Utilizing the auditory systems processing capabilities in the development of methods to auto-steer signal processing strategies in hearing instruments
Andrew Burke Dittberner, Jeff Bondy, Maureen P. Coughlin, Bill Whitmer, Melissa Dominguez · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 2006
Hearing instruments have evolved in both the hardware and signal processing domains, providing more computational capabilities and sophisticated sound processing strategies. Static or adaptive methods are employed by these sound processing strategies to achieve a desired output. Due to the adaptive nature of some of these processing strategies and the continual increase in the number of parameters that can interact negatively with each other, there is a need to provide some method of global control over the parameter states. In addition, due to individual needs of the end user, parameter states in a hearing instrument may not satisfy the broad range of acoustic environments that a listener encounters, so identification of particular acoustic environment characteristics is also important. The purpose of this work is to introduce and discuss these problems and some of the current research efforts addressing environmental classification and global control of a hearing instrument’s parameter states. The scope of this discussion will be on strategies employed to meet the needs of the end user in reference to the acoustic environment they identify as having a negative impact on their auditory experience and the desired performance they expect from the hearing instrument in that environment.