Method and a binaural listening system for maximizing a better ear effect

摘要

The present invention relates to a listening device for a hearing impaired person. The present invention furthermore relates to a corresponding operating method of operating a listening device and to a corresponding computer program. In particular, the present invention relates to a listening device that comprises a signal processing unit that is controlled by a controller configured to implement a combined feed-forward and feed-back control in order to ensure that both an electric input signal and a processed electric output signal have at least almost identical modulation index values. Thereby, speech intelligibility is increased, in particular for a hearing impaired person being capable of perceiving sound pressure levels in a substantially decreased dynamic range.

主权项

1. A method of processing audio signals from a sound field picked up by a microphone system of a binaural listening system comprising left and right listening devices adapted for being worn at a left and right ear, respectively, of a user, the sound field comprising sound signals from one or more sound sources, the sound signals impinging on the user from one or more directions relative to the user, the left and right listening devices comprising transceivers for establishing a communication link between them, the method comprising
b1) providing information about a user's hearing ability depending on the frequency of a sound signal; b2) determining a number of target frequency bands, for which the user's hearing ability fulfils a predefined hearing ability criterion; and performing steps c1)-c3) for each of the left and right listening devices located at the left and right ears, respectively, of a user: c1) providing a dynamic separation of sound signals from the one or more sound sources depending on time, frequency and direction of origin of the sound signals relative to the user; c2) selecting a signal among the dynamically separated sound signals; c3) determining an SNR-measure indicating a strength of the selected signal relative to other signals of the sound field for the selected signal and listening device depending on time, frequency and direction of origin of the selected signal relative to the user and on the location and mutual strength of the sound sources; and performing steps c4bin)-d) in at least one of the left and right listening devices: c4bin) determining a better-ear-effect measure for the left listening device as a difference between the values of the SNR-measure for the selected signal for the left and right listening devices, respectively, and/or determining a better-ear-effect measure for the right listening device as a difference between the values of the SNR-measure for the selected signal for the right and left listening devices, respectively; c5bin) determining in the left and/or right listening devices a number of donor frequency bands of the selected signal at a given time, where the better-ear-effect measure for the selected signal is above a predefined threshold value; d) transposing in the left and/or right listening devices a donor frequency band of the selected signal—at a given time—to a target frequency band, if a predefined transposition criterion is fulfilled.