Synergies between research sites: New hearing aid processor developed
Hearing systems of the future demand processors with high computing power that are precisely tailored to the special requirements of hearing aids and cochlear implants. The Cluster of Excellence Hearing4all is conducting intensive research into this and has already developed the KAVUAKA processor as a research chip. The second processor ‘SmartHeaP’ has now been presented as part of a dissertation. It has excellent values for computing power and power consumption and was developed as a complete system for use in hearing aids. The chip therefore has great potential for the next generation of digital hearing aids.
The dissertation ‘SmartHeaP – Design and evaluation of an application-specific and high-level programmable hearing aid SoC’ by Jens Karrenbauer is exemplary for the cross-location and cross-disciplinary research in the Hearing4all alliance: it was supervised by Prof. Dr Holger Blume from Leibniz University Hannover (first supervisor) and Prof. Dr Volker Hohmann, Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg. Both professors are Principal Investigators in the Cluster of Excellence, focussing on Microelectronic Systems (Blume) and Auditory Signal Processing (Hohmann).
Associated publications:
Enhancing a Hearing Aid Processor with ISA Extensions Supporting Flexible Fixed-Point Formats
Photo (from left to right): Prof. Volker Hohmann, Prof. Holger Blume, Jens Karrenbauer, Prof. Daniel Lohmann. © Leibniz University Hannover
