Interaural coherence based cochlear stimulation using adapted fine structure processing

Abstract

A signal processing arrangement is described for signal processing in a bilateral hearing implant system having left side and right side hearing implants. An interaural coherence analysis module analyzes system input signals to produce an interaural coherence signal output characterizing reverberation-related similarity of the input signals. A stimulation timing and coding module for each hearingimplant processes band pass signals to develop stimulation timing signals based on selecting as a function of the interaural coherence signal a stimulation coding strategy from a plurality of different stimulation coding strategies including an envelope-based stimulation coding strategy based on the band pass envelope, and an event-based stimulation coding strategy based on the temporal fine structure features, producing the stimulation timing signals using the selected stimulation coding strategy, and switching between different selected stimulation coding strategies as a function of changesin the interaural coherence signal.

Description

[0001] This application claims Paris Convention priority from US Patent Application 15 / 368,997, filed December 5, 2016, which is hereby incorporated by reference. technical field [0002] The present invention relates to signal processing devices for cochlear implants, and more particularly to the selection of stimulus encoding strategies for cochlear implants. Background technique [0003] normal human ears figure 1 As shown in FIG. 1 , sound is transmitted through the outer ear 101 to the eardrum 102 , which moves the bones of the middle ear 103 , which cause the oval and round window openings of the cochlea 104 to vibrate. The cochlea 104 is a long, narrow passage that coils approximately two and a half times around the axis of the cochlea. The cochlea includes an upper channel called the scala vestibular and a lower channel called the scala tympani, which are connected by the cochlear duct. The cochlea 104 forms a spiraling cone with a center called the modiolus, where...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

However, none of the known implementations take into account that the ITD may be contaminated by the presence of echoes or other interfering secondary sound sources, and therefore the known implementation encodes valid and invalid ITDs with equal weight

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