Direction of arrival estimation in miniature devices using a sound sensor array

A method for estimating the direction of arrival of sound emitted by one or more sound sources creating a sound field in the surroundings of the one or more sound sources, the method comprising:

• providing, using an array of sound sensitive sensors of a hearing aid, an electric input signal, from each sensor, comprising a stream of digital samples representing the sound field of the surroundings;
• providing, using a sampling unit of the hearing aid, at least one sample of said surrounding sound field from each of said sensors at substantially the same time instant;
• providing, using a processing unit of the hearing aid, a parametric model configured to be able to describe the sound field as a function of the direction of arrival in a region surrounding and adjacent to said array;
• optimizing, using a processing unit of the hearing aid, said model with respect to its parameters based on said sound samples;
• minimizing, using the processing unit of the hearing aid, a cost function of the model with respect to said direction of arrivals;
• and
• estimate, using the processing unit of the hearing aid, the direction of arrival based on said parametric model with the optimized parameters and the optimized cost function.