Tri-axial telecoil hearing aid for improved connection to public induction loops

Telecoils in hearing aids serve a dual purpose: to enhance telephone conversation and enable hearing aids to serve as a wireless interface for public audio broadcasts. When broadcasting audio signals, the signal is transmitted to the telecoil sensor (a magnetic field sensor located in the hearing aid) via magnetic energy from an induction wire loop located near the listener. This induction loop can be a small assembly located in the handset of the telephone or a large wire loop within a public venue like a theatre. Current hearing aids detect the magnetic signal using a single telecoil. If the telecoil is not aligned with the magnetic field, the strength of the detected signal is diminished. Unfortunately, public induction loops and telephone handsets seldom share a common alignment to the hearing aid, leading to sub-optimal performance by one or both in hearing aids available today. In this research, a prototype behind-the-ear (BTE) hearing aid with tri-axial telecoils was developed and DSP algorithms to process and combine the three signals were developed. The resulting hearing aid was evaluated in a human trial and provided better performance than a similar quality conventional telecoil hearing aid.