Integrated active noise control for open-fit hearing aids with customized filter

The open-fit hearing aids that allow air and sound into the ear canal have become popular in recent years. Unfortunately, they result in the noise leakage problem that bypasses the hearing aids toward the eardrum and will degrade the quality of desired signal. This paper proposes a modified audio-integrated adaptive feedback active noise control (ANC) system for open-fit hearing aids. Traditionally, the ANC system attenuates the total power of the unwanted noise over the entire spectrum. To increase efficiency and save power consumption of hearing aids, we design a customized filter based on the hearing threshold of hearing-impaired patient to generate the anti-noise only in audible frequency range. The performance of the proposed method is verified by both computer simulations and real-time experiments.