Unilateral crosstalk cancellation via bone conduction: Methods and evaluation

Bone conduction hearing aids (BCHAs) offer an alternative solution for individuals with outer or middle ear issues who cannot benefit from traditional air conduction hearing aids. However, the phenomenon of “crosstalk,” where sound intended for one ear is mistakenly transmitted to the other ear through bone conduction, presents a challenge. This unintended transmission may limit the benefits of binaural hearing that can be achieved using two BCHAs, such as accurately detecting a sound source's direction. In this article, we present a method to suppress “crosstalk” within the human head using an adaptive algorithm to control two audiometric bone transducers. • Our method involves positioning an error sensor at a location considered close to the cochlea, such as the ear canal or the mastoid, and utilizing an adaptive algorithm to estimate the crosstalk compensation filter. This filter generates an anti-signal, which is then transmitted to one of the two transducers, effectively cancelling the crosstalk. • To verify whether the crosstalk cancellation reaches the cochlea in the inner ear, we provide a procedure for measuring hearing thresholds with and without crosstalk cancellation. This acts as a subjective measure of the efficacy of our crosstalk cancellation method. By leveraging an adaptive algorithm, this approach provides personalized cancellation and has the potential to enhance the performance of binaural BCHAs.