Determination of Room Reverberation for Signal Enhancement

A method of audio signal processing in a hearing prosthesis arrangement that includes:

• a microphone configured to sense an acoustic environment around the hearing assisted patient and generates a corresponding microphone output signal;
• and
• an audio signal processor configured to process the microphone output signal and produce a corresponding hearing prosthesis stimulation signal to the hearing assisted patient for audio perception,
• wherein the method comprises:
• using the audio signal processor to perform a dereverberation process comprising:
• a. measuring a dedicated reverberation reference signal produced in the acoustic environment to determine reverberation characteristics of the acoustic environment, and
• b. reducing reverberation effects in the hearing prosthesis stimulation signal based on the reverberation characteristics.

A hearing prosthesis arrangement for a hearing assisted patient, the arrangement comprising:

• a microphone configured to sense an acoustic environment around the hearing assisted patient and generate a corresponding microphone output signal;
• and
• an audio signal processor configured to process the microphone output signal and produce a corresponding hearing prosthesis stimulation signal to the hearing assisted patient for audio perception,
• wherein the audio signal processor includes a dereverberation process configured to:
• a. obtain environment-specific dereverberation data from an external database, and
• b. reduce reverberation effects in the hearing prosthesis stimulation signal based on the reverberation characteristics.

A method of audio signal processing in a hearing prosthesis arrangement that includes:

• a microphone configured to sense an acoustic environment around the hearing assisted patient and generate a corresponding microphone output signal;
• and
• an audio signal processor configured to process the microphone output signal and produce a corresponding hearing prosthesis stimulation signal to the hearing assisted patient for audio perception,
• wherein the method comprises:
• using the audio signal processor to perform a dereverberation process comprising:
• a. obtaining environment-specific dereverberation data from an external database, and
• b. reducing reverberation effects in the hearing prosthesis stimulation signal based on the reverberation characteristics.