Patent ID: 11917370
Assignee: OTICON A/S
Field: Audio-visual technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H  A | IPC A  H

Claim 14:
15. A method of operating a binaural hearing aid system comprising first and second hearing aids, the first and second hearing aids being configured to be worn at or in first and second ears of a user, respectively, each of the first and second hearing aids comprising:
antenna and transceiver circuitry configured to allow the establishment of a communication link between the first and second hearing aids allowing the exchange of audio signals between them,
a BTE-part adapted for being located at or behind the external ear (pinna) of the user, the BTE part comprising front and rear input transducers configured to convert sound in an environment of the hearing aid to respective front and rear electric input signals, the front input transducer being selected as a reference input providing a reference input signal, the method comprising
providing
a primary adaptive 2-channel beamformer,
a secondary adaptive 2-channel beamformer, and
that each of the primary and secondary adaptive 2-channel beamformers provides a spatially filtered signal based on first and second beamformer-input signals,
that each of said primary and secondary adaptive 2-channel beamformers is configured to maintain unit amplitude and phase for a target component of said reference input signal, and
that said primary and secondary adaptive 2-channel beamformers are coupled in a cascaded structure configured to provide that:
said first and second beamformer-input signals of the primary 2-channel beamformer are the front and rear electric input signals, respectively, and that
one of the first and second beamformer-input signals of the secondary 2-channel beamformer is the spatially filtered signal of the primary 2-channel beamformer,
the other of the first and second beamformer-input signals of the secondary 2-channel beamformer comprises the spatially filtered signal of the primary 2-channel beamformer of the contra-lateral hearing aid received via said communication link, and
the spatially filtered signal of the secondary 2-channel beamformer comprises an estimate of said target component of said reference input signal.