EP2172062B1 - Method for adapting a hearing device using a perceptive model - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a method for adapting a hearing device to a hearing aid wearer by selecting a hearing aid based on a comparison of the technical data of several hearing aids with hearing loss data of the hearing aid wearer, pre-setting the selected hearing aid with a target gain curve and fine tuning a setting of the preset hearing aid.

Hearing aids are portable hearing aids that are used to care for the hearing impaired. In order to meet the numerous individual needs, different types of hearing aids such as behind-the-ear hearing aids (BTE), hearing aid with external receiver (RIC: receiver in the canal) and in-the-ear hearing aids (ITE), e.g. Concha hearing aids or canal hearing aids (ITE, CIC). The hearing aids listed by way of example are worn on the outer ear or in the ear canal. In addition, bone conduction hearing aids, implantable or vibrotactile hearing aids are also available on the market. The stimulation of the damaged hearing takes place either mechanically or electrically.

Hearing aids have in principle as essential components an input transducer, an amplifier and an output transducer. The input transducer is usually a sound receiver, z. As a microphone, and / or an electromagnetic receiver, for. B. an induction coil. The output transducer is usually used as an electroacoustic transducer, z. As miniature speaker, or as an electromechanical transducer, z. B. bone conduction, realized. The amplifier is usually integrated in a signal processing unit. This basic structure is in FIG. 1 shown using the example of a behind-the-ear hearing aid. In a hearing aid housing 1 for carrying behind the ear are one or more microphones 2 to Built-in sound recording from the environment. A signal processing unit 3, which is also integrated in the hearing aid housing 1, processes the microphone signals and amplifies them. The output signal of the signal processing unit 3 is transmitted to a loudspeaker or earpiece 4, which outputs an acoustic signal. The sound is optionally transmitted via a sound tube, which is fixed with an earmold in the ear canal, to the eardrum of the device carrier. The power supply of the hearing device and in particular of the signal processing unit 3 is carried out by a likewise integrated into the hearing aid housing 1 battery. 5

The hearing aid selection, presetting and fine adjustment by the acoustician using fitting software is aimed at meeting the individual needs of the hearing impaired in terms of speech understanding and sound quality. This requires a great deal of acoustician experience, but with increasing complexity of the hearing instruments and short product cycles, it is becoming increasingly difficult to achieve so that the risk of inadequate care is growing.

The fitting software often provides assistance, which should help the inexperienced acoustician in particular to make the appropriate adaptation steps. Thus, for example, in the hearing device selection, the audiological degree of matching ("matching level") of a hearing aid is displayed with regard to the present hearing loss, or a rough preselection of the suitable adaptation strategies by the software is undertaken. However, this pre-selection is often based on the technical characteristics of the hearing aids and is not specifically geared to the potential psychoacoustic benefits of the hearing aid.

The publication US 2002/0111745 A1 discloses a portable hearing aid system. In this case, parameters of a hearing response can be obtained by audiometer. A response prediction is used to perform a basic setting of a hearing aid.

Furthermore, the document describes EP 0 661 905 A2 a method for adjusting a hearing aid and a corresponding hearing aid. A perceptive model is used to obtain a psychoacoustic variable, in particular loudness, on the one hand for a norm group and on the other hand for a single individual. On the basis of the difference between the two psychoacoustic variables, setting data are determined, with which the signal transmission to a hearing device is designed or adjusted ex situ or conducted in situ.

From the publication US 5,729,658 A a method for determining the speech intelligibility in hearing aids is known. The hearing loss of a patient is spectrally measured and a computer model of the hearing aid is generated. Subsequently, the integrated articulation index is obtained, which represents a measure of speech intelligibility in different listening situations. From this in turn the device is selected, with the highest speech intelligibility can be achieved.

Furthermore, the article by British Journal of Audiology, Academic Press, London, Vol. 34, no. 3, 1 June 2000 the use of a loudness model for hearing aid fitting. The loudness model is applied to the audiogram of a hearing impaired person. From this, the necessary reinforcement is selected.

The object of the present invention is to simplify and improve the fitting of a hearing device to a hearing aid wearer, so that a better care can be ensured.

According to the invention, this object is achieved by a method according to claim 1 for adapting a hearing device to a hearing aid wearer by selecting a hearing aid based on output data of several hearing aids with respect to hearing loss data of the hearing aid wearer and one or both of the following steps: presetting the selected hearing aid with a target gain curve and fine tuning an adjustment of the preset hearing aid, wherein at least one of the steps of selecting, presetting and fine-tuning takes place with the aid of a single perceptual model, which is individualized by the hearing loss data representing the hearing loss of the hearing aid wearer.

For selecting the hearing device, a predetermined sound is in each case supplied to a simulation model of the hearing aids available for selection; the resulting simulation data is input to the perceptual model and the hearing aid is selected based on the acquired psychoacoustic data from the perceptual model. Thus, it is possible to relieve the hearing impaired in the selection of the hearing aid in the initial phase.

For presetting a selected hearing device, a predetermined sound is supplied to a simulation model of the hearing aid having a plurality of target gain curves; the resulting simulation data is fed to the perceptual model and from psychoacoustic data a target enhancement curve is established by the perceptual model. Thus, a relatively good adaptation can take place already at the first individual setting (first fit) of the hearing device, so that the hearing aid wearer already receives a more positive overall impression of the new hearing aid when first worn.

Advantageously, thus also sensation variables are taken into account in the adaptation of the hearing device without high computational effort. In this way, the hearing aid can thus already be selected in advance depending on the individual perception and be preset. Even with the fine adjustment, the individual psychoacoustic variables can be taken into account, so that the quality of fitting increases.

Preferably, the perceptual model provides the loudness, the tonal sharpness, the roughness, the pleasantness, the auditory effort and / or the speech intelligibility as a psychoacoustic variable, so that the selection, presetting and / or fine-tuning takes place on the basis of this psychoacoustic variable (s). From the perceptual model, however, other psychoacoustic parameters can be supplied and used for the adaptation.

Also, for fine tuning, an adaptive algorithm of the signal processing of the hearing aid based on psychoacoustic. Data can be adjusted by the pacific model. Since the fine adjustment usually takes place in a number of iterations, the percussion model can save the hearing aid wearer several courses to the acoustician.

It is particularly favorable if the fine adjustment additionally takes place on the basis of data which the hearing device wearer uses by means of data logging or recordings of individual acoustic signals Has recorded situations. This allows a very individual adaptation to the personal sound environment.

According to another embodiment, the perceptive model may obtain a plurality of psychoacoustic quantities, individually weight the psychoacoustic quantities, and use the weighted psychoacoustic quantities for selection, presetting, and / or fine tuning. Thus, a multi-dimensional parameterization can be carried out very effectively based on sensation variables.

• FIG 1 den prinzipiellen Aufbau eines Hörgeräts gemäß dem Stand der Technik;
• FIG 2 ein Flussdiagramm zur Auswahl und Voreinstellung eines Hörgeräts und
• FIG 3 ein Blockschaltdiagramm zur Feinanpassung eines Hörgeräts.

The present invention will be explained in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

• FIG. 1 the basic structure of a hearing aid according to the prior art;
• FIG. 2 a flow chart for selecting and presetting a hearing aid and
• FIG. 3 a block diagram for fine adjustment of a hearing aid.

The embodiment described in more detail below represents a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

The use of a perceptive model according to the invention, which takes into account the individual audiogram or other corresponding data representing the hearing loss, provides in the various steps of the hearing aid adaptation a significant increase in the quality of the measures proposed by the fitting software. The model provides predictions of important psychoacoustic properties for a given stimulus, such as: B loudness, sharpness of sound, roughness, pleasantness, hearing effort, subjective speech intelligibility etc.

The hearing aid fitting can be roughly divided into three steps: the hearing aid selection, the hearing aid presetting and optionally the hearing aid fine adjustment. The first two steps are in FIG. 2 indicated and the third step in FIG. 3 ,

In the step of hearing aid selection is according to FIG. 2 the perceptual model PM is used by processing one or more typical sounds S1 selected by the hearing-impaired together with the acoustician with simulation models HM1, HM2, HM3, etc. of the various hearing aids available for selection and then supplied to the perceptual model PM. In this way, depending on the algorithmic features or frequency response of the various hearing aids one or more devices is preselected.

According to another embodiment, the data for preselecting can already be made available in the form of a database for the software, so that no computationally intensive online calculation of the hearing aid model and the subsequent perceptive model must be performed at the acoustician's.

In the second step of the hearing aid adaptation, namely the hearing device presetting, the model is changed in order to select the optimal target gain curve, as also shown in FIG FIG. 2 is indicated. First, suitable sounds S2 are processed with the hearing aid model, ie, the various target gain curves Z1, Z2, Z3, etc., and the output signals are supplied to the perceptual model PM. The acoustician may then make a choice W based on the results and thus select a suitable target gain Z or create from the target gain curves. That is, an individually appropriate strategy is selected, depending on whether the hearing impaired z. B. sets a higher value to a balanced sound, or whether he is primarily interested in improving speech intelligibility.

In an alternative embodiment, in turn, the results for different sounds for representative hearing loss could already be stored as a database, so that no computationally intensive online calculation must be made to make the choice W can. In this case, the individual hearing loss would be associated with the closest representative hearing loss. That is, the perceptual model is parameterized based on representative hearing loss or multiple representative hearing loss. In either case, the selected target gain curve Z is then used for the selected hearing aid HG.

In the optional step of the hearing aid fine adjustment, the perceptive model PM can according to FIG. 3 be used to make the appropriate fine adjustment steps, especially in adaptive algorithms AL, which are difficult to optimize in the laboratory situation. Specifically, therefore, a sound S3 is processed by the adaptive algorithm and fed to the perceptual model PM. The algorithm AL is parameterized by means of a psychoacoustic value supplied by the perceptual model. As in FIG. 3 is indicated, the perceptive model can be implemented in the hearing aid HG itself or run outside of the hearing aid on a computer as a perceptive model PM '. Thus, the acoustician can modify parameters on the basis of the deaf person's statements (which perceptive dimension is to be optimized, or which problem is to be solved) and, on the basis of the model simulation, immediately check whether the desired result arrives.

In addition, for further adaptation or fine adjustment, information from a wearing test, which was recorded, for example, by means of data logging, can be used as a support. The description of the acoustic situation, z. As an audio file or alternatively technical variables such as level, SNR ratios, class membership, etc. (also understood here as a result of "datalogging") can be supplied to the perceptive model and the model of the device for fine adjustment. The software can then independently adjust the parameters of the hearing aid optimize so that a maximum in one dimension, z. As loudness is achieved. If there is no absolute maximum, the result could also lie in several settings, which the hearing-impaired then themselves assessed for fitness. In this case too, it is conceivable to carry out the complex calculation in the fitting software in advance by means of representative sounds and to fill the fitting software itself with a database of problem situations and suitable solution proposals.

As described above, according to the invention, psychoacoustic, i. perceptive characteristics in the different steps of the hearing aid adaptation are provided by the fitting software. In all these steps, the perceptual model allows individual weighting of each of the various psychoacoustic dimensions, i. whether individual, for example, the subjective understanding of speech is in the foreground or rather the sound quality.

Claims (5)

1. A method for adjusting a hearing device to suit a hearing device wearer by:

   - selecting a hearing device (HG) with the aid of original data for several hearing devices in respect of data relating to the hearing loss of the hearing device wearer; and

   ▪ presetting the selected hearing device with a target amplification curve (Z) and/or

   ▪ effecting a fine adjustment of a setting of the preset hearing device

   characterized in that

   - at least the steps of selecting and presetting are carried out using a single perceptive model (PM, PM') that is individualized by hearing loss data that map the hearing loss of the hearing device wearer,

   - the hearing device (HG) is selected by supplying a prescribed sound (S1, S2) to a respective simulation model (HM1, HM2, HM3) of the hearing devices available for selection, inputting the resultant simulation data into the perceptive model (PM, PM') and selecting the hearing device (HG) with the aid of the obtained psychoacoustic data from the perceptive model, and

   - a selected hearing device is preset by supplying a prescribed sound (S1, S2) to a simulation model of the hearing device having multiple target amplification curves (Z1, Z2, Z3), routing the resulting simulation data to the perceptive model (PM, PM') and stipulating a target amplification curve with the aid of psychoacoustic data from the perceptive model.
2. The method as claimed in claim 1, the perceptive model (PM, PM') delivering one or more of loudness, sharpness of sound, harshness, pleasantness, listening effort and language comprehension as a psychoacoustic variable, so that one or more of the steps of selecting, presetting, and effecting the fine adjustment is carried out using this psychoacoustic variable.
3. The method as claimed in either of the preceding claims, wherein the fine adjustment comprises adjusting an adaptive signal processing algorithm (AL) of the hearing device with the aid of psychoacoustic data from the perceptive model (PM, PM').
4. The method as claimed in one of the preceding claims, the fine adjustment being effected based on data that the hearing device wearer has captured by way of data logging.
5. The method as claimed in one of the preceding claims, which comprises obtaining several psychoacoustic variables through the perceptive model (PM, PM'), weighting the psychoacoustic variables individually, and using the weighted psychoacoustic variables for one or more of selecting, presetting, and fine adjustment.

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