EP-4740851-A2 - HEARING AID COMPRISING A PHYSIOLOGICAL SENSOR

Abstract

A hearing aid comprising an input unit for receiving an input sound signal from an environment of a hearing aid user and providing at least one electric input signal representing said input sound signal, an output unit for providing at least one set of stimuli perceivable as sound to the hearing aid user based on processed versions of said at least one electric input signal, a processing unit connected to said input unit and to said output unit and comprising signal processing parameters to provide processed versions of said at least one electric input signal, at least one physiological sensor, where the hearing aid is configured to determine a current listening effort of the hearing aid user based on a determined Heart Rate Variability (HRV) of the hearing aid user.

Inventors

• LUNNER, THOMAS
• BHUIYAN, Tanveer
• ESPARZA ISASA, José Antonio
• Griful, Sergi Rotger
• SALVATUCCI, Antonello
• JONES, GARY
• Petersen, Kim Tilgaard
• SOMMER, PETER

Assignees

• Oticon A/s

Dates

Publication Date

20260513

Application Date

20210506

Claims (16)

1. A hearing aid comprising - an input unit for receiving an input sound signal from an environment of a hearing aid user and providing at least one electric input signal representing said input sound signal, - an output unit for providing at least one set of stimuli perceivable as sound to the hearing aid user based on processed versions of said at least one electric input signal, - a processing unit connected to said input unit and to said output unit and comprising signal processing parameters to provide processed versions of said at least one electric input signal, - at least one physiological sensor, - where the hearing aid is configured to determine a current listening effort of the hearing aid user based on a determined Heart Rate Variability (HRV) of the hearing aid user.
2. The hearing aid according to claim 1, wherein the HRV is determined based on the at least one physiological sensor.
3. The hearing aid according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the hearing aid comprises at least one accelerometer configured to detect a movement of the hearing aid user.
4. The hearing aid according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the hearing aid comprises a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) estimator for determining an SNR in the environment of the hearing aid user.
5. The hearing aid according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein determining the current listening effort comprises analysing the HRV in the time domain and/or in the frequency domain.
6. The hearing aid according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein determining the current listening effort further comprises one or more of determining movement of the hearing aid user by the accelerometer, determining the SNR in the environment of the hearing aid user by the SNR estimator, and detecting own voice of the hearing aid user by an own voice detector.
7. The hearing aid according to any one of claims 5-6, wherein analysing the HRV in the time domain comprises determining a width and/or a length of the HRV in a Poincaré plot.
8. The hearing aid according to any one of claims 5-7, wherein analysing the HRV in the frequency domain comprises determining a ratio of the power in a low frequency band to the power in a high frequency band of a frequency spectrum of the HRV.
9. The hearing aid according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the hearing aid is configured to adjust the signal processing parameters of the processing unit based on the determined current listening effort.
10. The hearing aid according to any one of the preceding claims 3-9, wherein the hearing aid is configured to determine whether an activation requirement is fulfilled, the activation requirement comprising that - a movement detected by the accelerometer is below a movement threshold, and - the SNR is below another threshold, and - wherein, in response to the activation requirement being fulfilled, the processing unit is configured to change the activation mode of the at least one physiological sensor comprising activating the at least one physiological sensor.
11. The hearing aid according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the hearing aid comprises a classifier configured to identify stress/non-stress condition based on: - the determined width and/or length of the HRV, or - the determined ratio of the power in the low frequency band to the power in the high frequency band of the frequency spectrum of the HRV.
12. The hearing aid according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the at least one physiological sensor is a photoplethysmogram (PPG) sensor and/or an electrocardiogram (ECG) sensor.
13. A system comprising at least one hearing aid according to any of the preceding claims and an auxiliary device.
14. The system according to claim 13, wherein each of the at least one hearing aid and the auxiliary device are configured to establishing a communication link, and thereby allowing the exchange of information between the at least one hearing aid and the auxiliary device.
15. The system according to any one of claims 13-14 comprising a first and a second hearing aid each comprising a physiological sensor.
16. Method of estimating of a current listening effort of a hearing aid user, the method comprising: - receiving an input sound signal from an environment of the hearing aid user and providing at least one electric input signal representing said input sound signal, - providing at least one set of stimuli perceivable as sound to the hearing aid user based on processed versions of said at least one electric input signal, - providing processed versions of said at least one electric input signal, - determine a current listening effort of the hearing aid user based on a determined Heart Rate Variability (HRV) of the hearing aid user.

Description

SUMMARY The present application relates to a hearing aid configured to be worn by a user at or in an ear of a user or to be fully or partially implanted in the head of a user. The present application further relates to a system. A system: The interest of incorporating different types of physiological sensors measuring one or more physiological signals, such as electrocardiogram (ECG), photoplethysmogram (PPG), electroencephalography (EEG), etc., of a user in systems (e.g. in systems comprising hearing aids) is increasing. However, in systems comprising hearing aids, the application of the measurements of the physiological sensors to the audiological outcome of the hearing aids is not clear. Listening effort has been shown to have physiological markers like pupillometry and heart parameters like PEP (pre-ejection period), but there is a lack of scientific evidence whether an ear level sensor (physiological sensors mounted in or at an ear or fully or partially implanted in the head of a user) can be used to estimate listening effort. Further, currently, we do not take advantage of the fact that some hearing aid users have wearables with them all the time (e.g., smartwatch). Accordingly, there is a need for an effort driven control of systems (or hearing aids) based on sensor data from the physiological sensor(s). In an aspect of the present application, a system comprising a hearing aid is provided. The hearing aid may be configured to be operated based on an estimation of a current listening effort of a hearing aid user. The system may comprise an input unit for receiving an input sound signal from an environment of a hearing aid user and providing at least one electric input signal representing said input sound signal. Environment may refer to the surroundings, surrounding space of the hearing aid user. The system may comprise an output unit for providing at least one set of stimuli perceivable as sound to the hearing aid user based on processed versions of said at least one electric input signal. The system may comprise a signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio estimator for determining an SNR in the environment of the hearing aid user. An SNR estimator may determine the SNR based on processed versions (e.g. provided by a processing unit) of said at least one electric input signal. An SNR estimator may determine the SNR based on the at least one electric input signal from input unit. An SNR estimator may determine the SNR based on (e.g. processed versions of) the at least one electric input signal from at least one input transducer, such as at least one microphone, of the input unit. The system may comprise a processing unit. The processing unit may be connected to said input unit. The processing unit may be connected to said output unit. The processing unit may comprise signal processing parameters of the system to provide processed versions of said at least one electric input signal. The processing unit of the system may comprise the SNR estimator. The system may comprise a memory unit. The memory unit may be configured to store reference sets of SNR and pulse transition time (PTT) of the hearing aid user. The reference sets of SNR and PTT may be individualised. For example, reference sets of SNR and PTT may be determined based on a predetermined set of input sound signals exposed to the specific hearing aid user. For example, the reference sets of SNR and PTT may be determined based on a predetermined set of input sound signals (e.g. talk and noise) exposed to a plurality of hearing aid users so that said reference sets comprise an interval of PTT values for each SNR value. For example, the reference sets of SNR and PTT may be determined during a fitting session. For example, the hearing aid may be configured to trigger a determination of PTT once in a while (e.g. with a time interval) when the user is in silence (in an environment with a low noise signal). Thereby, reference sets of SNR and PTT may be determined (baseline values). For example, a variation in the baseline values may indicate that the hearing aid user has been experiencing stress for a long time interval. Thereby, a fast determination of a current listening effort of a hearing aid user is facilitated. PTT may refer to the time it takes a pulse wave to travel between two arterial sites. It may be the time taken for the pulse wave to travel from the aortic valve to the periphery (i.e. measurement point, e.g. at least one of the ears). Generally, it may be the time difference between the R-peak of an ECG and the maximum upslope point of a PPG signal. Prior art show that PTT has an inverse relationship with a person's exposure to stress [1]. Traditional PTT requires an ECG and an ear level PPG recording. However, advantageously, PTT may be measured from two different point on the body e.g. from ear level PPG sensors, or e.g. from ear level ECG sensors (e.g. in-ear ECG sensors). ECG and PPG based measurements of PTT may require an ear level sensor which