Widening the scope of digital signal processing in hearing instruments

Being in its infancy in hearing aid applications, current digital signal processing approaches still only address the narrow scope of static and dynamic signal manipulation between microphone(s) and receiver. If we only extend the scope to the acoustic signal path all the way to the tympanic membrane (TM), there is more to be done in digital domain than electronic processing. We now also address mechanics and acoustics, and definitely these are the next digital dimensions.