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US 2018/0020298 A1Published application
Hearing assistance system
AssigneeSonova AG
InventorsGilles Courtois, Patrick Marmaroli, Herve Lissek, Yves Oesch, William Balande
Life of this patent
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Abstract
There is provided a hearing assistance system, comprising a transmission unit comprising a microphone arrangement for capturing audio signals from a voice of a speaker using the transmission unit and being adapted to transmit the audio signals as radio frequency signal via a wireless RF link; a left ear hearing device and a right ear hearing device, each hearing device being adapted to stimulate the user's hearing and to receive an RF signal from the transmission unit via the wireless RF link and comprising a microphone arrangement for capturing audio signals from ambient sound.
Claims39
A system for providing hearing assistance to a user, comprising:
- a transmission unit comprising a microphone arrangement for capturing audio signals from a voice of a speaker using the transmission unit and being adapted to transmit the audio signals as radio frequency (RF) signal via a wireless RF link;
- a left ear hearing device to be worn at or at least partially in the user's left ear and a right ear hearing device to be worn at or at least partially in the user's right ear, each hearing device being adapted to stimulate the user's hearing and to receive an RF signal from the transmission unit via the wireless RF link and comprising a microphone arrangement for capturing audio signals from ambient sound;
- the hearing devices being adapted to communicate with each other via a binaural link,
- the hearing devices further being adapted to estimate the angular location of the transmission unit by
- determining a level of the RF signal received by the left ear hearing device and a level of the RF signal received by the right ear hearing device,
- determining a level of the audio signal captured by the microphone arrangement of the left hearing device and a level of the audio signal captured by the microphone arrangement of the right hearing device,
- determining, in at least one frequency band, a phase difference between the audio signal received via the RF link from the transmission unit by the left ear hearing device and the audio signal captured by the microphone arrangement of the left ear hearing device and a phase difference between the audio signal received via the RF link from the transmission unit by the right ear hearing device and the audio signal captured by the microphone arrangement of the right ear hearing device,
- exchanging, via the binaural link, data representative of the determined level of the RF signal, the determined level of the audio signal and the determined phase difference between the hearing devices,
- estimating, separately in each of the hearing devices and based on the respective interaural differences of said exchanged data, the azimuthal angular location of the transmission unit;
- and
- each hearing device being adapted to process the audio signal received from the transmission unit via the wireless link in a manner so as to create a hearing perception, when stimulating the user's hearing according to the processed audio signals, wherein the angular localization impression of the audio signals from the transmission unit corresponds to the estimated azimuthal angular location of the transmission unit.
8 more elements
A method of providing hearing assistance to a user, comprising:
- capturing, by a transmission unit comprising a microphone arrangement, audio signals from a voice of speaker using the transmission unit and transmitting, by the transmission unit, the audio signals as an RF signal via a wireless radio frequency (RF) link;
- capturing, by a microphone arrangement of a left ear hearing device worn at or at least partially in the user's left ear and a microphone arrangement of a right ear hearing device worn at or at least partially in the user's right ear, audio signals from ambient sound, and receiving, by the left ear hearing device and the right ear hearing device, the RF signal from the transmission unit via the wireless RF link,
- estimating, by each of the hearing devices, the angular location of the transmission unit by
- determining the level of the RF signal received by the left ear hearing device and the level of the RF signal received by the right ear hearing device,
- determining the level of the audio signal captured by the microphone arrangement of the left hearing device and the level of the audio signal captured by the microphone arrangement of the right hearing device,
- determining, in at least one frequency band, the phase difference between the audio signal received via the RF link from the transmission unit by the left ear hearing device and the audio signal captured by the microphone arrangement of the left ear hearing device and the phase difference between the audio signal received via the RF link from the transmission unit by the right ear hearing device and the audio signal captured by the microphone arrangement of the right ear hearing device,
- exchanging, via a binaural link, data representative of the determined level of the RF signal, the determined level of the audio signal and the determined phase difference between the hearing devices,
- estimating, separately in each of the hearing devices and based on the respective interaural differences of said exchanged data, the azimuthal angular location of the transmission unit;
- processing, by each hearing device, the audio signals received from the transmission unit via the wireless link;
- and
- stimulating the user's left ear according to the processed audio signals of the left ear hearing device and the user's right ear according to the processed audio signals of the right ear hearing device;
- wherein the audio signals received from the transmission unit are processed, by each hearing device, in a manner so as to create a hearing perception, when stimulating the user's hearing according to the processed audio signals, wherein the angular localization impression of the audio signals from the transmission unit as perceived by the user corresponds to the estimated azimuthal angular location of the transmission unit.
9 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.