Hearing assistance apparatus

A hearing assistance device, comprising:

• two transducers, spaced from each other, which react to a characteristic of an acoustic wave to capture data representative of the characteristic;
• a signal processor for processing said data to determine (a) which data represents one or more sound sources located within a zone in front of the user, and (b) which data represents one or more sound sources located outside of the zone, the signal processor providing relatively less emphasis of data representing the sound source(s) outside the zone over data representing the sound source(s) inside the zone;
• a voice activity detector, a characteristic of the signal processor being adjusted based on whether or not the voice activity detector determines that a human voice is making sound within the zone;
• and
• at least one speaker which utilizes the data to reproduce sounds to the user.

A method of providing hearing assistance to a person, comprising the steps of:

• transforming data, collected by transducers which react to a characteristic of an acoustic wave, into signals for each transducer location;
• separating the signals into a plurality of frequency bands for each location;
• for each band determining from the signals whether or not a sound source providing energy to a particular band is substantially facing the person;
• and
• causing a relative gain change between those frequency bands whose signal characteristics indicate that a sound source providing energy to a particular band is substantially facing the person, and those frequency bands whose signal characteristics indicate that a sound source providing energy to a particular band is not substantially facing the person, the signal processor being adjustable as a function of at least one of frequency, a user setting, an amount of active noise reduction, a ratio of acoustic energy from sound sources substantially facing the person to sound sources substantially not facing the person, and sound level in a vicinity of the transducers, in order to adjust an effective size of a zone in which a sound source is considered to be substantially facing the person.

A hearing assistance device, comprising:

• two transducers which react to a characteristic of an acoustic wave to capture data representative of the characteristic;
• a signal processor for processing said data, wherein the signal processor (a) provides a first level of emphasis to data representing a first sound source that a user of the hearing assistance device is facing, the first sound source being substantially on axis with the user, and (b) provides a second level of emphasis lower than the first level of emphasis to data representing a second sound source off axis with the user, and (c) provides a third level of emphasis lower than the second level of emphasis to data representing a third sound source that is relatively more off axis than the second sound source;
• and
• at least one speaker which utilizes the data to reproduce sounds to the person.

A method of providing hearing assistance to a person, comprising the steps of:

• transforming data, collected by two transducers which react to a characteristic of an acoustic wave, into signals for each transducer location;
• utilizing the signals to determine a magnitude relationship and a phase angle relationship between the two transducers for a plurality of frequency bands at certain points in time;
• mapping the magnitude relationship and phase angle relationship for each frequency band onto a two-dimensional plot;
• determining an origin of the plot, the origin being where the magnitudes are substantially equal to each other and the phase angles are substantially equal to each other;
• and
• causing a relative gain change between those frequency bands whose mapped magnitude relationship and phase angle relationship is relatively closer to the origin of the plot compared to those frequency bands whose mapped magnitude relationship and phase angle relationship is relatively further from the origin of the plot.