Distributed Spatial Audio Coding in Wireless Hearing Aids

The information content of binaural signals can be beneficial to many algorithms deployed in current digital hearing aids. However, the exchange of such signals over a wireless communication link requires transmission schemes that must fulfill demanding technical constraints. We present a distributed coding algorithm that builds on psychoacoustic principles in order to achieve this goal with low bitrates, while preserving affordable complexity. The key steps of the proposed algorithm are detailed and the accuracy of the signal exchange mechanism is evaluated in simple simulated acoustic scenarios.