Patent ID: 8055000
Filing Date: 2011-11-08
Classification: H04R

Abstract:
1. A method of processing a sound signal in a hearing aid, comprising the steps of converting an acoustic signal into an electric signal, feeding said electric signal into a signal processor and filtering, inside said processor, set electrical signal in a set of band pass filters to produce band pass filtered signal derivatives, compressing said band pass filtered signal derivatives in respective compressors connected to respective band pass filters to produce compressed signals, processing said compressed signals in said signal processor in order to produce a processor output signal suitable for compensating a users hearing deficiency, and converting the processor output signal into a sound signal, wherein each of said compressors compresses the signals according to a compression characteristic with attack time above 0.5 seconds, the compression characteristic having a first and a second segment, the first and the second segment being connected at a knee point at an output level below a hearing threshold, the first segment being situated below the knee point and having substantially no compression, and the second segment being situated above the knee point and having a compression ratio greater than 1.4 to produce a compressed signal.