Neural Network Audio Scene Classifier for Hearing Implants

A signal processing system for generating stimulation signals for a hearing implant implanted in a patient, the system comprising:

• an audio scene classifier comprising a multi-layer neural network configured for classifying an audio input signal from an audio scene, wherein the audio scene classifier includes:
• a) a pre-processing neural network configured for pre-processing the audio input signal based on initial classification parameters to produce an initial signal classification, and
• b) a scene classifier neural network configured for processing the initial signal classification based on scene classification parameters to produce an audio scene classification output,
• wherein the initial classification parameters reflect neural network training based on a first set of initial audio training data, and the scene classification parameters reflect neural network training on a second set of classification audio training data separate and different from the first set of initial audio training data, wherein the pre-processing neural network optimizes meta-parameters without explicit training of weights via back propagation, the meta-parameters including filter bandwidths, and wherein the scene classifier neural network includes a back propagation procedure;
• a hearing implant signal processor configured for processing the audio input signal and the audio scene classification output for generating the stimulation signals using at least one of continuous interleaved sampling (CIS), channel specific sampling sequences (CSSS), spectral peak (SPEAK), compressed analog (CA) processing, a fine structure coding strategy and an n-of-m approach.