A hearing aid simulator to test adaptive signal processing algorithms

This paper deals with the description of a hearing aid simulation tool. This tool simulates the real behavior of digital DSP-based hearing aids with the aim of getting a very promising performance, which can be used for further design and research, and for a better fitting of the hearing impaired patient. The main parameters to program are the noise reduction techniques and the compression and feedback reduction algorithms. Also any other configuration is possible due to the access to the simulated signals in the hearing aid. So we can get a very promising performance which can be used for further design and research and for a better fitting of the hearing impaired patient. Results using a multilevel multifrequency hearing aid with real data collected from 18 patients show how the multifrequency compression techniques adapt the normal perceptible sounds to the hearing impaired patient perceiving area.