US 10,257,620 B2 · Method for detecting tonal signals, a method for operating a hearing device based on detecting tonal signals and a hearing device with a feedback canceller using a tonal signal detector

Abstract

The present invention proposes a method for providing at least one indication regarding whether an input signal contains a tonal signal component. The proposed method comprises decomposing the input signal into a plurality of band-limited input signals and then for each of one or more of the plurality of band-limited input signals performing the following step: estimating parameters of a parametric tonal signal model adapted to model and predict a tonal-only signal component of a selected one of the one or more of the plurality of band-limited input signals; synthesizing based on the estimated parameters a corresponding predicted band-limited input signal; and determining a measure of mismatch between the selected band-limited input signal and the corresponding predicted band-limited input signal. Subsequently, the at least one indication is provided based on the measure of mismatch determined for at least one of the one or more of the plurality of band-limited input signals. Furthermore, a method for operating a hearing device is proposed, which employs such a method for detecting tonal signals, and a hearing device with a feedback canceller is presented, which relies on a tonal signal detector in order to improve feedback cancelling.

Claims10

Dependent claims

A method for providing at least one indication regarding whether an input signal contains a tonal signal component, the method comprising the steps of:

decomposing the input signal into a plurality of band-limited input signals;
for each of one or more of the plurality of band-limited input signals:
estimating parameters of a parametric tonal signal model adapted to model and predict a tonal-only signal component in a selected one of the one or more of the plurality of band-limited input signals;
synthesizing based on the estimated parameters a corresponding predicted band-limited input signal;
and
determining a measure of mismatch between the selected band-limited input signal and the corresponding predicted band-limited input signal;
and
providing the at least one indication based on the measure of mismatch determined for at least one of the one or more of the plurality of band-limited input signals.

5 more elements

A hearing device comprising:

an input transducer structured and configured to receive an input audio signal;
a signal processing unit structured and configured to process the input audio signal and to produce a processed audio signal;
and
an output transducer structured and configured to output an output audio signal based on the processed audio signal,
wherein the signal processing unit comprises:
an analysis filter bank structured and configured to decompose the input audio signal into a plurality of band-limited input audio signals;
an amplification unit structured and configured to apply a frequency and/or input level dependent amplification according to a gain model to the plurality of band-limited input audio signals to produce a plurality of band-limited processed audio signals;
an synthesis filter bank structured and configured to combine or compose the plurality of band-limited processed audio signals into the processed audio signal;
a feedback canceller;
and
a tonal signal detector operationally connected to the feedback canceller,
wherein the tonal signal detector comprises a tonal signal prediction filter with an input, to which a selected one of the band-limited input audio signal is provided, and an output providing a predicted band-limited input audio signal, the tonal signal detector being further structured and configured to determine a measure of mismatch between the band-limited input audio signal and the predicted band-limited input audio signal, and
wherein the feedback canceller comprises:
a further filter for applying the same filter coefficients as the tonal signal prediction filter to produce a predicted band-limited processed audio signal;
a computation unit configured to determine further filter coefficients based on a difference between the band-limited processed audio signal and the predicted band-limited processed audio signal and/or on the band-limited processed audio signal dependent on the measure of mismatch, and further based on a difference between the input audio signal and the predicted input signal and/or on the band-limited input audio signal dependent on the measure of mismatch;
a feedback estimation filter operationally connected to the computation unit and adapted to filter with the further filter coefficients the band-limited processed audio signal to provide an estimated band-limited feedback signal, and
wherein an input of the amplification unit is connected to an output of a subtraction unit adapted to subtract the estimated band-limited feedback signal from the band-limited input audio signal.

14 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Method for detecting tonal signals, a method for operating a hearing device based on detecting tonal signals and a hearing device with a feedback canceller using a tonal signal detector

Life of this patent

Method for detecting tonal signals, a method for operating a hearing device based on detecting tonal signals and a hearing device with a feedback canceller using a tonal signal detector

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims10