# US 2014/0193010 A1 · Hearing aid and method for eliminating acoustic feedback in the amplification of acoustic signals > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 2014/0193010 A1 - Document ID: US20140193010A1 - Status: Published application - Kind: A1 - Application number: 14/130,674 - Filed: 2012-07-04 - Published: 2014-07-10 - Earliest claimed: 2011-07-04 - Assignees: Eberhard-Karls-Universitaet Tuebingen Universitaetsklinikum - Inventors: Erich Goll; Ernst Dalhoff; Hans-Peter Zenner - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20140193010A1 ## CPC - H04R 25/453: {electronically} - H04R 25/45: {Prevention of acoustic reaction, i.e. acoustic oscillatory feedback} - H04R 25/50: {Customised settings for obtaining desired overall acoustical characteristics} - H04R 25/70: {Adaptation of deaf aid to hearing loss, e.g. initial electronic fitting} - H04R 2225/43: Signal processing in hearing aids to enhance the speech intelligibility - H04R: LOUDSPEAKERS, MICROPHONES, GRAMOPHONE PICK-UPS OR LIKE ACOUSTIC ELECTROMECHANICAL TRANSDUCERS; ELECTRIC HEARING AIDS; PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEMS (producing sounds with frequency not determined by supply frequency G10K) ## Abstract In a hearing aid having a microphone to be arranged at a body of a user for capturing ambient sound, a loudspeaker for outputting the ambient sound after having been amplified on a frequency-dependent basis, and a signal processor, the signal processor is configured to amplify the sound such that the amplified sound is audible to the user, and to automatically re-adjust the gain by the following steps: selecting a tone having a specific frequency; outputting the tone and the amplified ambient sound via the loudspeaker as an output sound; capturing via said microphone an analysis sound composed of ambient sound and of a reflection of said output sound; extracting a reflection of the tone from the captured analysis sound; and determining a reflection component for the specific frequency of the tone; adjusting the gain in frequency-specific manner and based on the determined reflection component. ## Claims ### Claim at position 1 1-11. (canceled) ### Claim 12 A method for setting a frequency-dependent gain in a hearing aid, said hearing aid comprising a sensor element configured to be arranged at a body of a hearing-impaired user and to capture ambient sound, a signal processor configured to amplify said captured ambient sound with said frequency-dependent gain such that said amplified captured sound is audible to the hearing-impaired user, said signal processor being further configured for automatic re-adjusting of the frequency-dependent gain, a transmission element for outputting said amplified captured ambient sound, a data memory, and an energy store, said automatic re-adjusting of said frequency-dependent gain comprising the following steps: selecting a tone at a specific frequency; outputting the tone and, if existent, said amplified captured ambient sound the via said transmission element to produce an output sound; capturing an analysis sound, which comprises said ambient sound, if existent, and a reflection of said output sound, by means of the sensor element; extracting a reflection of the supplied tone from the captured analysis sound; determining a reflection component for the specific frequency of the tone; and adjusting the gain in a frequency-specific manner on the basis of the so-determined reflection component. ### Claim 13 (depends on 12) The method of claim 12, wherein said sensor element comprises a microphone ### Claim 14 (depends on 12) The method of claim 12, wherein said transmission element is a loudspeaker, ### Claim 15 (depends on 12) The method as claimed in claim 12, wherein the tone is supplied at a volume that is chosen such that the impaired-hearing user does not hear the supplied tone. ### Claim 16 (depends on 12) The method as claimed in claim 12, wherein the method steps are performed continuously and repeatedly for a plurality of discrete tones at different specific frequencies. ### Claim 17 (depends on 16) The method as claimed in claim 16, wherein the method steps are performed continuously and repeatedly at intervals of one second. ### Claim 18 (depends on 12) The method as claimed in claims 12, wherein in a very first non-recurrent step an initial reflection component curve is determined for the audible spectrum in order to determine discrete points in the frequency spectrum which have associated tones which are outputted via said transmission element for the purpose of producing an instantaneous reflection component curve. ### Claim 19 (depends on 18) The method as claimed in claims 18, wherein said associated tones are recurrently outputted for the purpose of updating said instantaneous reflection component curve. ### Claim 20 (depends on 19) The method as claimed in claim 19, wherein an updated instantaneous reflection component curve is determined on the basis of numerical curve adaptation. ### Claim 21 (depends on 12) The method as claimed in claim 12, which further comprises the step of selecting at least two tones which form a characteristic tone group ### Claim 22 (depends on 21) The method as claimed in claim 21, wherein said at least two tones are close together. ### Claim 23 (depends on 21) The method as claimed in claim 21, wherein the characteristic tone group consists of precisely two different tones and wherein the specific frequencies of the tones of the characteristic tone group are just so far apart that human hearing can no longer distinguish the associated specific frequencies, which method comprises the following further steps: simultaneously outputting the two different tones via the transmission element so that beating occurs for human hearing; capturing the tones by means of said sensor element; determining the frequency-dependent reflection component for at least one of the two tones of the characteristic tone group; and adapting the gain by means of the reflection components determined in this manner. ### Claim 24 (depends on 21) The method as claimed in claim 21, wherein the specific frequencies of the at least two tones differ by less than 3 Hz. ### Claim 25 (depends on 21) The method as claimed in claim 21, wherein a resolution of signal processing by the signal processor is selected to be higher than the resolution of human hearing so that the specific frequencies of each of the at least two different tones are separable.