Method of Wind Noise Suppression in Hearing Aids

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DESCRIPTION (Provided by applicant): This application proposes to continue the work done in our Phase I investigation and further evaluate and refine a promising novel digital technique we have developed at MH Acoustics for reducing wind noise in hearing aids. In Phase I, we demonstrated the feasibility of our breakthrough concept for wind noise suppression and, using wind tunnel tests, proved the effectiveness of our wind noise suppression algorithm. Based on the promise shown in our Phase I results, we have taken the first steps to commercialize our algorithm by entering into strategic alliances with two leading IC vendors in the cell phone and Bluetooth wireless headset market. Furthermore, we have teamed with Gennum Corporation a leading supplier of DSP chips to the hearing aid industry to introduce our solution to the hearing aid market. A major component of our Phase II proposal is to include clinical trials in support of our business plan. For this work, we will partner with Professor Ruth Bentler of the University of Iowa. Professor Bentler is a recognized expert in the study of the effectiveness of noise reduction schemes in hearing aids. The specific tasks of our Phase II proposal are to: a) Construct a multichannel acoustic database of different environmental wind-noise conditions for testing using the unique calibrated airflow test facility and microphone arrays that were built and verified during Phase I. b) Build test vectors for listening tests to be performed during the clinical trials c) Partner with Professor Ruth Bentler, to perform clinical trials to evaluate and optimize our algorithm from data obtained during the clinical trial. d) Implement our refined and tailored two-channel algorithm in real-time on a commercial hearing aid DSP (Gennum Voyager). e) Create a portable C version of our algorithm to simplify porting our algorithm to a wide range of low power fixed-point DSP's and other processors. f) Demonstrate conclusively in Phase II that the MH Acoustics algorithm is clearly superior in suppressing wind noise in hearing aids for both normal and hearing impaired subjects. Wind-noise is highly disturbing to hearing impaired individuals wearing hearing aids who wish to participate in outdoor conversations where wind is present or during activities such as walking or running. In these situations, wind noise significantly reduces signal-to-noise ratio and, consequently, the intelligibility of speech and sounds is significantly impaired. The objective of this project is to demonstrate the MH Acoustics' multi-microphone wind-noise reduction invention for the digital hearing aids market. MH Acoustics' wind noise reduction technology is unique since it provides instantaneous convergence while maintaining directionality of the microphone array. Current commercial technologies do not provide this feature. MH Acoustics, founded by researchers from Bell Laboratories, is currently successfully commercializing wind noise reduction technology for the mobile headset and handset markets and is working with leading hearing aid device producers to introduce their new technology into the market. This technology will achieve wind noise suppression capability unequaled in the industry.