Hearing aid system
Disclosed is a hearing aid system capable of increasing the clearness of sound spoken by a speaker while reproducing the incoming direction of the sound spoken by the speaker without using an inverse mapping rule. The hearing aid system includes a sound source input section which receives sounds coming from sound sources as input to convert the input sounds to first acoustic signals, a sound source separating section which separates the first acoustic signals converted by the sound source input section into sound source signals corresponding to the sound sources, a binaural microphone which is disposed on left and right ears, and receives the sounds coming from the sound sources as input to convert the input sounds to second acoustic signals, a directional sense component calculating section which calculates directional sense components representing the directional sense of the sound sources with the binaural microphone as a base point from the left and right second acoustic signals converted by the binaural microphone, an output signal generating section which generates left and right output acoustic signals on the basis of the sound source signals and the directional sense components, and a binaural speaker which outputs the left and right output acoustic signals generated by the output signal generating section.
1. A hearing aid system comprising:
a sound source input section configured to receive sounds from sound sources as an input thereof and to convert the input sounds to first acoustic signals;
a sound source separating section configured to separate the first acoustic signals converted by the sound source input section into sound source signals corresponding to respective sound sources;
a binaural microphone disposed at left and right ears and, and being configured to receive the sounds from the sound sources as an input thereof and to convert the input sounds to left and right second acoustic signals;
a directional sense component calculating section configured to calculate a directional sense component representing a directional sense of the sound sources with respect to the binaural microphone as a base point, based on the left and right second acoustic signals converted by the binaural microphone;
an output signal generating section configured to generate left and right output acoustic signals by synthesizing the sound source signals and the directional sense component; and
a binaural speaker configured to output the left and right output acoustic signals generated by the output signal generating section.
2. The hearing aid system according to claim 1 ,
wherein the directional sense component calculating section is configured to calculate at least one of an interaural time difference and an interaural volume difference based on the left and right second acoustic signals, and
wherein the directional sense component calculating section is configured to set at least one of the interaural time difference and the interaural volume difference as the directional sense component, and
wherein the output signal generating section is configured to delay the sound source signals by an amount corresponding to the interaural time difference, or control a volume level of the binaural speaker so as to be lowered by an amount corresponding to the interaural volume difference.
3. The hearing aid system according to claim 1 ,
wherein the directional sense component calculating section is configured to calculate, for each of the sound sources, a transfer characteristic between the sound source signal from the sound source separating section and the left and right second acoustic signals from the binaural microphone as the directional sense component, and
wherein the output signal generating section is configured to superimpose an impulse response of transfer functions representing the transfer characteristics of the left and right ears of each sound source associated with a sound source direction, and synthesizes the left and right output acoustic signals.
4. The hearing aid system according to claim 3 ,
wherein the directional sense component calculating section is configured to detect an utterance duration from the sound source signal acquired from the sound source separating section for each of the sound sources, and
wherein if the utterance durations of a plurality of sound sources are detected simultaneously, the directional sense component calculating section uses a value immediately before the detection of the utterance durations of the plurality of sound sources as the transfer characteristic.
5. The hearing aid system according to claim 3 ,
wherein the directional sense component calculating section is configured to estimate a location of each of the sound sources based on the transfer characteristic, and
wherein when the directional sense component calculating section estimates that the location of the sound source is at a person wearing the binaural microphone, the output signal generating section outputs the second acoustic signals to the binaural speaker.
6. The hearing aid system according to claim 1 , wherein the sound source separating section is configured to generate sound source signals subjected to directionality processing toward the sound sources with the sound source input section as a base point.
7. The hearing aid system according to claim 1 , wherein the sound source input section is a single microphone.
8. The hearing aid system according to claim 1 ,
wherein the sound source separating section is configured to perform sound source separation by independent component analysis.
9. A hearing aid system comprising:
a plurality of sound source input sections disposed in headsets and configured to receive sounds from respective sound sources as an input thereof and to convert the input sounds thereof to first acoustic signals;
a binaural microphone configured to be disposed at left and right ears and configured to receive the sounds from the sound sources as an input thereof and to convert the input sounds thereof to left and right second acoustic signals;
a directional sense component calculating section configured to calculate a directional sense component representing a directional sense of the sound sources with respect to the binaural microphone as a base point, based on the left and right second acoustic signals converted by the binaural microphone;
an output signal generating section configured to generate left and right output acoustic signals by synthesizing the first acoustic signals and the directional sense component; and
a binaural speaker configured to output the left and right output acoustic signals generated by the output signal generating section.