Hearing aid and processes for adaptively processing signals therein

A process for adaptively processing signals in a hearing aid to improve perception of desired sounds by a user thereof, wherein the hearing aid is adapted to apply one or more of a predefined plurality of signal processing methods to the signals, the process comprising the steps of:

• a) receiving an input digital signal, wherein the input digital signal is derived from an input acoustic signal converted from sounds received by the hearing aid;
• b) analyzing the input digital signal, wherein at least one level and at least one signal index value is determined from the input digital signal;
• c) for each of the plurality of signal processing methods, determining if the respective signal processing method is to be applied to the input digital signal at step d) by performing the substeps of
• (i) comparing each level determined at step b) with at least one first threshold value defined for the respective signal processing method, and
• (ii) comparing each signal index value determined at step b) with at least one second threshold value defined for the respective signal processing method;
• and
• d) processing the input digital signal to produce an output digital signal, wherein the processing step comprises applying each signal processing method to the input digital signal as determined at step c).

A process for adaptively processing signals in a hearing aid to improve perception of desired sounds by a user thereof, wherein the hearing aid is adapted to apply one or more of a predefined plurality of signal processing methods to the signals, the process comprising the steps of:

• a) receiving an input digital signal, wherein the input digital signal is derived from an input acoustic signal converted from sounds received by the hearing aid;
• b) analyzing the input digital signal, wherein the input digital signal is separated into a plurality of frequency band signals, and wherein a level for each frequency band signal is determined;
• c) for each of a subset of said plurality of signal processing methods, comparing the level for each frequency band signal with a corresponding threshold value from each of at least one plurality of threshold values defined for the respective signal processing method of the subset, wherein each plurality of threshold values is associated with a processing mode of the respective signal processing method of the subset, to determine if the respective signal processing method is to be applied to the input digital signal in a respective processing mode thereof at step d);
• and
• d) processing the input digital signal to produce an output digital signal, wherein the processing step comprises applying each signal processing method of the subset to the frequency band signals of the input digital signal as determined at step c), and recombining the frequency band signals to produce the output digital signal.