Project Details
Projekt
Scalable individual binaural hearing aid
Applicants
Dr. Jörn Anemüller; Professor Dr. Birger Kollmeier
Subject Area
Acoustics
Term
from 2012 to 2020
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 197369429
More than 15% of our population exhibit a hearing loss that needs treatment and increases in prevalence with age. It is often (partially) compensated more than 10 years too late with a hearing aid - with limited success. Hence, a personal binaural hearing aid should be developed that offers an earty access to communication assistance and is beneficial even for normal to mildly hearingimpaired persons. The long term goal of the current project therefore is the seamless integration of hearing support for normal or mildly hearing-impaired listeners in acoustically challenging situations in an acoustically "transparent", space-aware binaural heanng device which as well incorporates more aggressive signal processing and enhancement techniques for supporting listeners with a substantial hearing impairment. To achieve this goal, the concept of an acoustically transparent hearing device in combination with several binaural enhancement schemes was successfully developed, implemented in a demonstrator and tested. Moreover, machine listening approaches for automatic object recognition and localization in a complex acoustic environment were demonstrated to yield superior performance in an international challenge. Building on these results, the following objectives will be pursued in the upcoming funding period:- Further optimization of the acoustic transparent ear piece which should eventually enable an active noise cancellation, i.e., the possibility of (external) noise suppression even if an acoustic leak exists where noise from the outside can bypass into the ear canal.- To further develop "space aware" hearing aid processing in combination with these advanced presentation techniques. Solutions will be considered that aim at source enhancement and separation utilizing perceptual properties of those individual listeners that profit from binaural enhancement ("enhanced reality"). Specifically, listeners with impaired binaural auditory functions are supposed to profit the most.- To develop a set of scene classification and source localization algorithms for use in binaural hearing aids that provide an improved functionality of binaural noise reduction and source enhancement algorithms. They should eventually be combined, e.g., with gesture control by the listener to select the source that should be enhanced.- Enhancement ofthe perception of certain acoustic sources in a (binaural) spatial environment using source enhancement in combination with localization algorithms.- To integrate these technical developments together with other innovations from the Research Unit into a demonstrator device for a future generation of a fully "space aware" and scalable binaural hearing aid.
DFG Programme
Research Units
