US 11,122,372 B2Granted

Method and device for the improved perception of one's own voice

AssigneeSivantos Pte. Ltd.

InventorsUlrich Giese, Sebastian Pape, Marko Lugger, Homayoun Kamkar Parsi

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Abstract

A hearing aid device and a method for operating the hearing aid device. The hearing aid device has an acousto-electrical transducer, a signal processing unit, an electro-acoustic transducer and a unit for recognizing a wearer's own voice. The hearing aid device detects and recognizes the wearer's own voice by way of the recognition unit and, when the wearer's own voice has been detected, operates the signal processing unit with a modified signal processing parameter that is modified such that the sound of the wearer's own voice is improved.

Claims13

Dependent claims

A hearing aid device, comprising:

an acousto-electrical transducer configured to receive an audio signal and to convert the audio signal into an electrical audio signal;
a signal processing unit connected to said first acousto-electrical transducer, said signal processing unit being configured to process the electrical audio signal and to output a processed electrical audio signal for conversion to an acoustic signal for delivery to a hearing aid wearer's ear;
said signal processing unit processing the electrical audio signal differently in two parallel signal processing paths to generate an output signal of a first signal processing path and an output signal of a second signal processing path;
a recognition unit for quickly recognizing the hearing aid wearer's own voice, said recognition unit, upon recognizing the wearer's own voice, causing said signal processing unit to process the electrical audio signal in at least one of the two parallel signal processing paths with a modified signal processing parameter that is modified to improve a sound perception of the wearer's own voice;
said signal processing unit mixing the output signal of the first signal processing path and the output signal of the second signal processing pathu in dependence on recognizing the wearer's own voice to form the processed electrical audio signal;
and
an electro-acoustic transducer connected to said signal processing unit and configured to convert the processed electrical audio signal into the acoustic signal for delivery to the wearer's ear.

4 more elements

A method of improving a perception of a wearer's own voice on a hearing aid device, the hearing aid device having an acousto-electrical transducer, a signal processor, an electro-acoustic transducer, and a recognition unit for recognizing a wearer's own voice, the method comprising:

recognizing the wearer's own voice by way of the recognition unit for recognizing the wearer's own voice within a period of a single sound;
when the wearer's own voice is detected, modifying a signal processing parameter to improve the sound of the wearer's own voice in the electro-acoustic transducer;
processing an electrical audio signal with the signal processing unit in parallel
on a first signal processing path with the modified signal processing parameter to form a first output signal which is improved with regard to the sound of the wearer's own voice;
and
on a second signal processing path with a second value for the signal processing parameter to form a second output signal;
and
mixing the first and second output signals with the signal processing unit to form a third output signal in which the second output signal dominates when the wearer's own voice has not been recognized or in which the first output signal dominates when the wearer's own voice has been recognized;
transmitting the third output signal to the electro-acoustic transducer;
and
converting the third output signal to an acoustic signal by the electro- acoustic transducer and delivering the acoustic signal for perception by the hearing aid wearer.

8 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 15/613,325Filed 5 Jun 2017 · continuation
Priority: DE 102014217172.528 Aug 2014
Published: US 2017/0272871 A121 Sep 2017
Granted: 14 Sep 2021
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification6 codes

H04R 25/505
Customised settings for obtaining desired overall acoustical characteristics: using digital signal processing
H04R 25/43
Electric hearing aids: electronic input selection or mixing based on input signal analysis, e.g. mixing or selection between microphone and…
H04R 2225/43
Details of deaf aids covered by H04R25/00, not provided for in any of its subgroups: signal processing in hearing aids to enhance the speech…
H04R 2460/01
Details of hearing devices, i.e. of ear- or headphones covered by H04R1/10 or H04R5/033 but not provided for in any of their subgroups, or of…:…

Family

Application14/838,621Parent of this continuation · filed 28 Aug 2015
US 2017/0272871 A1Pre-grant publication · published 21 Sep 2017
US 9,788,127 B2Parent of this continuation
US 2016/0066102 A1Published application
US 11,122,372 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.

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