Immersive enhancement and removal of loudspeaker sound using wireless assistive listening systems and binaural hearing devices

Wireless assistive listening devices (ALDs), such as induction loops, radio-frequency transmitters, and digital streaming systems, improve accessibility for people with hearing loss by transmitting from a venue's sound system directly to the listener. Today, ALDs are used primarily for lectures and performances. When paired with advanced hearing devices, however, they could form part of an augmented listening system that lets users “remix” sounds in their environment, including from loudspeakers in public spaces. For example, users could amplify public announcements or suppress background music while having a conversation. In the proposed system, a binaural adaptive filter uses the ALD signal to estimate the loudspeaker sound at the ears. The hearing device can then either enhance or remove the loudspeaker sound in the hearing device output while preserving other nearby sounds. We demonstrate the proposed system using several commercial ALDs and assess the effects of delay, bandwidth, distortion, and noise on real-world system performance.