Hearing Aid Signal Quality Assessment for Beamforming Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional voice activity detection (VAD)-driven speech signal processing in hearing aids often leads to output signals with residual noise, distorted speech, or reduced intelligibility due to mis-steered beamformers and over/under-suppressed noise reduction, resulting in suboptimal speech quality and intelligibility.
Innovation Solution
A hearing aid system with multiple beamformers and a target quality assessment unit that determines assessment values for processed signals, adjusting processing parameters to enhance speech quality and intelligibility by modifying beamforming and noise reduction algorithms based on these values.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If noise reduction algorithms are applied to suppress residual noise in the enhanced target signal, then noise suppression is improved, but speech intelligibility and quality deteriorate due to over-suppression
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a feedback mechanism where the target quality assessment unit continuously evaluates the enhanced target signal and provides assessment values to the modification unit. This closed-loop feedback allows the system to dynamically adjust processing parameters, preventing both under-suppression and over-suppression of noise while maintaining speech intelligibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The modification unit changes processing parameters based on assessment values from the target quality assessment unit. By dynamically adjusting parameters such as noise reduction strength and beamforming coefficients, the system optimizes the balance between noise suppression and speech preservation, resolving the contradiction between reducing residual noise and maintaining speech intelligibility.
2Reliability
If beamforming algorithms are applied to enhance target signal, then speech quality is improved, but speech intelligibility deteriorates when the beamformer is mis-steered
Solution Approach 1:
The target quality assessment unit provides continuous feedback on the quality of the beamformed signal. When the beamformer becomes mis-steered and speech intelligibility decreases, the assessment values reflect this degradation, prompting the modification unit to adjust beamforming parameters to restore accurate steering and maintain both speech quality and intelligibility.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If signal processing algorithms are applied to reduce residual noise, then noise suppression is improved, but the output signal contains fast modulations that were not present in the input signal, reducing quality and intelligibility
Solution Approach 1:
The feedback loop through the target quality assessment unit detects the presence of unnatural fast modulations in the output signal. When such artifacts are detected, the assessment values guide the modification unit to adjust processing parameters to reduce these modulations, thereby maintaining noise suppression while preserving natural signal quality and intelligibility.
Data Source
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AI summary
Disclosed is a hearing aid comprising an input unit configured to provide an electrical audio input signal representing a sound, a signal processing unit configured to provide a processed signal based on the electrical audio input signal using a first processing parameter, target quality assessment unit configured to determine an assessment value based on the processed signal. The signal processing unit is configured to determine an output signal based on the assessment value. The hearing aid comprises an output unit configured to output the output signal.