Patent ID: 8295519

Claim:
A hearing instrument for processing an input sound to an output sound according to a user's needs, the hearing instrument comprising: an input transducer for converting an input sound to an electric input signal; an output transducer for converting a processed electric output signal to an output sound; a forward path being defined between the input transducer and the output transducer, the forward path including an element for splitting the electric input signal into a plurality of frequency bands; a feedback cancellation system for estimating an effect of acoustic feedback from the output transducer to the input transducer, the feedback cancellation system including a variable pre-estimated filter, a memory storing a number of predetermined feedback channel impulse responses corresponding to a number of acoustic environments where substantial feedback is experienced, and a feedback path estimation unit configured to dynamically estimate current acoustic feedback in the hearing instrument; and a monitoring unit that monitors the current acoustic environment and based on the current acoustic environment is configured to choose the currently most appropriate impulse response of the variable pre-estimated filter among the stored impulse responses, wherein the hearing instrument is configured to estimate acoustic feedback in at least one frequency band of the plurality of frequency bands by the feedback path estimation unit and configured to estimate acoustic feedback in at least another frequency band of the plurality of frequency bands by the variable pre-estimated filter.