Patent ID: 8126176

Claim:
A hearing aid, comprising: a microphone producing an input signal from an input sound; a noise suppressor estimating a noise component strength included in the input signal on the basis of signal strength for each of a plurality of frequency bands in the input signal, and calculating for each of the plurality of frequency bands a noise suppression gain for suppressing a noise component included in the input signal on the basis of the noise component strength; an adjustment amount calculator calculating an adjustment amount on the basis of the signal strength and the noise component strength; a reference gain information memory storing specific reference gain information; a nonlinear compressor calculating a reference gain on the basis of the signal strength and the specific reference gain, and adjusting the reference gain on the basis of the adjustment amount, and thereby calculating for each of the plurality of frequency bands a nonlinear compression gain for nonlinearly compressing and amplifying the input signal; a controller producing an output signal by controlling the input signal on the basis of the noise suppression gain and the nonlinear compression gain; and a receiver reproducing an output sound from the output signal.