Improved Multimicrophone Directional Hearing Aid

Although hearing aids can make signals of interest more audible to people with hearing impairments,intelligibility of speech may not be significantly improved when several talkers are present and/orsuch as in a crowded restaurant. Recent studies have predicted or shown some success in improving spwhen either several talkers or reverberation are present, using an adaptive beamformer in the firstbeamformer in the second. Our research is to demonstrate the effectiveness of a hybrid beamformer instrengths of an adaptive beamformer with the advantages of an optimally chosen fixed-weight beamformPhase II effort would extend the Phase I work, resolving additional design issues, evaluating the tesituations and producing a prototype for a wearable personal hearing aid system based on the Phase Icould be produced commercially and would increase the quality of life for many citizens with communiarising from hearing impairment. The proposed device would provide a technological intervention to mindependence and productivity of many older people.