Intelligent Hearing Instruments—Trends and Challenges

Hearing instruments (HIs) aim at helping people with hearing impairment who often have difficulties to understand speech in noisy environments. This chapter provides an overview of the current technological trends and challenges in the field of HI applications. It covers the state-of-the-art of signal-processing algorithms used in modern digital HIs. Focus is given on the extensions of such algorithms for applications, where microphone signals are employed from both the left and right HIs (binaural case). Furthermore, the chapter refers to the challenges for the optimal parametrization and steering of the HI algorithms. The concepts of environment classification for automatically controlling the settings of an HI in different listening situations are discussed and a brief summary of sound-source-localization methods is given. Finally, this chapter discusses the current trends of adding sensors in HIs that can potentially further enhance the hearing performance of the devices and improve the life of hearing-impaired people.