Patent ID: 8737653

Claim:
A method for noise reduction in a first hearing aid configured to benefit a wearer's first ear using information from a second hearing aid configured to benefit a wearer's second ear, comprising: receiving first sound signals with the first hearing aid and second sound signals with the second hearing aid; converting the first sound signals into first side complex frequency domain samples (first side samples); calculating a measure of amplitude of the first side samples as a function of frequency and time (A 1 (f,t)); calculating a measure of phase in the first side samples as a function of frequency and time (P 1 (f,t)); converting the second sound signals into second side complex frequency domain samples (second side samples); calculating a measure of amplitude of the second side samples as a function of frequency and time (A 2 (f,t)); calculating a measure of phase in the second side samples as a function of frequency and time (P 2 (f,t)); coding the A 2 (f,t) and P 2 (f,t) to produce coded amplitude and phase information; transferring the coded amplitude and phase information to the first hearing aid at a bit rate that is reduced by increasing a level of quantization from a rate necessary to transmit the measure of amplitude and measure of phase prior to coding; converting the coded amplitude and phase information to original dynamic range information; and using the original dynamic range information, A 1 (f,t) and P 1 (f,t) to calculate a gain estimate at the first hearing aid to perform noise reduction.