Patent ID: 8548180

Claim:
A hearing aid system comprising a first hearing aid device and a second hearing aid device, each of said first hearing aid device and said second hearing aid device including: a sound pickup unit configured to pick up a sound and output an acoustic signal indicating the picked-up sound; and an output unit configured to output a sound indicated by a suppressed acoustic signal generated by suppression performed on a signal in a certain frequency band out of frequency bands of the sound indicated by the acoustic signal, the frequency bands of the sound indicated by the acoustic signal including: a voice band which is a frequency band having a vocal component; and a non-voice band other than the voice band, the voice band including a first suppression-target band and a second suppression-target band which are frequency bands different from each other, said hearing aid system comprising: a first band suppression unit configured to generate the suppressed acoustic signal indicating the sound outputted from said output unit of said first hearing aid device, by suppressing a signal in the first suppression-target band out of the acoustic signal outputted from said sound pickup unit of said first hearing aid device; and a second band suppression unit configured to generate the suppressed acoustic signal indicating the sound outputted from said output unit of said second hearing aid device, by suppressing a signal in the second suppression-target band out of the acoustic signal outputted from said sound pickup unit of said second hearing aid device, wherein said first band suppression unit includes: a first division unit configured to divide the acoustic signal outputted from said sound pickup unit of said first hearing aid device into: a signal in a low non-voice band which is lower in frequency than the voice band and which is included in the non-voice band; a signal in the voice band; and a signal in a high non-voice band which is higher in frequency than the voice band and which is included in the non-voice band; a first suppression unit configured to suppress the signal in the first suppression-target band, out of the signal in the voice band generated by the division performed by said first division unit; and a first mixing unit configured to generate the suppressed acoustic signal indicating the sound outputted from said output unit of said first hearing aid device, by mixing the signal in the voice band suppressed by said first suppression unit, the signal in the low non-voice band, and the signal in the high non-voice band, and the suppressed acoustic signals indicating the sounds outputted respectively from said output units of said first hearing aid device and said second hearing aid device include, in common, a signal in the non-voice band included in the acoustic signal.