A wearable, pocket-sized processor for digital hearing aid and other hearing prostheses applications

Studies of wearable hearing prostheses such as digital hearing aids, multichannel vibrotactile aids, and cochlear implants have been restricted to rather simple circuits. The availability of small, high performance, digital signal processors has made it possible to implement models of hearing prostheses in real time. And, it is now possible to implement these models in wearable form with low-power digital signal processors. A wearable signal processor is described in this paper that is intended for the study of a four-channel, instantaneous compression hearing aid. In addition, other possible applications, such as a 16-channel vibrotactile aid and the modeling of cochlear implant devices are considered.