Noise Reduction For Hearing Aids: Evaluation Of The Adaptive Beamformer approach
Martin Kompis, Norbert Dillier · 2005
The adaptive beamformer is a promising approach for noise reduction in hearing aids. In order to explore the requirements for a useful realization, the complex behaviour of the adaptive beamformer was investigated by theoretical analysis and experiments in different acoustic environments. It was found, that an adaptation inhibition in the presence of strong target signals is indispensable in order to ensure satisfactory performance at high signal-tonoise ratios. If notable attenuations of noise in moderately reverberant rooms are to be achieved, adaptive filters of at least 500 taps in length and a proper choice of the delay in the signal path have shown to be essential.