TECHNIQUES FOR INCREASING PROCESSING CAPABILITY IN HEAR AIDS

摘要

The signal processing functions of a hearing aid as described above necessarily cause some delay between the time the audio signal is received by the microphone or wireless receiver and the time that the audio is actually produced by the output transducer. In some situations, signal processing incorporating longer delays may be better able to improve signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) or other functional parameters for a hearing aid wearer, but a balance should be struck between these positive effects of delay and other negative effects. The techniques described herein address the problem of to balancing the positive and negative effects of delay.

主权项

1. A hearing aid, comprising:
a microphone to convert an audio input into an input signal; processing circuitry to process the input signal to produce an output signal in a manner that compensates for a user's hearing deficit; a speaker to convert the output signal into an audio output; wherein the processing circuitry is configured to select from two or more processing algorithms that differ in delay time to produce the output signal and to select the processing algorithm according to an estimated signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the audio signal received by the microphone; and, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to select a processing algorithm with a delay of 10 milliseconds or less when the SNR is greater than +5 dB.