Modeling a Digital Hearing Instrument for Developing and Evaluating Adaptive Feedback Cancellation Algorithms

Acoustical feedback in hearing instruments is an annoying problem. Among the feedback reduction approaches, adaptive feedback cancellation algorithms seem to be the most promising methods. In this paper, a digital hearing instrument system configuration was described as a standard configuration for developing adaptive feedback cancellation algorithms and evaluating their performance. The system was creatively divided into several sub-blocks and apply system identification method systematically to each sub-block. The model of each sub-block can be combined to form a complete model. The model was validated experimentally and applied to predict maximum stable gain and oscillation frequency, which are the most important performance parameters related to feedback cancellation algorithms