Hearing assistance system and method

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

• at least one audio signal transmission unit comprising an audio signal source and means for transmitting audio signals from the audio signal source via a wireless radio frequency (RF) link;
• a left ear receiver unit to be worn at or at least partially in a user's left ear and a right ear receiver unit to be worn at or at least partially in a user's right ear, wherein each receiver unit is connected to or comprises means for stimulating a user's hearing and comprises means for receiving an RF signal from the at least one transmission unit via the wireless RF link, and means for measuring at least one parameter of the RF signal as received from the at least one transmission unit at the respective receiver unit in order to create left ear RF signal measurement data and right ear RF signal measurement data, respectively;
• means for estimating an angular localization of each transmission unit by comparing, for each transmission unit, the left ear RF signal measurement data and the right ear RF signal measurement data, with each receiver unit comprising means for supplying said RF signal measurement data to said angular localization estimating means;
• and
• means for processing the audio signals received from the at least one transmission unit via the wireless RF link by distributing the audio signals onto a left ear channel to be supplied via the left ear receiver unit to the left ear stimulating means and a right ear channel to be supplied via the right ear receiver unit to the right ear stimulating means according to the estimated angular localization of each transmission unit in a manner so that an angular localization impression of the audio signals from each transmission unit as perceived by the user corresponds to the estimated angular localization of the respective transmission unit.

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

• providing audio signals at at least one audio signal transmission unit and transmitting audio signals from the at least audio signal transmission unit via a wireless RF link;
• receiving the RF signal of the wireless RF link at a left ear receiver unit worn at or at least partially in a user's left ear and at a right ear receiver unit worn at or at least partially in a user's right ear;
• measuring at least one parameter of the RF signal as received from the transmission unit(s) at the respective receiver unit in order to create left ear RF signal measurement data and right ear RF signal measurement data, respectively;
• estimating a angular localization of each transmission unit by comparing the left ear RF signal measurement data and right ear RF signal measurement data,
• processing the audio signals received via the wireless RF link by distributing the audio signals onto a left ear channel to be supplied by the left ear receiver unit to the left ear stimulating means and a right ear channel to be supplied by the right ear receiver unit to the right ear stimulating means according to the estimated angular localization of each transmission unit;
• and
• stimulating the user's left ear according to the left ear channel and stimulating the user's right ear according to the right ear channel;
• wherein the audio signals are distributed onto the left ear channel and the right ear channel in a manner so that an angular localization impression of the audio signals from each transmission unit as perceived by the user corresponds to the angular localization of the respective transmission unit as estimated by the RF signal measurements.