the audio signal based on a plurality of gain parameters to generate a modified output signal; and operating (850) one or more loudspeakers of the open-ear device to produce sound according to the modified output signal.

The invention provides a hearing aid intelligent protection device and method integrated on a headgear, and the method comprises the steps: converting an environment sound wave signal into a frequency domain signal through a signal processor in an interlayer of the headgear, and separating a noise dominant frame and a voice dominant frame in a hearing aid; determining a voice masking index between the environmental noise and the voice in the environmental sound wave signal according to a distribution association relationship between the noise dominant frame and the voice dominant frame; according to the energy distribution characteristics of the noise spectrum in the frequency domain signal, determining the noise interference suffered by the hearing aid in the current wearing scene, and determining the transient noise dynamic characteristics of the environment sound wave signal under the current noise interference; and performing disturbance trend prediction on voice signal noise in the hearing aid according to the transient noise dynamic characteristics and the voice masking index, and further updating an adaptive filtering coefficient of the hearing aid according to a prediction result. By adopting the scheme of the invention, the prediction of the noise disturbance trend in a complex and changeable environment can be realized so as to adaptively adjust the noise reduction filter coefficient of the hearing aid.

A hearing system comprises a hearing device configured to be worn by a wearer, the hearing device comprising one or more microphones, an acoustic transducer, audio circuitry coupled to the one or more microphones and the acoustic transducer, and a controller coupled to the audio circuitry. The controller is configured to detect a wearer interaction with the hearing device, determine a context of the wearer's use of the hearing device, obtain user data for groups of a population of hearing device users based on user interaction with, and context of use of, the users' hearing devices, determine an operational change to the hearing device based on the wearer interaction, the context, and the user data that corresponds to the wearer's interaction and context, and apply the operational change to the hearing device.

Disclosed are system and methods for automated fitting of a hearing aid, through an automated hearing test based upon which a suitable set of hearing aid parameters is determined.

The invention discloses a reinforcement learning hearing aid adaptation method in combination with a hearing loss speech evaluation model, and aims to design an optimal hearing aid adaptation gain matched with a listening environment based on the common listening environment of a hearing-impaired person and improve the hearing aid use effect of the hearing-impaired person. An audiogram of a subject is obtained through a hearing measurement tool, the gain configuration of the hearing aid is optimized by using a reinforcement learning algorithm, and finally a personalized gain adjustment scheme is provided for the subject. The method is based on a reinforcement learning algorithm iteration strategy network, the hearing aid gain is automatically adjusted, and it is ensured that optimal hearing experience is provided under different sound pressure levels and noise environments. By means of the hearing loss speech model, the gain adjustment effect can be evaluated in real time, and the speech perception effect is optimized. Compared with a traditional method, the method has the advantages that the common acoustic environment requirements of a patient can be accurately matched, the adaptation precision and effect are improved, and higher adaptability and wide clinical application prospects are achieved.

A noise canceling disablement system is provided to enables a user to hear select conversational speech directed at the user while wearing a noise cancelling hearable device. The disablement system automatically at least partial disables the noise canceling feature of the hearable device in response to recognizing conversational speech of a speaking person within a detected conversation zone of the user. In some cases, triggering of the noise canceling disablement further requires the speaking person to be identified by the system as significant person of the user.

A method for speech equalization, comprising the steps of receiving an input audio signal, processing said input audio signal in dependence on frequency and to providing an equalized electric audio signal according to an equalization function, wherein said equalization function comprises at least an actuator part configured to dynamically applying a compensation filter to the received input signal and dynamically applying a transparent filter to the received input signal, and further transmitting an output signal perceivable by a user as sound representative of said electric acoustic input signal or a processed version thereof.

The invention relates to the technical field of hearing aids, and discloses a hearing aid supporting autonomous fitting, comprising an intelligent earphone bin module for providing equipment charging and autonomous fitting control; the communication management module is used for establishing wireless connection and external network communication; the environment sensing module is used for collecting environment physical signals; the intelligent processing module is used for identifying the current environment type and analyzing acoustic characteristics based on the signals acquired by the environment sensing module, and generating hearing aid frequency response compensation parameters and noise reduction strategies matched with the scene; and the energy management module is used for optimizing system power consumption distribution, and the intelligent earphone cabin module comprises a cross-device cooperation unit and a fitting control unit. Fitting software and hardware are integrated in the earphone cabin, automatic connection is achieved after the cover is opened, the operation steps of downloading a mobile phone APP, Bluetooth pairing and the like by a user are not needed, and the elderly user can independently complete accurate fitting of the hearing aid without external assistance.

A system and associated processes include a left and right eyewear stem, each including a microphone array comprising a plurality of microphones, and a digital hearing aid that receives content from the microphone array and extracts a desired signal from the content, the digital hearing aid applying frequency-dependent gain to the desired signal to compensate for a user's hearing loss profile. The system further includes processes that receive the desired signal modified with the frequency-dependent gains to acoustically render the desired modified signal proximate to the ear of the user without anything physical being placed within an entrance to an ear canal. A rechargeable battery may be included, along with a front face of the eyewear configured to hold a pair of eyewear lenses, where the front face lacks an electrical conductor connecting the right and left eyewear stem.

The disclosure generally relates to a method, system and apparatus to improve a user's understanding of speech in real-time conversations by processing the audio through a neural network contained in a hearing device. The hearing device may be a headphone or hearing aid. In one embodiment, the disclosure relates to an apparatus to enhance incoming audio signal. The apparatus includes a controller to receive an incoming signal and provide a controller output signal; a neural network engine (NNE) circuitry in communication with the controller, the NNE circuitry activatable by the controller, the NNE circuitry configured to generate an NNE output signal from the controller output signal; and a digital signal processing (DSP) circuitry to receive one or more of controller output signal or the NNE circuitry output signal to thereby generate a processed signal; wherein the controller determines a processing path of the controller output signal through one of the DSP or the NNE circuitries as a function of one or more of predefined parameters, incoming signal characteristics and NNE circuitry feedback.

A method for noise suppression in a hearing instrument includes using an acousto-electric input transducer of the hearing instrument to generate an input signal from ambient sound. A frequency-band-wise noise suppression is applied to a processing signal derived from the input signal. Stationary noise is detected in the respective frequency band, and depending on the detected stationary noise, an amplification factor of the processing signal is set for the relevant frequency band. An analysis adapted to detect stationary and non-stationary noise is applied to the processing signal. The analysis has a lower frequency resolution than the frequency-band-wise noise suppression and, upon detected presence of stationary and / or non-stationary noise in the analysis of the processing signal, the stationary noise in the frequency-band-wise noise suppression is presumed to be detected in each frequency band, and the corresponding amplification factors are set.