US 12,225,351 B2
Hearing device with minimum processing beamformer
Adel Zahedi, Smørum (DK); Michael Syskind Pedersen, Smørum (DK); Thomas Ulrich Christiansen, Smørum (DK); Lars Bramsløw, Smørum (DK); and Jesper Jensen, Smørum (DK)
Assigned to OTICON A/S, Smørum (DK)
Filed by Oticon A/S, Smørum (DK)
Filed on Jan. 14, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/575,968.
Claims priority of application No. 21151965 (EP), filed on Jan. 18, 2021.
Prior Publication US 2022/0240026 A1, Jul. 28, 2022
Int. Cl. H04R 25/00 (2006.01); G10L 25/78 (2013.01)
CPC H04R 25/502 (2013.01) [G10L 25/78 (2013.01); H04R 25/50 (2013.01); G10L 2025/783 (2013.01); H04R 2225/43 (2013.01)] 18 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A hearing device adapted for being worn at or in an ear of a user, the hearing device comprising
an input unit comprising at last two input transducers each for converting sound around said hearing device to an electric input signal representing said sound, thereby providing at least two electric input signals;
a beamformer filter comprising a minimum processing beamformer defined by optimized beamformer weights, the beamformer filter being configured to provide a filtered signal in dependence of said at least two electric input signals and said optimized beamformer weights, the optimized beamformer weights being calculated based on a reference signal representing sound around said hearing device, wherein said reference signal is a beamformed signal obtained by processing the at least two electric input signals with different beamformer weights than the optimized beamformer weights defining the minimum processing beamformer;
wherein the beamformer filter is further configured to receive a performance criterion for said minimum processing beamformer;
wherein the minimum processing beamformer is a beamformer that provides the filtered signal with as little modification as possible in terms of a selected distance measure compared to said reference signal, while still fulfilling said performance criterion; and wherein
said optimized beamformer weights are adaptively determined in dependence of said at least two electric input signals, said reference signal, said distance measure, and said performance criterion; and wherein
said reference signal is a beamformed signal generated by a reference beamformer; and wherein
said minimum processing beamformer is determined as a signal dependent linear combination of at least two beam formers, wherein one of said at least two beamformers is said reference beamformer,
the minimum processing beamformer is composed of a dynamic, signal dependent, linear combination of the reference beamformer and a speech-preserving beamformer,
the reference beamformer is configured to remove as much noise as possible and comprises one of a multi-channel Wiener filter, a minimum variance distortionless response beamformer, a linearly-constrained minimum variance beamformer, and a DNN-based beamformer, and
the speech-preserving beamformer is configured to preserve speech and comprises one of a multi-channel Wiener filter and a minimum variance distortionless response beamformer.