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Detection and attenuation of feedback induced howling in hearing aids using subband zero-crossing measures

Westerlund, Nils ; Dahl, Mattias and Grbic, Nedelko LU (2005) International Symposium on Signal Processing and Its Applications (ISSPA 2005) p.751-754
Abstract
A modern hearing aid should be aesthetically appealing as well as offer sufficient and adequate signal amplification. Due to the small physical size of these devices, acoustical feedback (howling) is a major problem. Apart from the annoyance and potential hearing damaging effects that howling implies, it also reduces the supplied maximum Real Ear Aided Gain (REAG). This paper proposes a novel method for subband feedback detection and cancellation, based on the zero-crossing rate measure. After splitting the hearing aid input signal into subbands, the distances between subband zero-crossings are measured. A low distance variance in a particular subband indicates that howling has arisen. The variance measure is then used to adaptively and... (More)
A modern hearing aid should be aesthetically appealing as well as offer sufficient and adequate signal amplification. Due to the small physical size of these devices, acoustical feedback (howling) is a major problem. Apart from the annoyance and potential hearing damaging effects that howling implies, it also reduces the supplied maximum Real Ear Aided Gain (REAG). This paper proposes a novel method for subband feedback detection and cancellation, based on the zero-crossing rate measure. After splitting the hearing aid input signal into subbands, the distances between subband zero-crossings are measured. A low distance variance in a particular subband indicates that howling has arisen. The variance measure is then used to adaptively and continuously steer subband gain functions which attenuate tonal infested subbands. The method has proven to be robust and simulation indicates that it offers additional REAG of about 15 dB. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; and
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
published
subject
host publication
Proceedings of the Eighth International Symposium on Signal Processing and Its Application, 2005
pages
751 - 754
publisher
IEEE - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
conference name
International Symposium on Signal Processing and Its Applications (ISSPA 2005)
conference location
Sydney, Australia
conference dates
2005-08-28 - 2005-08-31
external identifiers
  • scopus:33847103106
ISBN
0-7803-9243-4
DOI
10.1109/ISSPA.2005.1581047
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
5fe048c3-0a02-4ee2-9582-a2aa72208b6d
date added to LUP
2016-06-23 16:14:09
date last changed
2022-01-30 04:47:52
@inproceedings{5fe048c3-0a02-4ee2-9582-a2aa72208b6d,
  abstract     = {{A modern hearing aid should be aesthetically appealing as well as offer sufficient and adequate signal amplification. Due to the small physical size of these devices, acoustical feedback (howling) is a major problem. Apart from the annoyance and potential hearing damaging effects that howling implies, it also reduces the supplied maximum Real Ear Aided Gain (REAG). This paper proposes a novel method for subband feedback detection and cancellation, based on the zero-crossing rate measure. After splitting the hearing aid input signal into subbands, the distances between subband zero-crossings are measured. A low distance variance in a particular subband indicates that howling has arisen. The variance measure is then used to adaptively and continuously steer subband gain functions which attenuate tonal infested subbands. The method has proven to be robust and simulation indicates that it offers additional REAG of about 15 dB.}},
  author       = {{Westerlund, Nils and Dahl, Mattias and Grbic, Nedelko}},
  booktitle    = {{Proceedings of the Eighth International Symposium on Signal Processing and Its Application, 2005}},
  isbn         = {{0-7803-9243-4}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{751--754}},
  publisher    = {{IEEE - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.}},
  title        = {{Detection and attenuation of feedback induced howling in hearing aids using subband zero-crossing measures}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ISSPA.2005.1581047}},
  doi          = {{10.1109/ISSPA.2005.1581047}},
  year         = {{2005}},
}