WO2009118221A1

WO2009118221A1 - Hearing aid with a manual input terminal comprising a touch sensitive sensor

Info

Publication number: WO2009118221A1
Application number: PCT/EP2009/051904
Authority: WO
Inventors: Laetitia Hourman Ditlefsen; Frank Engel Rasmussen; Torben Rasmussen; Mogens Øllgaard
Original assignee: Oticon A/S
Priority date: 2008-03-28
Filing date: 2009-02-18
Publication date: 2009-10-01

Abstract

The invention is directed to a hearing aid (10) that comprises a processing circuitry (22) for processing a signal that is fed to an earphone (24), a control unit (26) for controlling operation of the processing circuitry (24), and a manual input terminal (28) for entering control commands to the hearing aid (10). The manual input terminal comprises a touch-sensitive sensor (28) that exhibits a touch- sensitive surface (16) and that comprises a plurality of sensor elements (30). The touch-sensitive sensor (28) is adapted to sense virtually forceless touches of the touch-sensitive surface (16) of the sensor elements (30), respectively.

Description

HEARING AID WITH A MANUAL INPUT TERMINAL COMPRISING A TOUCH SENSITIVE SENSOR

The present invention refers to a hearing aid or a hearing device with a manual input terminal for manipulating the hearing aid's operation.

A hearing aid usually comprises a microphone, a sound processing circuitry and an earphone (also known as speaker or receiver) that is connected to the sound processing circuitry, which in turn is connected to the microphone. The microphone converts an acoustic wave into an electrical signal that is processed by the processing circuitry. Processing may include amplifying the signal and filtering the signal depending on preset parameters or parameters than can be selected or adjusted according to the user's need or according to a certain situation. The processed electrical signal then is converted into another sound wave that is emitted by the earphone. These components of a hearing aid are enclosed in a miniature housing and usually are worn behind the ear (in the case of behind-the- ear devices (BTE)), or even in a user's ear canal (in-the-ear (ITE), in-the-canal (ITC) or completely-in-the-canal (CIC)). The earphone is orientated towards a user's eardrum, whereas the microphone is orientated so it can receive sound waves from outside the ear.

In order to allow a user to manipulate the settings or processing parameters or other parameters that determine the operation of the hearing aid, e.g. an amplification gain, a manual user interface may be provided. Such user interface can be a simple wheel that can be turned by a user's finger to adjust the hearing aid's sound level, e.g. by altering an amplifier's gain. The manual input terminal is connected to a control unit of the hearing aid that controls the operation of the hearing aid depending on the user's input via the manual input terminal.

Due to the miniature size of the hearing aids, designing a manual input terminal is challenged.

In the art, many different approaches for the design of such user interface can be found. Mechanical user interfaces are e.g. suggested and described in US 5,341 ,433 or WO 00/18187. In US 5,142,681 , a hearing aid is disclosed that can be controlled by a remote control that projects virtual buttons on the back of the user's hand.

In US 5,636,285, a voice-controlled hearing aid is disclosed. US 5,553,152 discloses a hearing aid that can be controlled by a magnet that is brought into prox- imity of the hearing aid.

US 2006/0215874 disclose an earphone for a personal audio system that comprises a touch-sensitive area for controlling an audio device via the earphone.

It is an object of the invention to provide a hearing aid having a manual input terminal that is small and reliable and yet allows for easy control of the hearing aid.

According to the invention, this object is achieved by a hearing aid having a manual input terminal that comprises a touch-sensitive sensor comprising a touch-sensitive surface and a plurality of sensor elements connected to the touch sensitive surface or forming the touch sensitive surface. The touch-sensitive sensor is adapted to sense virtually forceless touches of the sensor elements and to resolve the location and/or the motion of a contact or touch, respectively, of the touch-sensitive surface.

The major advantages of implementing a touch sensitive sensor system in a hearing aid include:

- Only one (1 ) touch sensitive sensor will be able to function as e.g. volume control, push button and/or toggle switch.

The small size of the touch sensitive sensor will allow much more versatile placement of the user controls (the user controls could e.g. be implemented in any surface of BTE hearing aids or e.g. in the battery lid of ITE hearing aids), and will facilitate the manufacturing of smaller hearing aids.

The flat nature of the touch sensitive sensor will allow a smooth and mini- malistic design without protuberant volume controls, buttons, etc. The touch sensitive sensor does not need a certain activation force (it only has to be touched).

The touch sensitive sensor could ease user operation of the hearing aid as the user only has to touch or pass a finger by a certain zone of the hearing aid surface.

The touch sensitive sensor can have a closed surface and thus is liquid and dust proof and sustainable to various gases and chemicals (e.g. sweat).

Preferably, the touch-sensitive sensor elements forms a sensor array that is adapted to resolve a fingerprint or a similar fine-structured pattern and, thus able to detect movement of a finger touch on the touch-sensitive surface.

According to a preferred embodiment, the touch sensitive sensor is integrated in the hearing aid such that its touch sensitive surface is exposed to the environment outside the hearing aid, thus allowing it to be reached by a user. Preferably, the sensor elements are integrated in an opening in the surface of the shell or housing of BTEs or the face of ITEs.

In particular, if the hearing aid is a behind the ear (BTE) device having a shell or housing enclosing the control unit the touch sensitive sensor is arranged such that the touch sensitive surface is accessible for a wearer finger when the hearing aid is worn by a user.

In a completely in the canal device (CIC) comprising a first housing enclosing the control unit and a wireless remote control receiver that is at least indirectly connected to the control unit a remote control unit comprising a second housing that is separate from the first housing may be provided. The remote control comprises a wireless remote control transmitter and the manual input terminal. The manual input terminal including the touch-sensitive sensor is at least indirectly connected to the wireless remote control transmitter and the touch sensitive surface of the manual input terminal is embedded in the second housing. - A -

Preferably, the touch sensitive sensor is implemented into a sensor chip. The sensor chip preferably is mounted on a flex substrate and can subsequently be transfer molded keeping the sensing surface open. The molded sensor chip can then be inserted directly into a suitably adapted opening in the shell or housing of the hearing aid e.g. using adhesive tape or by a mechanical click system.

According to a further preferred embodiment, the control unit that is connected to the touch sensitive sensor is adapted to detect and discriminate a plurality of different movements of a touching finger over the touch sensitive surface, wherein each movement is assigned to a different control action. Thus, the touch sensitive sensor can replace most push buttons, volume controls, and switches used in hearing aids production today. In particular, the control unit may comprise a data processor that processes algorithms. The touch sensitive sensor can be made for control and navigation with the data processor. The algorithms operate on the data streamed from the sensor. The navigation/control algorithms analyze finger motions to provide a plurality of control functions.

Preferably, the control unit comprises subunits or modules that may be implemented e.g. by way of software for analyzing a touch pattern (a fingerprint pattern), for detecting and analyzing movement of the pattern over the touch- sensitive surface, and for assigning an actual finger touch to a stored fingerprint pattern. In particular, it is advantageous if the control unit comprises a pattern analyzing unit that is adapted to extract characteristic features from an actual fingerprint pattern. These characteristic features can e.g. be stored in the fingerprint memory or they can be used for comparing an actual fingerprint to a stored fingerprint. Characteristic features and their actual location can also be used to detect a motion of a fingerprint over the touch-sensitive surface. It is of particular advantage if the control unit comprises a pattern motion detection unit that is adapted to detect a motion of a fingerprint pattern or any other touch pattern over the touch-sensitive surface.

The pattern motion detection unit can be connected to motion analyzing unit that is adapted to classify a detected motion according to preset motion classes and to generate an output signal depending on the motion class an individual motion is assigned to. This allows for easy control of the hearing aid depending on the type of motion the user's finger is performing on the touch-sensitive surface.

Further, it is preferred if the control unit comprises a pattern comparison unit that is connected to the pattern analyzing unit and the fingerprint memory and that is adapted to assign a fingerprint pattern sensed by the touch-sensitive sensor to a fingerprint pattern stored in the fingerprint memory by means of a comparison of the characteristic features of the sensed fingerprint pattern and stored fingerprint pattern.

Further, a pressure detection unit may be provided that is adapted to generate a pressure indicating signal that depends on the pressure of a fingerprint on the touch-sensitive surface. The pressure indicating signal may be derived from the area that is covered by a fingerprint on the touch-sensitive surface, since this area will increase if a finger is pressed onto the touch-sensitive surface with a stronger force.

Additionally, the control unit may comprise a timing unit that, in cooperation with the touch-sensitive sensor, is adapted to determine the duration of a finger touch or the speed of a fingerprint movement over the touch-sensitive surface. Thus, a control signal for controlling the hearing aid's operation can be derived from the duration of a finger touch or the speed of a movement of a finger over the touch- sensitive surface. For example, the control unit may be adapted to perform a quicker increase or decrease in signal amplification gain if a finger is quickly moved over the touch-sensitive surface, whereas only a minor amendment of amplification gain is performed if a finger is moved only slowly over the touch- sensitive surface, although the way of travel of the finger over the touch-sensitive surface may be the same in the two cases. If the control unit is able to analyze the speed of the finger's motion over the touch-sensitive surface by means of such timing unit and the pattern motion detection unit, the control unit can be adapted to generate some kind of flywheel effect that causes a operation parameter of the hearing aid to change in a steadily decreasing manner even after a finger touch motion over the touch-sensitive surface has ended. The sensors may be fabricated in 0.35 micron CMOS technology and provided in an LGA package, with or without flex ribbon. The touch sensitive surface may be protected by a special abrasion and chemical resistant coating to provide long life with high reliability.

A suitable touch sensitive sensor features a sensor array providing sensor elements in 192 columns and 8 rows with a dot pitch of 70 μm. Preferably, the touch sensitive sensor comprises an integrated AD converter and is implemented in a 0.35 micron low-power CMOS technology.

With respect to the features according to preferred embodiments of the invention it is to be noted that many of them can be realized alone or in combination with other preferred features. Although some of the dependent claims covering preferred features of the hearing aid are only referring back to those other claims that form the preferred basis for a combination of features, this shall not exclude further advantageous embodiments that include combinations of features that are not explicitly mentioned.

The foregoing and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of exemplary embodiments of the invention in conjunction with the appended drawings. In the drawings,

Fig. 1 a and 1 b show schematical perspective views of a behind-the-ear hearing aid;

Fig. 2 shows a schematical block diagram of a hearing aid according to the invention;

Figs. 3a and 3b show an exploded view of the hearing aid of Fig. 1 ;

Fig. 4 is a representation similar to Fig. 3b showing details of the construction; Figs. 5a and 5b illustrate different inputs that can be entered into the hearing aid of Fig. 1 via a touch-sensitive sensor according to the invention;

Fig. 6 is a more detailed representation of the control unit of Fig. 2 in combination with the touch-sensitive sensor and the fingerprint memory;

Fig. 7 is a perspective representation of an alternative embodiment of the invention;

Fig. 8 is a schematical block diagram of the alternative embodiment of the invention;

Fig. 9 is an exploded view of the remote control of the embodiment accord- ing to Figs. 6 and 7;

Fig. 10a is a hearing aid with a sensor embedded in a surface part thereof, and

Fig. 10b shows the hearing aid of fig. 10a in a partially transparent view, such that the sensor is seen.

Fig. 1 is a perspective rear view of a behind-the-ear (BTE) hearing aid 10 to be worn behind a user's ear 18. A housing or shell 12 encloses electronic circuitry for processing electrical signals that are acquired by means of a microphone and that represent sound waves. The processed electrical signal is fed to an earphone or speaker that converts the electrical signal into acoustic sound waves. The sound of the earphone is guided by an extension 14 of the hearing aid 10 into the user's ear canal (see Fig. 1 b).

As is apparent from Fig. 1 , the shell 12 of the hearing aid 10 exhibits a touch- sensitive surface 16 in a touch-sensitive area. The touch-sensitive surface is the surface of a sensor array of a touch-sensing sensor.

Fig. 2 schematically depicts the components of hearing aid 10, namely a micro- phone 20, a processing circuit 22 and an earphone or speaker 24. The microphone 20 is connected to the processing circuit 22, which in turn is connected to the earphone 24. Microphone 20 converts sound waves into electrical signals that are processed by a processing circuit 22 and then are converted back into sound waves by earphone or speaker 24. Processing of the electrical signal includes e.g. amplification and filtering of the electrical signal. Further components, not depicted in detail in Fig. 2, may be a coil for picking up an electromagnetic field of a handset of a telephone or a transmitter/receiver that connects two hearing aids for the right ear and for the left ear for binaural hearing.

Operation of the hearing aid and in particular of the processing circuit 22 is controlled by a control unit 26. That control unit 26 is adapted to process user input signals received from a touch-sensitive sensor 28. The touch-sensitive sensor 28 comprises sensor elements 30 that are arranged in a sensor array providing a touch-sensitive surface 16.

The touch-sensitive sensor 28 is adapted to sense a forceless touch of the touch- sensitive surface 16 such that a fingerprint touching the touch-sensitive surface is resolved. This allows for discrimination between different fingerprints and also for high-resolution motion detection if the fingerprint is moved over the touch- sensitive surface.

A sufficient resolution is achieved if the sensor array comprises 192 x 8 sensor elements 30 and exhibits a dot pitch of 70 μm or less.

In order to discriminate different user inputs, control unit 26 is adapted to evaluate not only a finger touch to the touch-sensitive surface itself but also a potential motion of said finger touch. Further, control unit 26 is adapted to discriminate between different fingers of a user by means of the different fingerprints of each individual finger of a user. For this purpose, a fingerprint memory 32 is provided. In the fingerprint memory 32, the fingerprint of some or each finger(s) of a user are stored. Thus, a touch to the touch-sensitive surface 16 can be assigned to an individual finger of a user. Control unit 26 may be adapted to take different actions, dependent on which finger the user has used for touching the touch- sensitive sensor 28. Although the touch-sensitive sensor is adapted to respond to a mere touch of a finger that may be virtually forceless, also a discrimination of a force of finger touch is possible via evaluation of the area of the finger touch. A slight finger touch only covers a small area compared to a stronger finger touch since, in the latter case, a user's finger is further compressed.

In Figs. 3a and 3b, one way of constructing a behind-the-ear hearing aid is illustrated. As is apparent from Figs. 3a and 3b, shell 12 has two parts, a cover or top shell 40 (see Fig. 3a) and a base shell 42 (see Fig. 3b). All electronic components are basically carried by base shell 42. These components include a sensor chip 44 that incorporates the touch-sensitive sensor 28. The sensor chip 44 is mounted on a flexible substrate 46 that in turn is mounted on a printed circuit board (PCB) 48. PCB 48 is mounted in the base shell 42 of the hearing aid and by solder connections the PCB gains contact with the remaining hearing aid transducers, such as the microphone 20 and the speaker 24, and possible wire- less antennas (not shown).

Alternatively, the sensor chip 44 can be directly mounted on the flexible PCB.

Access to the touch-sensitive surface 16 is provided via an opening 50 in the top shell 40.

The sensor chip 44 is pressed against the inner side of top shell 40 when the hearing aid 10 is assembled. A seal (or gasket, not shown) is provided between the sensor chip 44 and the top shell 40 in order to prevent dust or humidity or the like from entering the closed shell 12 of hearing aid 10.

As already mentioned, control unit 26 is adapted to discriminate between different user inputs depending on the movement of a user's finger on the touch-sensitive surface 16.

Fig. 5a illustrates different kinds of movement, e.g. a right turn or a left turn, a one-directional lateral movement or a bidirectional (that is back and forth) movement along the longitudinal direction or the lateral direction of the touch-sensitive surface 16. Fig. 5b illustrates that each finger of a user may have a different effect when touching the touch-sensitive surface 16, which finger is used for touching the touch-sensitive surface can be discriminated by way of the individual fingerprint of each finger, which is stored in memory 32. For illustrative purposes, the indi- vidual fingers of a user are denoted by means of reference characters.

In order to perform a detection and discrimination of different user inputs, control unit 26 comprises several subunits as illustrated in fig. 6; in particular a pattern analyzing unit 60 that is directly connected to the touch-sensitive sensor, a motion detection unit 62 that is either directly connected to the touch-sensitive sen- sor 28 or to the pattern analyzing unit 60 and a motion analyzing unit 64 that is connected to the motion detection unit 62. Further, control unit 26 comprises a pattern comparison unit 66 that is connected to the pattern analyzing unit 60 and the fingerprint memory 32.

The pattern comparison unit 60 is adapted to analyze a fingerprint pattern or some other fine-structured touch pattern received from the touch-sensitive sensor 28 in such a way that basic features of the pattern are extracted. The pattern comparison unit 66 is adapted to compare these characteristic features of an actual touch pattern (fingerprint pattern) to fingerprint patterns stored in the fingerprint memory 32. Thus, the pattern comparison unit 66 is able to assign an actual fingerprint to a fingerprint stored in the fingerprint memory 32 and to generate an output signal that depends on which stored fingerprint pattern an actual fingerprint is assigned. Thus, the control unit 26 can cause different actions depending on which of a user's finger was used to touch the touch-sensitive sensor 28.

The characteristic features of an individual fingerprint detected by the pattern analyzing unit 60 can also be used to trace a fingerprint motion over the touch- sensitive sensor 28. This is performed by the pattern motion detection unit 62 which detects a motion whenever a characteristic feature of a fingerprint on the touch-sensitive surface 16 moves by more than a predetermined amount. If a motion of a fingerprint on the touch-sensitive surface 16 is detected by the pattern motion detection unit 62, the motion analyzing unit will further trace the direction and the speed of movement of a characteristic feature or of several characteristic features of a fingerprint pattern as delivered by the pattern analyzing unit 60. Depending on the direction of the movement and the speed of the movement, such movement is assigned to one of a number of preset motion classes. These motion classes may characterize the motions that are indicated in Fig. 5a. The motion analyzing unit 64 generates an output signal that depends upon to which motion class a certain fingerprint motion is assigned to. Thus, control unit 26 is capable of taking different actions, e.g. amending a certain operation parameter of the hearing aid in a particular way, depending on the type of motion a user's finger is performing on the touch-sensitive sensor 28.

The output signals of the pattern comparison unit 66 and the motion analyzing unit 64 are fed to a control signal generation unit 68 that generates a control signal based on the received output signals and thus depending on the fingerprint and the kind of touch or motion of this fingerprint on the touch sensitive surface 16.

Fig. 7 illustrates that the user input terminal may be part of a remote control 70 belonging to a hearing aid 10'. The hearing aid 10' depicted in Fig. 7 is a behind- the-ear hearing aid. However, the hearing aid might also be a completely in-the- canal device (CIC) that is virtually invisible if worn by a user.

The remote control 70 comprises the touch-sensitive sensor 28' exhibiting a touch-sensitive surface 16' at the outer surface of remote control 70. Control circuitry of the remote control 70 is enclosed in a shell 12'.

As is apparent from Fig. 8, remote control 70 comprises the touch-sensitive sensor 28' and a first part control unit 26' that is connected to a fingerprint pattern memory 32'. The first part of control unit 26' is connected to a transmitter 72 that is adapted to wirelessly transmit control signals to a receiver 74 that is part of some circuitry in the ear part 10' of the hearing aid. The circuitry of the ear part 10' of the hearing aid further comprises a second part control unit 76 that basically is adapted to control the operation of the ear part 10' of the hearing aid according to control signals that are received via receiver 74. Regarding further details of the hearing aid or its operation, the same principles apply, as already pointed out in the previous description.

Fig. 9 illustrates how a sensor chip 44' implementing the touch-sensitive sensor 28 is directly mounted to printed circuit board 48'. Remote control 70 comprises a top shell 40' exhibiting an opening 50' and a base shell 42' carrying the printed circuit board 48'.

In a further embodiment which is illustrated in fig. 10a and fig. 10b capacitance sensors are used in the sensor array. As explained conventional push-buttons for hearings aids are bulky, serves only one purpose and have to be mounted through the hearing aid shell, introducing an extra opening in the shell, providing an additional way for moist to enter the hearing aid. The bulk layout of such a button consumes space in three dimensions and only allows for single push operations and for a simple operation such as volume control two different operations are needed.

The use of capacitive buttons makes it possible to remove any physical objects from the HA shell, as they do not need direct contact with the interacting object (such as a finger), but only needs to feel the presence of the object. This can be achieved through several millimeters of non-conducting material such as glass or plastic (like the shell of a HA). This minimizes leaky openings in the shell and hereby reduces the amount of moist entering the HA. Furthermore it enables a more flexible use of the buttons as an array of capacitive sensors will act as e.g. a volume slider as well as a tab-button in the manner already described.

Two adjacent electrodes will have a certain capacitance due to their separation. By introducing another conducting object in the near vicinity of the electrodes there will also be a conductance between the electrodes and the object, which can easily be detected. The conducting object could for instance be a finger.

This method allows for the creation of hidden buttons, as the capacitive effect will work through non-conductive materials such as glass, plastic, rubber or any dielectric material. By arranging a series of adjacent electrodes it is possible to create a slider-mechanism which allows for volume control by moving e.g. a finger across the electrodes.

By using this type of sensors for buttons and sliders (a slider will also work as a button), the outer shell of the hearing aid does not need to be penetrated by a bulk button, but the slider can be positioned on the backside of the shell itself by using flex-print 48'. This is illustrated at fig. 10b. The hearing aid shown here in semitransparent form has a flex-print 48" inside whereon a sensor array 44" is mounted. The flex-print 48" must be adhered to the backside of the hearing aid shell 40" without any air bubbles trapped inside, as air has a very low dielectric constant. Furthermore it is important that such an adhesive material is nonconducting.

The sensor does, however, need a driving circuit to measure the capacitance change. This is no different from the previously described examples of the invention. The advantage with this kind of censor is that the hearing aid outer shell as shown in fig. 10a may be completely without any trace of the sensor which then remains invisible. This allows a wider range of design options when it comes to deciding the appearance of the hearing aid.

Claims

1. Hearing aid (10) having processing circuitry (22) for processing a signal that is fed to an earphone (24), a control unit (26) for controlling operation of the processing circuitry (24) and a manual input terminal (28) for entering control commands to the hearing aid (10), characterized in that the manual input terminal comprises a touch sensitive sensor (28) comprising a touch sensitive surface (16) and a plurality of sensor elements (30) wherein the touch sensitive sensor (28) is adapted to sense virtually forceless touches of the sensor elements (30) or the touch sensitive surface (16), respectively, and to resolve the location of a contact/touch.

2. Hearing aid according to claim 1 , wherein the sensor elements (30) form a sensor array that is adapted to resolve a fingerprint.

3. Hearing aid according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the touch sensitive sensor (28) is adapted to detect movement of a finger-touch on the touch sensitive surface.

4. Hearing aid according to claim 2, wherein the control unit (26) is connected to a fingerprint memory (32) that is adapted to store at least two different fingerprint patterns and wherein the control unit (26) is adapted to assign a finger touch to a stored fingerprint pattern and to generate an output signal that depends upon to which stored fingerprint pattern a finger touch is assigned.

5. Hearing aid according to claim 4, wherein the control unit (30) is adapted to perform different control actions depending upon to which stored fingerprint pattern a finger touch is assigned.

6. Hearing aid according to claim 5, wherein the control unit (30) comprises a pattern analyzing unit (60) that is adapted to extract characteristic features from fingerprint pattern for storing such characteristic features or comparing such characteristic features with stored features.

7. Hearing aid according to claim 5 or 6, wherein the control unit (30) comprises a pattern motion detection unit (62) that is adapted to detect a mo- tion of a fingerprint pattern over the touch sensitive surface.

8. Hearing aid according to claim 7, wherein the control unit (30) comprises a motion analyzing unit (64) that is connected to the motion detection unit (62) and that is adapted to classify a detected motion according to preset motion classes and to generate an output signal depending on the motion class an individual motion is assigned to.

9. Hearing aid according to claims 4 and 6, wherein the control unit (30) comprises a pattern comparison unit (66) that is connected to the pattern analyzing unit (60) and the fingerprint memory (32) and that is adapted to assign a fingerprint pattern sensed by the touch sensitive sensor to a finger- print pattern stored in the fingerprint memory by means of a comparison of the characteristic features of the sensed fingerprint pattern and the stored fingerprint pattern.

10. Hearing aid according to claims 1 or 2, wherein the touch sensitive sensor (28) comprises more than 1500 sensor elements.

1 1. Hearing aid according to claims 2 or 10, wherein the sensor elements exhibit a dot pitch of less than 80 μm.

12. Hearing aid according one of claims 1 to 11 , wherein the hearing aid is a behind the ear (BTE) device (10) having a shell (12; 40, 42) enclosing the control unit (26) and comprising the touch sensitive sensor (28) such that the touch sensitive surface (16) is accessible for a user's finger when the hearing aid is worn by a user.

13. Hearing aid according to one of claims 1 to 11 , comprising a first housing enclosing the control unit and a wireless remote control receiver that is at least indirectly connected to the control unit, wherein the hearing aid further comprises a remote control unit comprising a second housing that is separate from the first housing and that comprises a wireless remote control transmitter and the manual input terminal that is at least indirectly connected to the wireless remote control transmitter the touch sensitive surface of the manual input terminal being embedded in the second housing.