Sound processing with increased noise suppression
AssigneeCochlear Limited
InventorsStefan J. Mauger, Adam A. Hersbach, Pam W. Dawson, John M. Heasman
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method for processing sound that includes, generating one or more noise component estimates relating to an electrical representation of the sound and generating an associated confidence measure for the one or more noise component estimates. The method further comprises processing, based on the confidence measure, the sound.
Claims20
A method of operating an electrical stimulation hearing prosthesis having an array of electrodes, said method comprising:
- generating a noise reduced signal from a sound signal by preferentially reducing noise distortion over sound distortion;
- and
- generating a control signal for controlling stimulation of at least one electrode of the array of electrodes using the noise reduced signal.
An electrical stimulation hearing prostheses, the device comprising
- an array of electrodes for auditory stimulation of a recipient of the device;
- and
- a processor for processing a sound signal,
- wherein the processor is configured generate a noise reduced signal from at least a portion of the sound signal, wherein the noise reduced signal has a distortion ratio, DR(ω), defined as
- DR
-
- (
- ω
- )
-
- =
- Δ
-
-
- X
-
- (
- ω
- )
-
- D
-
- (
- ω
- )
- ,
- where dX(ω) is speech distortion of the noise reduced signal and dD(ω) is noise distortion of the noise reduced signal, and wherein the distortion ratio of the noise reduced signal lies above a curve defined by
- DR
-
- (
- ω
- )
- =
- ξ
-
- (
- 1
- -
- (
- ξ
- +
- 0.12
- ξ
- )
- 20
- )
- 2
- and below a curve defined by
- DR
-
- (
- ω
- )
- =
- ξ
-
- (
- 1
- -
- (
- ξ
- +
- 1
- ξ
- )
- 20
- )
- 2
- for at least some signal to noise ratio values, ξ, between −5 and 15 dB, and
- wherein the processor is further configured to generate a control signal for controlling stimulation by at least one electrode of the array of electrodes using the noise reduced signal.
A system for operating an electrical stimulation hearing prosthesis having at least one electrode, said system comprising:
- means to generate a noise reduced signal from an input signal using a process that over-removes noise from the input signal;
- and
- means to generate a control signal for controlling stimulation of said least one electrode in accordance with the noise reduced signal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.