RELATED APPLICATION DATA

This application claims priority to, and the benefit of, European Patent Application No. 17194985.2 filed on Oct. 5, 2017. The entire disclosure of the above application is expressly incorporated by reference herein.

FIELD

A binaural hearing system is provided with improved localization of a sound source emitting sound that is propagating as an acoustic wave to the binaural hearing system, wherein the sound is also converted to an electronic monaural signal that is transmitted wired or wirelessly to the binaural hearing system. A corresponding method is also provided.

BACKGROUND

Hearing impaired individuals often experience at least two distinct problems:

1) A hearing loss, which is an increase in hearing threshold level, and

2) A loss of ability to understand speech in noise in comparison with normal hearing individuals. For most hearing impaired patients, the performance in speech-in-noise intelligibility tests is worse than for normal hearing people, even when the audibility of the incoming sounds is restored by amplification. Speech reception threshold (SRT) is a performance measure for the loss of ability to understand speech, and is defined as the signal-to-noise ratio required in a presented signal to achieve 50 percent correct word recognition in a hearing in noise test.

In order to compensate for hearing loss, today's digital hearing aids typically use multi-channel amplification and compression signal processing to restore audibility of sound for a hearing impaired individual. In this way, the patient's hearing ability is improved by making previously inaudible speech cues audible.

However, loss of ability to understand speech in noise, including speech in an environment with multiple speakers, remains a significant problem of many humans, including humans that do not use hearing aids.

One tool available for increasing the signal to noise ratio of speech originating from a specific speaker is to equip the speaker in question with a microphone included in a device often referred to as a spouse microphone. The spouse microphone picks up speech from the speaker in question with a high signal to noise ratio due to its proximity to the speaker. The spouse microphone converts the speech into a corresponding electronic monaural signal with a high signal to noise ratio and emits the signal, preferably wirelessly, to a hearing device, typically an earphone or a hearing aid. In this way, a speech signal is provided to the user with a signal to noise ratio well above the SRT of the user in question.

Another way of increasing the signal to noise ratio of speech from a speaker that a human desires to listen to, such as a speaker addressing a number of people in a public place, e.g. in a church, an auditorium, a theatre, a cinema, etc., or through a public address systems, such as in a railway station, an airport, a shopping mall, etc., is to use a telecoil to magnetically pick up audio signals generated, e.g., by telephones, FM systems (with neck loops), and induction loop systems (also called “hearing loops”). In this way, sound may be transmitted to hearing devices, typically hearing aids, with a high signal to noise ratio well above the SRT of the human listeners.

More recently, hearing aids and head-sets have been equipped with radio circuits for reception of radio signals for reception of streamed audio in general, such as streamed music and speech from media players, such as MP3-players, TV-sets, etc.

Hearing aids and head-sets have also emerged that connect with various sources of audio signals through a short-range network, e.g. including Bluetooth technology, e.g. to interconnect hearing aids with cellular phones, audio headsets, computer laptops, personal digital assistants, digital cameras, etc. Other radio networks have also been suggested, such as HomeRF, DECT, PHS, Wireless LAN (WLAN), or other proprietary networks.

However, in a situation in which a user of a conventional binaural hearing system desires to listen to more than one electronic monaural signals simultaneously, the user typically finds it difficult to separate one signal source from another.

Binaural hearing systems typically reproduce sound in such a way that the user perceives sound sources to be localized inside the head. The sound is said to be internalized rather than being externalized.

A common complaint for hearing system users when referring to the “hearing speech in noise problem” is that it is very hard to follow anything that is being said even though the signal to noise ratio (SNR) should be sufficient to provide the required speech intelligibility. A significant contributor to this fact is that the hearing system reproduces an internalized sound field. This adds to the cognitive loading of the user and may result in listening fatigue and ultimately that the user removes the hearing system.

SUMMARY

Thus, there is a need for a binaural hearing system with improved localization of sound sources associated with respective monaural signal transmitters. Each of the sound sources is emitting sound that is propagating as an acoustic wave to the binaural hearing system, and each of the sound sources is associated with a monaural signal transmitter that is adapted for converting the sound to an electronic monaural signal that is transmitted wired or wirelessly to the binaural hearing system so that the binaural hearing system can reproduce the sound based on the electronic monaural signal.

In the following, the term “monaural signal transmitter” denotes a device that is adapted to forward the electronic monaural signal, wired or wirelessly, typically wirelessly, to the binaural hearing system. The binaural hearing system is adapted to receive and convert the electronic monaural signal into a signal that is presented to the ears of a user of the binaural hearing system so that the user can hear the sound.

In a first type of monaural signal transmitters, the monaural signal transmitter has one or more microphones for reception of sound emitted by the sound source associated with the monaural signal transmitter and for conversion of the received sound into the electronic monaural signal for transmission to the binaural hearing system that is adapted for reproducing the sound from the electronic monaural signal. The sound source is associated with this type of monaural signal transmitter when the one or more microphones of the monaural signal transmitter is placed proximal to the sound source, whereby the sound is recorded by the one or more microphones with a high signal-to-noise ratio. For example, the monaural signal transmitter may be a spouse microphone worn by a human. The spouse microphone is worn close to the human's mouth so that speech from the human is recorded by the spouse microphone with very little attenuation. Possibly, the spouse microphone has a directional microphone so that sound from other directions than the human's mouth is attenuated. Therefore, the spouse microphone obtains speech from the human with a very high signal-to-noise ratio. Contrary to this, the sound that propagates as an acoustic wave to the binaural hearing system is attenuated as a function of the squared distance between the human and the binaural hearing system. Further, the sound is detected by microphones of the binaural hearing system together with possible sound from other sound sources in the sound environment of the user. Therefore, the signal-to-noise ratio of the electronic monaural signal is typically much higher than the signal-to-noise ratio of sound received by the microphones of the binaural hearing system.

Examples of a monaural signal transmitter of the first type, include the above-mentioned spouse microphone, a speaker system with a microphone for picking up speech from a speaker addressing a number of people in an audience, e.g. in a church, an auditorium, a theatre, a cinema, etc., such as an FM system (with neck loops), induction loop system (also called “hearing loops”), etc.

In a second type of the monaural signal transmitter, such as a radio, a TV, a DVD player, a media player, a computer, a telephone, a teleconference system, a device with an alarm, etc., the monaural signal transmitter has one or more loudspeakers that convert a source signal to sound that propagates as an acoustic wave to the binaural hearing system and thus, the monaural signal transmitter of this type also comprises the sound source. The monaural signal transmitter of this type generates the electronic monaural signal based on the source signal that is converted into the sound, and thus, the sound source is associated with this type of monaural signal transmitter by being supplied by the source signal that is also encoded into the electronic monaural signal.

The monaural signal transmitter may include a streaming unit for transmission of digital sound, i.e. sound that has been digitized into a digital sound signal.

For simplicity throughout the present disclosure, the label “electronic monaural signal” is used to identify the electronic monaural signal in any analogue or digital form along the signal path of the electronic monaural signal from the output generating the electronic monaural signal to its final destination.

For example in a spouse microphone, the electronic monaural signal may be generated as an analogue microphone output signal that may be encoded and modulated for wireless transmission to the binaural hearing system. In the binaural hearing system, the electronic monaural signal is demodulated and decoded and filtered and finally converted into a signal, e.g. an acoustic signal, which can be heard by the user of the binaural hearing system. The same label “electronic monaural signal” is used for the signal throughout its signal path in any of its various forms.

In the following, the terms direction towards the sound source, and the direction of arrival (DOA) of sound originating from the sound source, in short just the DOA, denote the direction from the user wearing the binaural hearing system towards the sound source, e.g., with reference to the forward looking direction of the user.

For example, the sound source may be a human wearing a monaural signal transmitter of the first type, e.g. a spouse microphone, that converts the human's speech into an electronic monaural signal for wireless transmission to the binaural hearing system so that the speech of the human both propagates as an acoustic wave to the binaural hearing system for reception and detection by microphones of the binaural hearing system and is encoded into the electronic monaural signal for wireless transmission to the binaural hearing system for reception by a wireless monaural signal receiver of the binaural hearing system for subsequent reproduction of the sound.

In this example, the DOA is the direction from the user of the binaural hearing system towards the human's lips, e.g., with reference to the forward looking direction of the user of the binaural hearing system.

Azimuth of the DOA is the perceived angle ϕ of direction towards the sound source associated with the monaural signal transmitter projected onto the horizontal plane with reference to the forward looking direction of the user. The forward looking direction is defined by a virtual line drawn through the centre of the user's head and through a centre of the nose of the user. Thus, a sound source located in the forward looking direction of the user has an azimuth value of ϕ=0°, and a sound source located directly in the opposite direction has an azimuth value of ϕ=180°. A sound source located in the left side of a vertical plane perpendicular to the forward looking direction of the user has an azimuth value of ϕ=−90°, while a sound source located in the right side of the vertical plane perpendicular to the forward looking direction of the user has an azimuth value of ϕ=+90°.

In the following, the term “the user” means “the user of the binaural hearing system”.

A binaural hearing system is provided that is capable of adding spatial cues to respective electronic monaural signals, wherein the respective spatial cues correspond to the DOA of sound that has propagated as an acoustic wave to the binaural hearing system, and wherein the sound is also reproduced in the binaural hearing system based on the received electronic monaural signal.

In the binaural hearing system, electronic monaural signals originating from different monaural signal transmitters are presented to the ears of the user in such a way that the user perceives the respective sound sources to be positioned in their current respective estimated DOAs in the sound environment of the user.

In this way, the human's auditory system's binaural signal processing is utilized to improve the user's capability of separating signals from different monaural signal transmitters and of focussing his or her attention and listening to sound reproduced from a desired one of the electronic monaural signals, or simultaneously listen to and understand sound reproduced from more than one of the electronic monaural signals.

Both users with normal hearing and users with hearing loss will experience benefits of improved externalization and localization of sound sources associated with respective monaural signal transmitters when using the binaural hearing system thereby enjoying reproduced sound from externalized sound sources.

In the binaural hearing system, spatial cues are added to the electronic monaural signal utilizing binaural filters with directional transfer functions as explained in detail below:

Human beings detect and localize monaural signal transmitters in three-dimensional space by means of the human binaural sound localization capability.

The input to the hearing consists of two signals, namely the sound pressures at each of the eardrums, in the following termed the binaural sound signals. Thus, if sound pressures at the eardrums that would have been generated by a given spatial sound field are accurately reproduced at the eardrums, the human auditory system will not be able to distinguish the reproduced sound from the actual sound generated by the spatial sound field itself.

The transmission of a sound wave to the eardrums from a sound source positioned at a given direction and distance in relation to the left and right ears of the listener is described in terms of two transfer functions, one for the left eardrum and one for the right eardrum, that include any linear distortion, such as coloration, interaural time differences and interaural spectral differences. Such a set of two transfer functions, one for the left eardrum and one for the right eardrum, is called a Head Related Transfer Function (HRTF). Each transfer function of the HRTF is defined as the ratio between a sound pressure p generated by a plane wave at a specific point in or close to the appertaining ear canal (pLin the left ear canal and pRin the right ear canal) in relation to a reference. The reference traditionally chosen is the sound pressure plthat would have been generated by a plane wave at a position right in the middle of the head with the listener absent.

The HRTF contains all information relating to the sound transmission to the ears of the listener, including diffraction around the head, reflections from shoulders, reflections in the ear canal, etc., and therefore, the HRTF varies from individual to individual.

In the following, one of the transfer functions of the HRTF will also be termed the HRTF for convenience.

The HRTF changes with direction and distance of the sound source in relation to the ears of the listener. It is possible to measure the HRTF for any direction and distance and simulate the HRTF, e.g. electronically, e.g. by filters. If such filters are inserted in the signal path between a audio signal source, such as a microphone, and headphones used by a listener, the listener will achieve the perception that the sounds generated by the headphones originate from a sound source positioned at the distance and in the direction as defined by the transfer functions of the filters simulating the HRTF in question, because of the true reproduction of the sound pressures in the ears.

Binaural processing by the brain, when interpreting the spatially encoded information, results in several positive effects, namely better signal source segregation, direction of arrival (DOA) estimation, and depth/distance perception.

It is not fully known how the human auditory system extracts information about distance and direction to a sound source, but it is known that the human auditory system uses a number of cues in this determination. Among the cues are spectral cues, reverberation cues, interaural time differences (ITD), interaural phase differences (IPD) and interaural level differences (ILD).

The most important cues in binaural processing are the interaural time differences (ITD) and the interaural level differences (ILD). The ITD results from the difference in distance from the source to the two ears. This cue is primarily useful up till approximately 1.5 kHz and above this frequency the auditory system can no longer resolve the ITD cue.

The level difference is a result of diffraction and is determined by the relative position of the ears compared to the source. This cue is dominant above 2 kHz but the auditory system is equally sensitive to changes in ILD over the entire spectrum.

It has been argued that hearing impaired subjects benefit the most from the ITD cue since the hearing loss tends to be less severe in the lower frequencies.

A directional transfer function is an HRTF or an approximation to an HRTF that adds directional cues, such as spectral cues, reverberation cues, interaural time differences (ITD), interaural phase differences (IPD) and interaural level differences (ILD), etc., to an electronic monaural signal so that the user listening to a binaural sound signal based on the output signal of a binaural filter applying the directional transfer function to the electronic monaural signal perceives the sound to be emitted from a sound source residing in a direction defined by the directional transfer function.

For example, approximations to the individual HRTFs may be determined using a manikin, such as KEMAR. In this way, approximations of HRTFs may be provided that can be of sufficient accuracy for the user of the binaural hearing system to maintain sense of direction when using the binaural hearing system.

A binaural hearing system is provided with improved localization of a sound source emitting sound that is propagating as an acoustic wave to the binaural hearing system, wherein the sound is also converted to an electronic monaural signal that is transmitted wired or wirelessly to the binaural hearing system.

The electronic monaural signal may be correlated with the sound propagating as an acoustic wave to the binaural hearing system as received by microphones of the binaural hearing system in order to determine directional transfer functions from the respective sound source to each of the microphones, including the filter functions of the transmission paths from the sound source to each of the respective microphones.

At each ear of the user, a selected one of the determined directional transfer functions of microphones mounted at the ear in question, or a resulting directional transfer function determined from the determined directional transfer functions to microphones mounted at the ear in question, may then be used to filter the electronic monaural signal before conversion of the filtered signal into a signal that is transmitted to the ear at which the microphone in question is mounted so that the user will perceive the filtered signal to arrive from the DOA of the respective sound source.

For example, it is well-known that directional transfer functions of a microphone positioned at the entrance to an ear canal of a user are good approximations to the respective left ear part or right ear part of the corresponding HRTFs of the user.

The determined directional transfer functions may then be compared with HRTFs or approximate HRTFs to determine the HRTF or approximate HRTF that forms part of the determined directional transfer function and that HRTF or approximate HRTF may then be used to filter the electronic monaural signal before conversion of the filtered signal into a signal that is transmitted to the ear at which the microphone in question is mounted so that the user will perceive the filtered signal to arrive from the DOA of the sound source.

For example, sound propagation may be described by a linear wave equation with a linear relationship between the electronic monaural signal and each of the output signals.

For example, in the time domain for a time invariant system, the electronic monaural signal x(n) and each of the microphone output signals yk(n) fulfill the equation:
yk(n)=gk(n)*x(n)+vk(n),

where (*) is the convolution operator, k is an index of the microphones, n is the sample index, gkis the impulse response of the filter function of the transmission paths from the sound source to the kthmicrophone, and vkis noise as received at the kthmicrophone. The impulse response of filter function gk(n) of the transmission paths from the respective sound source to the kthmicrophone includes room reverberations and the impulse response of the kthdirectional transfer function.

One way of determining the impulse response of the transfer functions gk(n) is to solve the following minimization problem:

g^k⁡(n)=arg⁢⁢mingk⁢∑k=1N⁢yk⁡(n)-gk⁡(n)*x⁡(n)+vk⁡(n)p

wherein N is the total number of microphones, and p is an integer, e.g. p=2.

The minimization problem may also be solved for a set of selected microphones.

The minimization problem may also be solved in the frequency domain.

In a room with no, or insignificant, reverberations, the directional transfer function Gk(f) with the impulse response gk(n) may be determined as the ratio between the electronic monaural signal in the frequency domain X(f) and the output signal of the kthmicrophone in the frequency domain Yk(f):

Gk⁡(f)=Yk⁡(f)X⁡(f)

The impulse response ĝk(n) of the transfer function Gk(f) may then be used as the impulse response of the directional transfer function; or, the impulse response of the transfer function ĝk(n) may be truncated to eliminate or suppress room reverberations and the truncated impulse response ĝk(n) may be used as the impulse response of the directional transfer function.

Subsequently, at each ear of the user, a selected one of the determined directional transfer functions, ĝk(n) in the time domain and Gk(f) in the frequency domain, of microphones mounted at the ear in question, or a resulting directional transfer function determined from the determined directional transfer functions of microphones mounted at the ear in question, may then be used to filter the monaural signal before conversion of the filtered signal into a signal that is transmitted to the ear at which the microphone in question is mounted so that the user will perceive the filtered signal to arrive from the DOA of the sound source.

The determined directional transfer functions may also be compared with impulse responses of HRTFs or approximate HRTFs to determine the HRTF or approximate HRTF that forms part of the determined directional transfer function and that HRTF or approximate HRTF may then be used to filter the monaural signal before conversion of the filtered signal into a signal that is transmitted to the ear at which the microphone in question is mounted, so that the user will perceive the filtered signal to arrive from the DOA of the sound source.

Thus, a binaural hearing system is provided, comprising

a binaural hearing device with

a first housing adapted to be worn at a first ear of a user of the binaural hearing system and accommodating a first set of microphones for conversion of sound arriving at the first set of microphones into a first set of corresponding microphone output signals,a second housing adapted to be worn at a second ear of the user and accommodating a second set of microphones for conversion of sound arriving at the second set of microphones into a second set of corresponding microphone output signals,a first output transducer for conversion of a first transducer audio signal supplied to the first output transducer into a first auditory output signal that can be received by the human auditory system at the first ear of the user when wearing the binaural hearing device,a second output transducer for conversion of a second transducer audio signal supplied to the second output transducer into a second auditory output signal that can be received by the human auditory system at the second ear of the user when wearing the binaural hearing device, and
an electronic monaural signal receiver that is adapted forreceiving an electronic monaural signal emitted by a monaural signal transmitter and fordecoding and outputting the electronic monaural signal, wherein the monaural signal transmitter has generated the electronic monaural signal by encoding sound that is emitted by the sound source that is located at a distance to the user, and whereinthe sound emitted by the sound source propagates to the binaural hearing system so that at least a part of the first and second sets of microphone output signals correspond to the electronic monaural signal, and
a DOA estimator that is adapted forcorrelating the first and second set of microphone output signals with the electronic monaural signal for provision of directional transfer functions of the first and second set of microphones, and
a binaural filter that is adapted forfiltering the electronic monaural signal with transfer functions based on the directional transfer functions, i.e. the direction of arrival, for provision of the first and second transducer audio signals to the first and second output transducers, respectively, whereby the user perceives to hear the converted monaural signal as arriving from the sound source.

The DOA estimator may be adapted for estimating the DOA of sound emitted by a sound source based oncross-correlating selected microphone output signals of the first set of microphone output signals with the electronic monaural signal for provision of a first set of filtered microphone output signals, andcross-correlating selected microphone output signals of the second set of microphone output signals with the electronic monaural signal for provision of a second set of filtered microphone output signals for enhancement of at least a part of the first and second sets of microphone output signals that correspond to the electronic monaural signal, andestimating the DOA based on the first and second sets of filtered microphone output signals.

The DOA estimator may be adapted for estimating the DOA of sound emitted by a sound source byproviding a first set of filtered microphone output signals F1i(t)=Mici1(t)*Rm_n(t′), andproviding a second set of filtered microphone output signals F2j(t)=Micj2(t)*Rm_n(t′), whereinMic1i(t) is a microphone output signal of the first set of microphone output signals, whereini is an index number of the microphone output signal of the first set of microphone output signals,Mici2(t) is a microphone output signal of the second set of microphone output signals, whereinj is an index number of the microphone output signal of the second set of microphone output signals,Rm_n(t′) is the received electronic monaural signal, whereinn is an index number of the monaural signal transmitter that has emitted the electronic monaural signal,t′ is the time t or the reversed time T−t,T is an arbitrary constant added so that the filtering is causal, and the operator * is the convolution operator,
for enhancement of at least a part of the first and second sets of microphone output signals that correspond to the received electronic monaural signal Rm_n(t′), and estimating the direction of arrival based on the first and second sets of filtered microphone output signals F1i(t), F2j(t).

Each of the first and second sets of filtered microphone output signals comprises at least one filtered microphone output signal, and each of the first and second sets of filtered microphone output signals may comprise a filtered microphone output signal from each of the microphones of the respective first and second sets of microphones.

Rapid head movements may be tracked with a head tracker, i.e. a device that is mounted in a fixed position with relation to the head of the user so that the head tracker can detect head movements of the user and output a tracking signal that is a function of head orientation and, possibly, head position of the user.

The binaural hearing system may comprise a head tracker outputting a tracking signal that may be used to adjust the DOA determined with the DOA estimator, whereby the delay from head movement to corresponding adjustment of the DOA may be lowered.

The head tracker may be accommodated in one of the first and second housings of the binaural hearing system; or, both the first and second housing may accommodate a head tracker.

The head tracker may be accommodated in a separate housing of the binaural hearing system, e.g., mounted to a headband of the binaural hearing system.

The head tracker may have an inertial measurement unit positioned for determining head yaw, and optionally head pitch, and optionally head roll, when the user wears the hearing device in its intended operational position on the user's head.

Head yaw, head pitch, and head roll may be determined utilizing a head coordinate system. The head coordinate system may be defined with its centre located at the centre of the user's head, which is defined as the midpoint of a line drawn between the respective centres of the eardrums of the left and right ears of the user.

The x-axis of the head coordinate system may then point ahead through a centre of the nose of the user, and the y-axis may point towards the left ear through the centre of the left eardrum), and the z-axis may point upwards.

Head yaw is the angle between the x-axis of the head coordinate system, i.e. the forward looking direction of the user, projected onto a horizontal plane at the location of the user, and a horizontal reference direction, such as Magnetic North or True North. Thus like azimuth of the DOA, head yaw is a horizontal angle and for a non-moving sound source a change in head yaw leads to the same change in azimuth of the corresponding DOA.

Head pitch is the angle between the x-axis of the head coordinate system and the horizontal plane.

Head roll is the angle between the y-axis and the horizontal plane.

The head tracker may have tri-axis MEMS gyros that provide information on head yaw, head pitch, and head roll in addition to tri-axis accelerometers that provide information on three dimensional displacement of the head of the user in a way well-known in the art.

Thus, with the head tracker, the user's current position and head orientation can be provided for processing in the binaural hearing system.

The head tracker may also have a magnetic compass in the form of a tri-axis magnetometer facilitating determination of head yaw with relation to the magnetic field of the earth, e.g. with relation to Magnetic North.

For example, when the head tracker has detected no, or insignificant, head movements during determination of the transfer functions of the binaural filter based on the electronic monaural signal as disclosed above, the determined transfer functions are used to filter the monaural signal and subsequently, when head movements are detected by the head tracker, the determined transfer functions are modified in accordance with the changed orientation of the head of the user as detected by the head tracker, e.g. the azimuth of the DOA is changed in accordance with the detected change of head yaw.

In other words, the DOA of the sound source in question may be determined based on the tracking signal output by the head tracker that is calibrated based on the electronic monaural signal whenever the head of the user is kept still.

Throughout the present disclosure, the words “adapt” and “configure” are used synonymously and may substitute each other.

A method is also provided of processing an electronic monaural signal in a binaural hearing system havinga first set of microphones worn at a first ear of a user of the binaural hearing system anda second set of microphones worn at a second ear of the user andan electronic input for provision of an electronic monaural signal received at the electronic input,the method comprising
correlating a first and second set of microphone output signals provided by the first and second set of microphones, respectively, with the electronic monaural signal for provision of directional transfer functions of the first and second set of microphones, and
filtering the electronic monaural signal with transfer functions based on the directional transfer functions.

The method may comprise the steps of

cross-correlating selected microphone output signals of the first set of microphone output signals with the electronic monaural signal for provision of a first set of filtered microphone output signals, and

cross-correlating selected microphone output signals of the second set of microphone output signals with the electronic monaural signal for provision of a second set of filtered microphone output signals, wherein

at least a part of the first and second sets of microphone output signals that corresponds to the electronic monaural signal has been enhanced in the first and second sets of filtered microphone output signals.

A method is also provided of processing an electronic monaural signal in a binaural hearing system havinga first set of microphones worn at a first ear of a user of the binaural hearing system anda second set of microphones worn at a second ear of the user andan electronic input for provision of an electronic monaural signal received at the electronic input,
the method comprising
estimating a direction of arrival at the user of sound emitted by a sound source associated with the electronic monaural signal received at the electronic input by providing a first set of filtered microphone output signals F1i(t)=Mici1(t)*Rm_n(t′), and providing a second set of filtered microphone output signals F2i(t)=Mici2(t)*Rm_n(t′), whereinMic1i(t) is a microphone output signal of the first set of microphone output signals, whereini is an index number of the microphone output signal of the first set of microphone output signals,Micj2(t) is a microphone output signal of the second set of microphone output signals, whereinj is an index number of the microphone output signal of the second set of microphone output signals,Rm_n(t′) is the received electronic monaural signal, whereinn is an index number of the monaural signal transmitter that has emitted the electronic monaural signal,t′ is the time t or the reversed time T−t,T is an arbitrary constant added so that the filtering is causal, andthe operator * is the convolution operator,
for enhancement of at least a part of the selected microphone output signals that correspond to the electronic monaural signal Rm_n(t′), and estimating the direction of arrival based on the first and second sets of filtered microphone output signals F1i(t), F2j(t), and filtering the electronic monaural signal with transfer functions based on the direction of arrival.

The methods may further comprise

determination of an interaural time difference (ITD) between acoustic reception of sound from the sound source associated with the monaural signal transmitter emitting the electronic monaural signal, at the left ear and at the right ear of the user wearing the binaural hearing system based on the first and second sets of filtered microphone output signals.

The ITD may be determined by determining the time lag between a filtered microphone output signal provided by one of the correlating filters based on one output signal formed by the one or more microphones positioned at the left ear when the user wears the binaural hearing system with a filtered microphone output signal provided by another one of the correlating filters based on one output signal formed by the one or more microphones positioned at the right ear when the user wears the binaural hearing system at which the correlation between the two filtered microphone output signals has a maximum.

The determination may be performed utilizing cross-correlation of the two filtered microphone output signals; or, the sum of squared differences (SSD), etc.

The method may further comprise

determining the time lag between filtered microphone output signals selected from at least one of the first and second set of filtered microphone output signals, and determining whether the monaural signal transmitter is located in front of the user or behind the user based on the cross-correlating.

The determination may be performed utilizing cross-correlation of the two filtered microphone output signals; or, the sum of squared differences (SSD), etc.

The binaural hearing system may comprise a head worn device, such as a headset, a headphone, an earphone, an ear defender, an earmuff, etc., e.g. of the following types: Ear-Hook, In-Ear, On-Ear, Over-the-Ear, Behind-the-Neck, Helmet, Headguard, etc., a binaural hearing aid with hearing aids of any type, such as Behind-The-Ear (BTE), Receiver-In-the-Ear (RIE), In-The-Ear (ITE), In-The-Canal (ITC), Completely-In-the-Canal (CIC), etc.

Various positioning of microphones and output transducers in the above-mentioned head worn devices are well-known in the art of head worn devices, The first and second sets of microphones may be sets of omni-directional microphones, e.g., omni-directional front and rear microphones for conversion of sound arriving at the microphones into respective microphone output signals that can, e.g. selectively, be used to form a directional characteristic as is well-known in the art of head worn devices, such as hearing aids.

For In-The-Ear (ITE), In-The-Canal (ITC), Completely-In-the-Canal (CIC), hearing devices, such as hearing aids, each of the housings may also accommodate the output transducer, e.g. a receiver for conversion of a transducer audio signal supplied to the receiver into sound propagating as an acoustic wave towards an eardrum of the user.

For Behind-The-Ear (BTE) hearing devices, such as hearing aids, adapted to be worn behind the pinna of the user, each of the housings also accommodates the output transducer, e.g. the receiver, and further has a sound tube connected to the housing for propagation of the sound output by the receiver through the sound tube to an earpiece positioned and retained in the ear canal of the user and having an output port for transmission of the sound to the eardrum of the user.

Receiver-In-the-Ear (RIE) hearing devices, such as hearing aids, have housings that area similar to the housings of the BTE hearing devices apart from the fact that the receiver has been moved to the earpiece and therefore the sound tube has been substituted by an audio signal transmission member that comprises electrical conductors for propagation of the transducer audio signal to the receiver positioned in the earpiece for emission of sound through an output port of the earpiece towards the eardrum of the user.

Some hearing devices with the earpiece also have one or more microphones that are accommodated in the earpiece.

The binaural hearing system may comprise a hearing prosthesis with an implantable device, such as a cochlear implant (CI), wherein the output transducer is an electrode array implanted in the cochlea for electronic stimulation of the cochlear nerve that carries auditory sensory information from the cochlea to the brain as is well-known in the art of cochlear implants.

The binaural hearing system may comprise a body worn device that is adapted or configured for communication with other parts of the binaural hearing system and for performing at least a part of the signal processing of the binaural hearing system, and may comprise a user interface, or part of a user interface, of the binaural hearing system.

The body worn device may be a hand-held device, such as a tablet PC, such as an IPAD, mini-IPAD, etc., a smartphone, such as an IPhone, an Android phone, a windows phone, etc., etc.

The one or more DOA estimators; or, parts of the one or more DOA estimators; and/or, the binaural filter; or, parts of the binaural filters; and/or other parts of the processing circuitry of the binaural hearing system may be included in the body worn device that is interconnected with other parts of the binaural hearing system.

The parts of the circuitry of the binaural hearing system included in the body worn device may benefit from the larger computing resources and power supply typically available in a body worn device as compared with the limited computing resources and power that may be available in the binaural hearing system, in particular when the binaural hearing system comprise a binaural hearing aid.

The body worn device may accommodate a user interface adapted for user control of at least part of the binaural hearing system.

The body worn device may function as a remote control of the binaural hearing system.

The body worn device may have an interface for connection with a Wide-Area-Network, such as the Internet.

The body worn device may access the Wide-Area-Network through a mobile telephone network, such as GSM, IS-95, UMTS, CDMA-2000, etc.

The binaural hearing system may comprise a data interface for transmission of control signals from the body worn device to other parts of the binaural hearing system.

The data interface may be a wired interface, e.g. a USB interface, or a wireless interface, such as a Bluetooth interface, e.g. a Bluetooth Low Energy interface.

The electronic monaural signal receiver may be a radio device that is adapted for reception of radio signals, e.g. for reception of streamed audio in general, such as streamed music and speech.

The electronic monaural signal receiver may be adapted to retrieve digital data from the received electronic monaural signal, including digital audio, possible transmitter identifiers, possible network control signals, etc., and forward the retrieved digital data to other parts of the binaural hearing system for processing, or for control of the processing.

The received electronic monaural signal may include signals from a plurality of monaural signal transmitters and thus, the received electronic monaural signal may form a plurality of signals forwarded to other parts of the binaural hearing system, such as DOA estimators disclosed below, e.g. one electronic monaural signal forwarded to one DOA estimator for each monaural signal transmitter.

The received electronic monaural signal may also contain data relating to the identity of the monaural signal transmitter. The electronic monaural signal receiver may be adapted to extract these data from the received electronic monaural signal so that the received electronic monaural signal can be separated into the plurality of electronic monaural signals, namely one for each monaural signal transmitter.

In order for the binaural hearing system to be capable of imparting sense of direction towards a sound source associated with a monaural signal transmitter to the respective electronic monaural signal, the binaural hearing system may comprise a DOA estimator that is adapted for estimating the DOA of sound from the sound source associated with the monaural signal transmitter in question based on cross-correlating each of the first and second sets of microphone output signals with the respective electronic monaural signal for provision of respective first and second sets of filtered microphone output signals for enhancement of the at least a part of the first and second sets of microphone output signals that correspond to the electronic monaural signal, and estimating the DOA based on the first and second sets of filtered microphone output signals.

The electronic monaural signal has a high signal-to-noise ratio because it is generated by the monaural signal transmitter without interfering noise; or with very little interfering noise.

With the binaural hearing system, spatial cues relating to a specific sound source associated with a specific monaural signal transmitter can be obtained even in very noisy sound environments and can also be obtained selectively in sound environments with a plurality of sound sources, each of which are associated with a respective monaural signal transmitter.

With the binaural hearing system, spatial cues relating to the specific sound source associated with the specific monaural signal transmitter are obtained by correlating output signals of the microphones of the binaural hearing system with the electronic monaural signal originating from the specific monaural signal transmitter in a correlating filter that outputs a filtered microphone output signal in which parts of the output signals that are not related to the electronic monaural signal of the specific monaural signal transmitter have been suppressed or eliminated, or in other words parts of the output signals of the microphones that correspond to the electronic monaural signal of the specific monaural signal transmitter, are enhanced.

The correlating filter may be a matched filter having an impulse response h(t) that is equal to the electronic monaural signal from the monaural signal transmitter of which it is desired to obtain spatial cues, possibly reversed in time.

Thus, in a sound environment with a plurality of sound sources associated with respective monaural signal transmitters generating electronic monaural signals, a selected one of the received electronic monaural signals may be denoted Rm_n(t), wherein Rm is an abbreviation of Received monaural, n is an index number of the monaural signal transmitter in question, and t is time. If it is desired to obtain spatial cues relating to the sound source associated with the monaural signal transmitter generating Rm_n(t), one or more output signals formed by the one or more microphones positioned at the left ear of the user and one or more output signals formed by the one or more microphones at the right ear of the user are filtered by respective correlating filters with the impulse response:
h(t)=Rm_n(−t); or,
h(t)=Rm_n(t).

In this way, parts of the output signals of the microphones that correspond to the selected one of the plurality of electronic monaural signals Rm_n(t) are enhanced in the filtered microphone output signals, and the estimation of the DOA of sound emitted by the sound source associated with the monaural signal transmitter from which the selected one of the received electronic monaural signals Rm_n(t) originates, is subsequently based on the filtered microphone output signals for selective DOA estimation and improved estimation accuracy due to the reduced influence of noise and other electronic monaural signals than the selected one of the electronic monaural signals.

Thus, each of the correlating filters performs the following filtering function:
F(t)=Mic(t)*Rm_n(−t), wherein

F(t) is the filtered microphone output signal,

Mic(t) is one of the output signals formed by the one or more microphones, or formed by a combination of the one or more microphones, positioned at the left ear of the user or one of the output signals formed by the one or more microphones, or formed by a combination of the one or more microphones, at the right ear of the user, Rm_n(−t) is the selected time reversed electronic monaural signal, and the operator * is the convolution operator.

Alternatively, the correlating filter may also convolve the microphone output signal Mic(t) with Rm_n(t) without reversing time.

In the following, the filter operation of the correlating filter is denoted a cross-correlation of the microphone output signal Mic(t) with the selected one of the received electronic monaural signals Rm_n(t).

Thus, the output F(t) of the cross-correlation of the microphone output signal Mic(t) with the selected one of the received electronic monaural signals Rm_n(t) may be
F(t)=Mic(t)*Rm_n(−t); or,
F(t)=Mic(t)*Rm_n(t).

The time reversed electronic monaural signal may be time shifted with an arbitrary constant T to ensure that the correlating filter is a causal filter so that the output F(t) of the cross-correlation of the microphone output signal Mic(t) with the selected one of the received electronic monaural signals Rm_n(t) may be
F(t)=Mic(t)*Rm_n(T−t).

The binaural hearing system may receive a single electronic monaural signal and the method of estimating the DOA may be performed for the single electronic monaural signal.

The binaural hearing system may receive a plurality of electronic monaural signals and the method of estimating the DOA may be performed for a selected electronic monaural signal of the plurality of electronic monaural signals; or for a set of selected electronic monaural signals of the plurality of electronic monaural signals; or for all of the electronic monaural signals of the plurality of electronic monaural signals.

An interaural time difference (ITD) between acoustic reception of sound of the sound source associated with the monaural signal transmitter from which the selected one of the electronic monaural signals originates, at the left ear and the right ear of the user wearing the binaural hearing system may be determined based on the filtered microphone output signals provided by the correlating filters, i.e. the filtered output signals of microphones positioned at the left ear and the right ear, respectively, when the user wears the binaural hearing system.

The ITD may be determined by cross-correlating a filtered microphone output signal provided by one of the correlating filters based on one output signal formed by the one or more microphones positioned at the left ear when the user wears the binaural hearing system with a filtered microphone output signal provided by another one of the correlating filters based on one output signal formed by the one or more microphones positioned at the right ear when the user wears the binaural hearing system.

Cross-correlating may be performed for a plurality of filtered microphone output signals and the results may be added to form a resultant cross-correlation output.

The ITD may then be determined as the time lag τnat which the cross-correlation output, possibly, the resultant cross-correlation output, has a maximum.

The determined ITD may be applied to the electronic monaural signal in question, i.e. the electronic monaural signal may be delayed by the determined ITD and provided to one of the ears while the electronic monaural signal is provided to the other ear without delay, wherein the ear that is presented with the delayed electronic monaural signal is selected in correspondence with the ITD determination. In this way, some sense of direction is conveyed to the user.

A corresponding interaural level difference ILD may be calculated from the ITD, e.g. based on the different lengths of the propagation paths to the ears of the user and/or head shadow and diffraction effects, and the ILD may be applied to the electronic monaural signal in question, i.e. the electronic monaural signal may be attenuated the determined ILD and provided to one of the ears while the electronic monaural signal is provided to the other ear without attenuation, wherein the ear that is presented with the attenuated electronic monaural signal is selected in correspondence with the ILD determination. In this way, the sense of direction conveyed to the user is improved.

There is no unique mapping of the determined ITD to the DOA, e.g. the azimuth ϕ. For example, a sound source in a specific position behind the user and another sound source in a corresponding position in front of the user may result in the same ITD.

In order to determine whether a sound source associated with a monaural signal transmitter is located in front of or behind the user, filtered microphone output signals of differently positioned microphones positioned at the same ear of the user may be cross-correlated.

Cross-correlating may be performed for a plurality of filtered microphone output signals and the results may be added to form a resultant cross-correlation output.

The time lag τ2nat which the cross-correlation, e.g. the resultant cross-correlation, has a maximum may then determined. The sign of τ2ndetermines whether the sound source n is located in front of the user or behind the user.

Based on τ2n, and possibly the DOA of the sound source associated with the monaural signal transmitter from which the electronic monaural signal originates may be determined, e.g. by table look-up.

Based on the estimated DOA, e.g. azimuth ϕ, a corresponding binaural filter may be selected that has a directional transfer function corresponding to the estimated DOA and that is adapted to output signals based on the electronic monaural signal and intended for the right ear and left ear of the user, wherein the output signals are phase shifted with a phase shift with relation to each other in order to introduce the ITD based on and corresponding to the estimated DOA, whereby the perceived position of the sound source associated with the corresponding monaural signal transmitter is shifted outside the head and laterally with relation to the orientation of the head of the user of the binaural hearing aid system.

Alternatively, or additionally, the binaural filter may be adapted to output signals based on the electronic monaural signal and intended for the right ear and left ear, respectively, of the user, wherein the output signals are equal to the electronic monaural signal multiplied with a right gain and a left gain, respectively; in order to obtain an ILD based on and corresponding to the estimated DOA, whereby the sense of direction perceived by the user is enhanced.

For example, the binaural filter may have a selected HRTF with a directional transfer function that corresponds to the estimated DOA so that the user perceives the received electronic monaural signal to be emitted by the sound source at its current position with relation to the user.

The HRTF may be selected from a set of HRTFs that have been individually determined for the user; or, the HRTF may be selected form a set of approximate HRTFs, e.g. as determined with a KEMAR head, or otherwise as an average of HRTFs for a population of humans.

The selected HRTF for a specific DOA may be calculated from other HRTFs for other DOAs, e.g. by interpolation.

HRTFs may be selected for a plurality of electronic monaural signals originating from different monaural signal transmitters, and the filtered microphone output signals for the left ear and the right ear, respectively, may be added, and the added filtered microphone output signals may be provided to the left ear and the right ear, respectively, whereby the user perceives to hear each of the electronic monaural signals from the respective directions towards the different sound sources associated with respective monaural signal transmitters from which the respective electronic monaural signals originate.

EXAMPLE

In the following, the method of estimating the DOA to an nthsound source associated with an nthmonaural signal transmitter of a plurality of N monaural signal transmitters residing in the sound environment of the user is explained in more detail. The nthsound source may be a speaking human using a spouse microphone for wireless emission of the electronic monaural signal containing the speech.

The binaural hearing system has first and second housings to be worn at the left ear and the right ear, respectively, of the user. Each of the housings accommodates two omni-directional microphones, namely a front microphone and a rear microphone that can be used to form a directional microphone array at each ear of the user as is well-known in the art of hearing aids.

Thus, in this example the first housing is adapted to be worn at the right ear of the user and accommodates the first set of microphones comprising the right ear front microphone with index number I=1 and the right ear rear microphone with index number I=2 and providing the right ear front microphone output signal Mic11(t) and the right ear rear microphone output signal Mic12(t), respectively. Correspondingly, the second housing is adapted to be worn at the left ear of the user and accommodates the second set of microphones comprising the left ear front microphone with index number j=1 and the left ear rear microphone with index number j=2 and providing the left ear front microphone output signal Mic21(t) and the left ear rear microphone output signal Mic22(t), respectively.

In a first step of the method, the microphone signals are correlated with the nthelectronic monaural signal Rm_n(t) in order to enhance the sound emitted by the nthmonaural signal transmitter in the microphone signals. Thus, the following correlations are performed:

Left ear:
EF_LF(t)=Hi_LF(t)*Rm_n(−t)
EF_LR(t)=Hi_LR(t)*Rm_n(−t)
Right ear:
EF_RF(t)=Hi_RF(t)*Rm_n(−t)
EF_RR(t)=Hi_RR(t)*Rm_n(−t)
wherein
Hi_LF(t) is the output signal of the front microphone at the left ear, i.e. Mic21(t), and
EF_LF(t) is the corresponding output signal of the correlating filter established for the front microphone at the left ear;
Hi_LR is the output signal of the rear microphone at the left ear, i.e. Mic22(t), and
EF_LR(t) is the corresponding output signal of the correlating filter established for the rear microphone at the left ear;
Hi_RF is the output signal of the front microphone at the right ear, i.e. Mic11(t), and
EF_RF(t) is the corresponding output signal of the correlating filter established for the front microphone at the right ear;
Hi_RR is the output signal of the rear microphone at the right ear, i.e. Mic11(t), and
EF_RR(t) is the corresponding output signal of the correlating filter established for the rear microphone at the right ear;
* is the convolution operator.

Alternatively, the cross-correlation can also be performed without time reversing the electronic monaural signal Rm_n.

In a next step of the method, the ITD is determined by cross-correlating enhanced signals of microphones worn at different ears, i.e. cross-correlating EF_LF with EF_RF and cross-correlating EF_LR with EF_RR, and adding the results of the cross-correlations to form S(t):
S(t)=EF_LF(t)*EF_RF(−t)+EF_LR(t)*EF_RR(−t)
Then, the time lag τnwhere S(t) has maximum is determined.

τnis the ITD of the acoustic sound from the nthmonaural signal transmitter when received at the microphones worn at the left and right ears, respectively, of the user.

In a next step of the method, it is determined whether the nthsound source associated with the nthmonaural signal transmitter resides in front of the user or behind the user by cross-correlating the enhanced signals of front and rear microphones of the same ear, i.e. cross-correlating EF_LF with EF_LR and cross-correlating EF_RF with EF_RR, and adding the results of the cross-correlations to form U(t):
U(t)=EF_LF(t)*EF_LR(−t)+EF_RF(t)*EF_RR(−t)
Then, the time lag τ2nwhere U(t) has maximum is determined.

The sign of τ2ndetermines if the nthsound source associated with the nthmonaural signal transmitter is located in front of, or behind, the user.

Based on τnand τ2nand a table look-up, the azimuth ϕnof the DOA of the nthsound source is determined.

Using a table look-up (using e.g. a KEMAR HRTF database) the corresponding HRTF can be selected: HRTF_L(ϕn, t), HRTF_R(ϕn, t), wherein HRTF_L is the left ear part of the HRTF and HRTF_R is the right ear part of the HRTF.

The information on the DOA is imparted onto the nthelectronic monaural signal Rm_n(t) from the nthmonaural signal transmitter by filtering the nthelectronic monaural signal Rm_n(t) with the selected HRTF:
Yn_L(t)=HRTF_L(ϕn,t)*Rm_n(t)
Yn_R(t)=HRTF_R(ϕn,t)*Rm_n(t)
and providing Yn_L(t) to the left ear of the user and Yn_R(t) to the right ear of the user.

In this way, the user perceives to listen to the nthelectronic monaural signal Rm_n(t) as if the signal is arriving from the DOA of the nthsound source.

In this example, this is repeated for all N sound sources and associated monaural signal transmitters residing in the sound environment of the user and transmitting respective electronic monaural signals to the binaural hearing system.

For each monaural signal transmitter of the N monaural signal transmitters, the microphone signals are correlated with the respective nthelectronic monaural signal Rm_n(t) in order to enhance the sound emitted by the nthmonaural signal transmitter in the microphone signals, and the respective azimuth ϕnof the DOA of the nthsound source is determined and the corresponding nthHRTF is selected for filtering the respective nthelectronic monaural signal Rm_n(t) in order to impart spatial cues corresponding to the respective azimuth ϕnonto the nthelectronic monaural signal Rm_n(t).

Finally, the resulting signals are added to form Y_L(t) and Y_R(t) provided to the left and right ears, respectively, of the user:
Y_L(t)=Y1_L(t)+Y2_L(t)+ . . . +Yn_L(t)+ . . . +YN_L(t)
Y_R(t)=Y1_R(t)+Y2_R(t)+ . . . +Yn_R(t)+ . . . +YN_R(t).

In this way, the user perceives to listen to each of the N electronic monaural signals Rm_n(t) as if each of the signals is arriving from the DOA of the respective nthsound source. Thus, the user will be able to separate individual sound sources associated with respective monaural signal transmitters and, e.g. focus his or her listening on a selected sound source. Further, the user's ability to understand speech is improved due to the externalization of the electronic monaural signals, and the user's ability to understand speech from one sound source of a plurality of simultaneously speaking sound sources is improved.

The binaural hearing system may have an antenna and a wireless receiver connected to the antenna for reception of one or more electronic monaural signals encoded for wireless transmission to the binaural hearing system. The wireless receiver is adapted to retrieve the one or more electronic monaural signals from the received encoded signal. The received encoded signal may contain the one or more electronic monaural signals in digitized form possibly together with identifiers of the electronic monaural signal transmitter so that electronic monaural signals from different monaural signal transmitters can be separated and each of the electronic monaural signals can be provided to a respective separate DOA estimator.

Thus, the binaural hearing system may comprise a plurality of DOA estimators, one for each monaural signal transmitter in the sound environment.

Each of the DOA estimators may be adapted for cross-correlating microphone signals selected from at least one of the first and second set of microphone output signals and for determining whether the sound source associated with the monaural signal transmitter is located in front of the user or behind the user based on the cross-correlating.

Each of the DOA estimators may be adapted for determining a first time-lag at which a result of the cross-correlating has a maximum, and for determining whether the sound source associated with the monaural signal transmitter is located in front of the user or behind the user based on the sign of the first time-lag.

Each of the DOA estimators may be adapted for cross-correlating microphone output signals selected from the first set of microphone output signals with microphone output signals selected from the second set of microphone output signals, and for estimating the DOA based on the cross-correlating.

Each of the DOA estimators may be adapted for determining a second time-lag at which a result of the cross-correlating of microphone output signals selected from the first set of microphone output signals with microphone output signals selected from the second set of microphone output signals has a maximum, and for determining the interaural time difference as the second time-lag.

Each of the DOA estimators may be adapted for determining the DOA based on the interaural time difference.

Each of the DOA estimators may be adapted for determining the DOA based on the interaural time difference and the sign of the first time-lag.

The binaural hearing system may comprise

a binaural filter for filtering the electronic monaural signal and adapted to output first and second output signals each of which is selected from the group of signals consisting of:

the electronic monaural signal phase shifted with a phase shift based on the estimated DOA,

the electronic monaural signal multiplied with a gain based on the estimated DOA, and the electronic monaural signal multiplied with a gain and phase shifted with a phase shift, wherein the gain and phase shift are based on the estimated DOA, and wherein the first and second output signals are supplied to the first and second output transducers constituting the first and second transducer audio signals, respectively, whereby the user perceives to hear the converted electronic monaural signal as arriving from the estimated DOA.

The binaural filter may be adapted for providing first and second output signals that are equal to the electronic monaural signal, but phase shifted by different respective amounts and thereby phase shifted with relation to each other with an amount corresponding to the ITD.

The binaural filter may alternatively or additionally be adapted for providing output signals that are equal to the input signal, but multiplied with different respective gains to obtain an ILD that corresponds to the estimated DOA.

The binaural filter may have a directional transfer function that is equal to an HRTF that has been determined individually for the user of the binaural hearing system for the estimated DOA or an HRTF that approximates an individually determined HRTF and that is determined for e.g. an artificial head, such as a KEMAR head. In this way, an approximation to the individual HRTF is provided that can be of sufficient accuracy for the user of the binaural hearing system to maintain sense of direction when wearing the binaural hearing system.

The binaural filter may be adapted for individually processing the electronic monaural signal in a plurality of frequency channels.

The binaural hearing system may have a plurality of binaural filters with different directional transfer functions applied to different electronic monaural signals corresponding to the respective estimated DOAs.

The first and second hearing devices may be hearing aids comprising a hearing loss processor that is adapted for compensation of a hearing loss of the user.

The binaural hearing system may comprise a binaural hearing aid comprising multi-channel first and/or second hearing aids in which the signals are divided into a plurality of frequency channels for individual processing of at least some of the signals in each of the frequency channels.

The plurality of frequency channels may include warped frequency channels, for example all of the frequency channels may be warped frequency channels.

The binaural hearing aid may additionally provide circuitry used in accordance with other conventional methods of hearing loss compensation so that the new circuitry or other conventional circuitry can be selected for operation as appropriate in different types of sound environment. The different sound environments may include speech, babble speech, restaurant clatter, music, traffic noise, etc.

The binaural hearing aid may for example comprise a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), the processing of which is controlled by selectable signal processing algorithms, each of which having various parameters for adjustment of the actual signal processing performed. The gains in each of the frequency channels of a multi-channel hearing aid are examples of such parameters.

One of the selectable signal processing algorithms operates in accordance with the method of imparting spatial cues to one or more electronic monaural signals explained above.

For example, various algorithms may be provided for conventional noise suppression, i.e. attenuation of undesired signals and amplification of desired signals.

Microphone output signals obtained from different sound environments may possess very different characteristics, e.g. average and maximum sound pressure levels (SPLs) and/or frequency content. Therefore, each type of sound environment may be associated with a particular program wherein a particular setting of algorithm parameters of a signal processing algorithm provides processed sound of optimum signal quality in a specific sound environment. A set of such parameters may typically include parameters related to broadband gain, corner frequencies or slopes of frequency-selective filter algorithms and parameters controlling e.g. knee-points and compression ratios of Automatic Gain Control (AGC) algorithms.

Signal processing characteristics of each of the algorithms may be determined during an initial fitting session in a dispensers office and programmed into the binaural hearing aid in a non-volatile memory area.

The binaural hearing aid may have a user interface, e.g. buttons, toggle switches, etc., of the hearing aid housings, or a remote control, so that the user of the binaural hearing aid can select one of the available signal processing algorithms to obtain the desired hearing loss compensation in the sound environment in question.

Typically, analogue signals are made suitable for digital signal processing by conversion into corresponding digital signals in an analogue-to-digital converter whereby the amplitude of the analogue signal is represented by a binary number. In this way, a discrete-time and discrete-amplitude digital signal in the form of a sequence of digital values represents the continuous-time and continuous-amplitude analogue signal.

Throughout the present disclosure, one signal is said to represent another signal when the one signal is a function of the other signal, for example the one signal may be formed by analogue-to-digital conversion, or digital-to-analogue conversion of the other signal; or, the one signal may be formed by conversion of an acoustic signal into an electronic signal or vice versa; or the one signal may be formed by analogue or digital filtering or mixing of the other signal; or the one signal may be formed by transformation, such as frequency transformation, etc., of the other signal; etc.

Further, signals that are processed by specific circuitry, e.g. in a processor, may be identified by a name that may be used to identify any analogue or digital signal forming part of the signal path of the signal in question from its input of the circuitry in question to its output of the circuitry. For example an output signal of a microphone, i.e. the microphone audio signal, may be used to identify any analogue or digital signal forming part of the signal path from the output of the microphone to its input to the receiver, including any processed microphone audio signals.

The binaural hearing system may additionally provide circuitry used in accordance with other conventional methods of, e.g. hearing loss compensation, noise suppression, etc., so that the new circuitry or other conventional circuitry can be selected for operation as appropriate in different types of sound environment. The different sound environments may include speech, babble speech, restaurant clatter, music, traffic noise, etc.

The binaural hearing system may for example comprise a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), the processing of which is controlled by selectable signal processing algorithms, each of which having various parameters for adjustment of the actual signal processing performed. The gains in each of the frequency channels of a multi-channel hearing system are examples of such parameters.

One of the selectable signal processing algorithms operates in accordance with the method disclosed herein.

For example, various algorithms may be provided for conventional noise suppression, i.e. attenuation of undesired signals and amplification of desired signals.

Signal processing in the binaural hearing system may be performed by dedicated hardware or may be performed in a signal processor, or performed in a combination of dedicated hardware and one or more signal processors.

As used herein, the terms “processor”, “signal processor”, “controller”, “system”, etc., are intended to refer to CPU-related entities, either hardware, a combination of hardware and software, software, or software in execution. The term processor may also refer to any integrated circuit that includes some hardware, which may or may not be a CPU-related entity. For example, in some embodiments, a processor may include a filter.

For example, a “processor”, “signal processor”, “controller”, “system”, etc., may be, but is not limited to being, a process running on a processor, a processor, an object, an executable file, a thread of execution, and/or a program.

By way of illustration, the terms “processor”, “signal processor”, “controller”, “system”, etc., designate both an application running on a processor and a hardware processor. One or more “processors”, “signal processors”, “controllers”, “systems” and the like, or any combination hereof, may reside within a process and/or thread of execution, and one or more “processors”, “signal processors”, “controllers”, “systems”, etc., or any combination hereof, may be localized on one hardware processor, possibly in combination with other hardware circuitry, and/or distributed between two or more hardware processors, possibly in combination with other hardware circuitry.

Also, a processor (or similar terms) may be any component or any combination of components that is capable of performing signal processing. For examples, the signal processor may be an ASIC processor, a FPGA processor, a general purpose processor, a microprocessor, a circuit component, or an integrated circuit.

A binaural hearing system includes: a binaural hearing device having a first housing configured to be worn at a first ear of a user of the binaural hearing system, the first housing accommodating a first set of microphones that is configured to provide a first set of microphone output signals, a second housing configured to be worn at a second ear of the user, the second housing accommodating a second set of microphones that is configured to provide a second set of microphone output signals, a first output transducer configured to convert a first transducer audio signal into a first auditory output signal for reception by an auditory system of the user when the user wears the first housing at the first ear, a second output transducer configured to convert a second transducer audio signal into a second auditory output signal for reception by the human auditory system when the user wears the second housing at the second ear; an electronic monaural signal receiver configured to receive an electronic monaural signal provided by a monaural signal transmitter, wherein the electronic monaural signal is based on sound emitted by a sound source that is located at a distance to the user; a direction of arrival estimator configured to correlate the first set and the second set of microphone output signals with the electronic monaural signal for provision of directional transfer functions for the first set and the second set of microphones; and a binaural filter configured to process the electronic monaural signal with transfer function(s) based on the directional transfer function(s) for provision of the first and second transducer audio signals to the first and second output transducers, respectively, whereby the electronic monaural signal is perceivable by the user as arriving from the sound source.

Optionally, the binaural hearing system is configured to receive the sound emitted by the sound source, so that at least a part of the first and second sets of microphone output signals corresponds to the electronic monaural signal.

Optionally, the direction of arrival estimator is configured to estimate a direction of arrival of the sound by: cross-correlating microphone output signal(s) from the first set of microphone output signals with the electronic monaural signal for provision of a first set of filtered microphone output signal(s), and cross-correlating microphone output signal(s) from the second set of microphone output signals with the electronic monaural signal for provision of a second set of filtered microphone output signal(s), and estimating the direction of arrival based on the first set of the filtered microphone output signal(s) and the second set of the filtered microphone output signal(s).

Optionally, the direction of arrival estimator is configured to determine whether the sound source is located in front of the user or behind the user.

Optionally, the direction of arrival estimator is configured to perform a cross-correlation based at least in part on microphone output signal(s) from the first set of microphone output signals and/or microphone output signal(s) from the second set of microphone output signals, and to determine a first time-lag at which a result of the cross-correlation has a maximum; and wherein the direction of arrival estimator is configured to determine whether the sound source is located in front of the user or behind the user based on a sign of the first time-lag.

Optionally, the direction of arrival estimator is configured to estimate a direction of arrival of the sound based on an interaural time difference and the sign of the first time-lag.

Optionally, the direction of arrival estimator is configured to determine a second time-lag at which a result of a cross-correlation of microphone output signal(s) from the first set of microphone output signals with microphone output signal(s) from the second set of microphone output signals has a maximum; and wherein the interaural time difference is the second time-lag.

Optionally, the direction of arrival estimator is configured to cross-correlate microphone output signal(s) from the first set of microphone output signals with microphone output signal(s) from the second set of microphone output signals to obtain an output, and to estimate a direction of arrival based on the output.

Optionally, the direction of arrival estimator is configured to estimate a direction of arrival based on an interaural time difference.

Optionally, the first and second transducer audio signals provisioned by the binaural filter are: phase shifted with relation to each other based on an estimated direction of arrival of the sound, and/or amplified with a mutual gain difference based on the estimated direction of arrival of the sound.

Optionally, the directional transfer function(s) corresponds with a Head Related Transfer Function.

Optionally, the binaural filter is configured to process the electronic monaural signal in a plurality of frequency channels.

Optionally, the binaural hearing system further includes a head tracker configured to be mounted at a head of the user for provision of a tracking signal containing information regarding a head movement of the user.

Optionally, the binaural hearing system further includes a hearing loss processor that is configured to compensate for a hearing loss of the user.

A method of processing an electronic monaural signal in a binaural hearing system having a first set of microphones worn at a first ear of a user of the binaural hearing system, and a second set of microphones worn at a second ear of the user, includes: correlating (1) a first set of microphone output signals provided by the first set of microphones and a second set of microphone output signals provided by the second set of microphones, respectively, with (2) the electronic monaural signal, for provision of directional transfer function(s) for the first and second set of microphones; and processing the electronic monaural signal with transfer function(s) based on the directional transfer function(s).

Optionally, the method further includes cross-correlating (1) microphone output signal(s) from the first set of microphone output signals and microphone output signal(s) from the second set of microphone output signals, respectively, with (2) the electronic monaural signal, for provision of first and second sets of filtered microphone output signals, respectively.

Optionally, in the first set of filtered microphone output signals, at least a part of the first set of microphone output signals corresponding to the electronic monaural signal has been enhanced; and wherein in the second set of filtered microphone output signals, at least a part of the second set of microphone output signals corresponding to the electronic monaural signal has been enhanced.

Optionally, the method further includes determining whether a sound source associated with the electronic monaural signal is located in front of the user or behind the user.

