Multimicrophone-technology in hearing systems. Benefits and trends
Torsten Niederdraenk · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 2003
Hearing impaired people often suffer from reduced communication skills in real-life situations. In order to increase the signal-to-noise ratio, directional microphones are applied in hearing instruments. Repelling noise from backward directions and focusing on sounds coming to the face of the listener, they provide the hearing impaired with better communication abilities. This contribution reports on higher-order directional microphones in hearing instruments. While the hearing aid user demands an improvement of the signal-to-noise ratio, the directional microphones of hearing instruments should be very small or rather invisible. Some higher-order directional microphone solutions that are positioned on top of a spectacle frame or body-worn devices are already known on the market. Of course, these arrangements are not very practicable in use and cosmetically unappealing. The only relevant approach for the customer seems to be the integration of higher-order directional microphones in the hearing instrument. In terms of the distorted sound field around the head and small microphone distances a special approach has been implemented, that adaptively combines directive microphones of different order.