Dynamic intensity beamforming system for noise reduction in a binaural hearing aid
US5511128A · kind A · utility
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Jan 21, 1994 |
| Grant date | Apr 23, 1996 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jan 21, 2014 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04R25/505
- WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
An audio signal in a hearing aid is enhanced by detecting the power of the desired audio signal and the power of the total audio signal, generating a power value and making a noise-reduction adjustment or no noise-reduction adjustment based on the power value. In one embodiment, the power value is a function of the total power of the audio signal. In a second embodiment the power value is a function of the ratio of:the power of the desired audio signal to the power of the total audio signal. When the noise reduction is accomplished with beamforming, the invention uses a direction estimate vector in combination with a beam intensity vector, which is based on the power value, to generate a beamforming gain vector. The direction estimate vector is scaled by the beam intensity vector; the product of the vectors is the beamforming gain vector. The beamforming gain vector is multiplied with the left and right signal frequency domain vectors to produce noise reduced left and right signal frequency domain vectors.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.