Method and system for providing binaural hearing assistance

A method of providing hearing assistance to a user, comprising:

• capturing audio signals at a right ear unit which is worn at the right side of a user's head and simultaneously capturing audio signals at a left ear unit which is worn at a left side of the user's head, with one of the right ear unit and the left ear unit comprising means for stimulating the a user's respective ear;
• defining a target signal with regard to background noise;
• determining a difference in the target-signal-to-background-noise ratio of the audio signals captured at the right ear unit and the audio signals captured at the left ear unit;
• transmitting, according to the determined difference in the target-signal-to-background-noise ratio, audio signals from that one of the ear units not comprising stimulating means to that one of the ear units comprising the stimulating means;
• selecting, as a function of the determined difference in the target-signal-to-background-noise ratio, as input to the stimulating means at least one of the audio signals captured at the respective ear unit, the audio signals received from the other one of the ear units, and mixtures thereof;
• and
• stimulating the user's respective ear according to the selected respective audio signals.

A system for providing binaural hearing assistance to a user, comprising:

• a right ear unit which is to be worn at a right side of a user's head and which comprises a microphone arrangement for capturing audio signals at the right ear unit and means for stimulating a user's right ear,
• a left ear unit which is to be worn at the left side of the user's head and which comprises a microphone arrangement for capturing audio signals at the left ear unit and means (20) for stimulating a user's left ear,
• means for determining a difference in the target-signal-to-background-noise ratio of the audio signals captured at the right ear unit and the audio signals captured at the left ear unit;
• means for exchanging audio signals between the right ear unit and the left ear unit according to the determined difference in the target-signal-to-background-noise ratio,
• means for selecting, as a function of the determined difference in the target-signal-to-background-noise ratio, as input to each of the stimulating means at least on of the audio signals captured at the respective ear unit, the audio signals received from the other one of the ear units, and mixtures thereof.

A system for providing hearing assistance to a user, comprising:

• a right ear unit which is to be worn at a right side of the user's head and which comprises a microphone arrangement for capturing audio signals at the right ear unit, and a left ear unit which is to be worn at the a left side of the user's head and which comprises a microphone arrangement for capturing audio signals at the left ear unit, with one of the right ear unit the left ear unit comprising means for stimulating a user's respective ear,
• means for determining a difference in the target-signal-to-background-noise ratio of the audio signals captured at the right ear unit and the audio signals captured at the left ear unit;
• means for transmitting, according to the determined difference in the target-signal-to-background-noise ratio, audio signals from that one of the ear units not comprising stimulating means to the that one of the ear units comprising the stimulating means,
• means for selecting, as a function of the determined difference in the target-signal-to-background-noise ratio, as input to the stimulating means at least one of the audio signals captured at the respective ear unit, the audio signals received from the other one of the ear units, and mixtures thereof.