Eye-Gaze Guided Hearing Aid Sound Source Localization
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing hearing aid systems lack accurate methods to determine the location of sound sources and acoustic transfer functions, which hinders noise reduction and signal processing efficiency.
Innovation Solution
A hearing aid system that utilizes a microphone array and eye-gaze direction data to estimate the location of sound sources by employing a database of acoustic transfer function vectors and posterior probabilities, enabling precise determination of sound source positions and acoustic transfer functions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If traditional acoustic information only is used to estimate target location and ATF, then the system complexity is lower, but the measurement precision and reliability of sound source location are insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines acoustic information from multiple microphones with eye-gaze direction information to estimate sound source location and acoustic transfer function. The processor integrates these two types of data sources, using eye-gaze as an additional constraint to disambiguate between multiple potential sound source locations, thereby improving measurement precision without requiring a complete redesign of the system architecture.
Solution Approach 2:
The eye-gaze direction information acts as an intermediary that links the acoustic signals to specific spatial locations. Instead of directly analyzing complex acoustic scenes to determine source location, the system uses eye-gaze direction as a mediator to constrain the possible locations, simplifying the overall estimation process while improving accuracy.
2Reliability
If multiple data sources (acoustic + eye-gaze) are integrated to improve location accuracy, then the reliability improves, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system pre-establishes the relationship between eye-gaze direction and acoustic transfer functions using database information. This preliminary preparation allows the processor to efficiently query and match acoustic signals with corresponding eye-gaze directions during real-time operation, reducing the computational complexity of integrating multiple data sources while maintaining high reliability.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If eye-gaze data is added to improve noise reduction performance, then the noise reduction capability improves, but the ease of operation decreases due to additional data processing requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The hearing aid system automatically processes and integrates eye-gaze direction data with acoustic signals without requiring user intervention. The processor autonomously performs the complex data fusion and sound source localization tasks, maintaining ease of operation while achieving improved noise reduction performance through the self-service processing of additional data streams.
Data Source
AI summary
A hearing aid configured to be worn at or in an ear of a user including hearing aid comprising A) a multitude of microphones, B) a database including b1) a plurality of acoustic transfer function vectors representing different candidate locations of a target sound source in the environment relative to the microphone system, and b2) a multitude of posterior probabilities related to at least some of the acoustic transfer function vectors, each posterior probability representing the probability of a given acoustic transfer function given a particular eye-gaze direction of the user, and C) a processor configured to determine a current location of the target sound source relative to the user.