Signal processing techniques for a DSP hearing aid

The recent development of commercial hearing aids with digital signal processing (DSP) capabilities opens the door for an explosive growth in hearing aid sophistication. Current limitations on signal processing design due to hearing aid constraints, and the specialized needs of listeners with hearing loss, result in certain design specifications that any DSP hearing aid must meet. This paper reviews the latest state-of-the-art with respect to current DSP hearing aids on the market, with an emphasis on the ReSound programmable DSP hearing aid, developed in a collaboration with GN Danavox and AudioLogic, Inc. Multiband compression, single-microphone processing, multimicrophone processing, and feedback reduction are discussed.

[1]  E Villchur,et al.  Signal processing to improve speech intelligibility in perceptive deafness. , 1973, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[2]  P M Zurek,et al.  Evaluation of an adaptive beamforming method for hearing aids. , 1992, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[3]  D A Fabry,et al.  Effects of an adaptive filter hearing aid on speech recognition in noise by hearing-impaired subjects. , 1988, Ear and hearing.

[4]  B C Moore,et al.  Spectral feature enhancement for people with sensorineural hearing impairment: effects on speech intelligibility and quality. , 1992, Journal of rehabilitation research and development.

[5]  Christopher J. Struck,et al.  Device characterization techniques for digital hearing aids , 1996 .

[6]  M R Leek,et al.  The internal representation of spectral contrast in hearing-impaired listeners. , 1994, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[7]  R Plomp,et al.  Auditory handicap of hearing impairment and the limited benefit of hearing aids. , 1978, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[8]  E. Lindemann.  The continuous frequency dynamic range compressor , 1997, Proceedings of 1997 Workshop on Applications of Signal Processing to Audio and Acoustics.

[9]  M. Weiss,et al.  Use of an adaptive noise canceler as an input preprocessor for a hearing aid. , 1987, Journal of rehabilitation research and development.

[10]  Fabry Da,et al.  Effects of an adaptive filter hearing aid on speech recognition in noise by hearing-impaired subjects. , 1988 .

[11]  J. Allen,et al.  Loudness growth in 1/2-octave bands (LGOB)--a procedure for the assessment of loudness. , 1990, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.