Patent ID: 7149320

Claim:
A hearing-aid system for processing an acoustic input signal and providing at least one output acoustic signal to a user of the hearing-aid system, the hearing-aid system comprising a first channel and a second channel, wherein one of the channels includes an adaptive delay and the first channel includes: a) a first directional unit for receiving the acoustic input signal and providing a first directional signal; b) a first correlative unit coupled to the first directional unit for receiving the first directional signal and providing a first noise reduced signal by utilizing correlative measures for identifying a speech signal of interest in the first directional signal; and, c) a first compensator coupled to the first correlative unit for receiving the first noise reduced signal and providing a first compensated signal for compensating for a hearing loss of the user, the first compensator including: i) a normal hearing model unit for receiving an input signal and generating a normal hearing signal; ii) a neuro-compensator unit for receiving the input signal and providing a pre-processed signal by applying a set of weights to the input signal; iii) a damaged hearing model unit connected to the neuro-compensator unit for receiving the pre-processed signal and providing an impaired hearing signal; and, iv) a comparison unit connected to the normal hearing model unit and the damaged hearing model unit for generating an error signal based on a comparison of the normal hearing signal and the impaired hearing signal; wherein, the error signal is provided to the neuro-compensator unit for adjusting the set of weights such that the normal hearing signal and the impaired hearing signal are substantially similar.