50 results about "Artificial cochlea implant" patented technology

The invention is a method for increasing the airflow to a zinc-air battery such that the energy density is 500 mwh / cc to 1000 mwh / cc. This allows 8 to 16 hours use as a primary (throw-away) battery, with, for example, high-duty cycle, high-drain cochlear implants, and neuromuscular stimulators for nerves, muscles, and both nerves and muscles together. The systems incorporating the high energy density source are also part of the invention, as well as the resulting apparatus of the method. The uses of this inexpensive, i.e., a $1.00 per day, throw-away primary battery are new uses of the modified zinc-air battery and are directed toward helping people hear again, walk again, and regain body functionality which they have otherwise lost permanently.

A method of improving sound quality of audio signals that are digitally processed includes steps of extracting amplitude and frequency modulations from one or more narrow bands of the audio signal, and filtering and compressing those modulations to produce amplitude and frequency modulated audio signals that are digitally processed to provide an acoustic signal similar to the original audio signal. The methods may be used in auditory prostheses and telecommunication systems.

An arrangement is described for generating electrode stimulation signals to electrode contacts in an implanted cochlear implant electrode array. A signal processor processes an input sound signal to generate stimulation timing signals for signal channels associated with the electrode contacts. A pulse generator produces the electrode stimulation signals for each electrode contact based on the stimulation timing signals. A pulse adapter controls a signal format of the pulse generator in response to a somatic response input signal reflecting presence or absence of an undesired somatic response to the electrode stimulation signals. The signal format is an initial signal format based on biphasic stimulation pulses when the somatic response input signal reflects absence of the undesired somatic response, and an adapted signal form based on triphasic stimulation pulses when the somatic response input signal reflects presence of the undesired somatic response.

This invention relates to a method and apparatus for obtaining and registering the Electrical Cochlear Response (“ECR”). Particularly, the ECR refers to the electrical activity of the auditory nerve and the intracochlear residual tissue located in the neighborhood of an intracochlear stimulation electrode, when an external sound is presented to a Cochlear Implant user, human or animal. Applicants recognize that an ECR can be thought of as a far-field electrical potential registered on the scalp of an implanted patient. Applicants, through their method and apparatus, can extract that potential from the patient's spontaneous electroencephalographic activity (EEG) and measure it by using an averaging algorithm. The Electrical Cochlear Response can be applied for adaptation, calibration, performance evaluation and failure detection of the Cochlear Implant of the implanted patient. Also Applicants' method can be applied to estimate the audiometric thresholds of the Cochlear Implant even without the implanted patient's knowledge.

A cochlear implant including a cochlear lead, an antenna, a stimulation processor, and a magnet apparatus, associated with the antenna, including a case defining a central axis, a magnet frame within the case and rotatable about the central axis of the case, and a plurality of diametrically magnetized magnets that are located in the magnet frame, the magnets defining a longitudinal axis and a N-S direction and being rotatable about the longitudinal axis relative to the magnet frame and biased by the magnet frame to a predetermined N-S rotational orientation.

An arrangement for operating a cochlear implant system is described. Stimulation signals are applied to stimulation electrodes in a cochlear implant electrode with an initial signal format using biphasic electrical stimulation pulses. One or more undesired somatic responses to the stimulation pulses are identified. The one or more undesired somatic responses are reduced by selecting an adapted signal format using charge-balanced triphasic electrical stimulation pulses to apply stimulation signals to one or more of the stimulation electrodes.

A cochlear implant including a cochlear lead, an antenna, a stimulation processor, and a magnet apparatus, associated with the antenna, including a case defining a central axis, a magnet frame within the case and rotatable about the central axis of the case, and a plurality of elongate diametrically magnetized magnets that are located in the magnet frame, the magnets defining a longitudinal axis and a N-S direction and being freely rotatable about the longitudinal axis relative to the magnet frame.

A cochlear implant including a cochlear lead, an antenna, a stimulation processor, and an implant magnet apparatus, associated with the antenna, including a case defining a central axis, a first disk-shaped magnet member, located within the case and rotatable relative to the case about the central axis of the case, including a magnetic north portion (“N-portion”), a magnetic south portion (“S-portion”) and an amagnetic portion (“AM-portion”), and a second disk-shaped magnet member, located within the case and rotatable relative to the case about the central axis of the case, including a N-portion, a S-portion and an AM-portion.

An arrangement for implanted medical devices in which the implant (20) includes certain parameters (21) stored in memory. Upon initialisation, these parameters are downloaded to the external component (30). This allows for simpler changes to the external device, or for a generic external device to be used. A particular application is to Cochlear implants.

A method includes a fitting subsystem maintaining patient data in a primary database associated with a primary schema, receiving an export file representative of additional patient data extracted from a source database associated with a source schema and maintained by another fitting subsystem, importing the additional patient data represented by the export file into a database partition associated with the source schema, upgrading, in response to the importing, the database partition to be associated with the primary schema, and merging the additional patient data included in the upgraded database partition with the patient data in the primary database. Corresponding methods and systems are also described.

A cochlear implant is disclosed including a cochlear lead, an antenna, a stimulation processor, a magnet apparatus, associated with the antenna, including a case, a divider, and a plurality of magnetic material particles that are movable relative to one another within sub-volumes defined by the divider.

A system and method are described for generating electrode stimulation signals for an implanted electrode array having multiple stimulation electrodes. An acoustic audio signal is processed to determine associated pitch characteristics and frequency component information. From the pitch characteristics and the frequency component information, electrode stimulation signals are determined which have intensity levels that reflect the pitch characteristics. Then audio nerve tissue is stimulated by applying the electrode stimulation signals to the electrodes in the implanted electrode array.

A cochlear implant is disclosed including a cochlear lead, an antenna, a stimulation processor, a magnet apparatus, associated with the antenna, including a case, a divider, and a plurality of magnetic material particles that are movable relative to one another within sub-volumes defined by the divider.

The invention discloses a three-rotation and one-movement parallel mechanism. The mechanism comprises a movable platform and a fixed platform, and comprises four non-constraint branched chains with the same structure and a constraint branched chain which are connected between the fixed platform and the movable platform; and the constraint branched chain restrains the movement of the movable platform in a X-axis direction and a Y-axis direction. According to the technical scheme, through the arrangement of the constraint branch chain in a six-degree-of-freedom parallel mechanism which is simplyconnected with the non-constraint branch chains, the movement freedom degree in the X-axis direction and the movement freedom degree in the Y-axis direction are restrained, so that the rotation in three directions of the X-axis direction, the Y-axis direction and the Z-axis direction are realized, and movement in the Z-axis direction is realized; in addition, when the three-rotation and one-movement parallel mechanism is applied to an artificial cochlea implanting device, one movement freedom degree in the X-axis direction or the Y-axis direction is achieved by adding the artificial cochlea implanting device on the movable platform, and a three-rotation and two-movement parallel mechanism in a medical operation can be realized; the problem that an existing parallel mechanism cannot meet the requirement of a medical operation robot is effectively solved; and the technical scheme has the advantages of being simple in structure, easy to control, implement is easy, and popularization andapplication are facilitated.

The use of implanted medical devices that address a wide range of health conditions is rapidly expanding. These implanted devices include: Cochlear implants, drug dispensing pumps, cardiac pacemakers, defibrillators and other devices. Although these devices are designed to withstand interference from external radio frequency, electric and magnetic fields, interference can occur which may affect the operation of these devices and pose a health risk. An inventive personal, body-wearable electric field, radio frequency, and three-axis magnetic field monitoring device detects the ambient radio frequency, electric and magnetic fields and warns the wearer when any of these field measurements exceeds a safe level.

The invention relates to an artificial cochlea implanting operation system based on computer vision. The artificial cochlea implanting operation system is characterized by comprising a computer, a head fixed support, a rough adjustment passive arm, a dual-plane rotor, a CT (Computed Tomography) scanner and photo-electric navigation equipment, wherein the computer is further internally provided with a VTK Platform rectification navigation platform; the VTK Platform rectification navigation platform comprises an image visualization unit, an image incision unit, a spatial rectification unit, a planning unit and a navigation unit, wherein the image visualization unit is used for reading, rebuilding and displaying the CT data of a patient, the image incision unit is used for incising the CT data of the patient and acquiring the data of an operative region, the spatial adjustment unit is used for combining a CT image space and an actual space so as to generate a rectification matrix, the planning unit is used for planning the operative pathway of an implanted artificial cochlea in the CT image space, and the navigation unit draws a model by combining the cochlea surface of the patient under the tracking of the photo-electric navigation equipment, and guides a doctor to finish the implanting operation of the artificial cochlea according to a planned path. The artificial cochlea implanting operation system based on computer vision can be extensively applied to artificial cochlea implanting operation.

The invention discloses a sealing structure of an artificial cochlear implant and a packaging technology thereof, the sealing structure comprises: a circuit and a chip, which is characterized in that the circuit is arranged on a circular thin-sheet base plate, a welding ring and a contact point which is electrically connected with the circuit are arranged on the base plate, a connecting ring is annular and fixedly connected with the base plate; the chip is welded on the circuit; an upper end cover and a lower end cover are arranged outside the base plate, the upper end cover, the lower end cover and the welding ring are fixedly connected to form a sealing outer shell; the packaging technology specifically comprises that: the circuit, the welding ring and the base plate are sintered to a whole body by ceramics; the welding chip uses a biological coating layer to carry out the first packaging; the upper end cover and the lower end cover are produced to carry out the second packaging of the implant; and a biological silicon rubber is used for carrying out the third packaging of the upper end cover and the lower end cover. The sealing structure has simple structure, compared with the prior art, the reliability and the safety of the implant can be greatly improved, which can have great strength and toughness, prevent the collision and the seepage and ensure long-term normal work of the implant circuit in the human body.

The invention discloses a wearable artificial cochlea system. The wearable artificial cochlea system comprises an implant, a speech processor, a mobile device and a terminal server, wherein the implant is coupled to the speech processor through an inductor, the mobile device is in communication connection with the speech processor through wireless bluetooth, and the mobile device is in communication connection with the terminal server through a universal wireless network; the implant sends state information to the speech processor, the speech processor sends and stores the state of the implantand the speech processor and other event information to the mobile device through wireless Bluetooth communication, the mobile device transmits the information to the terminal server at regular intervals for storage, and big data processing is also carried out. According to the wearable artificial cochlea system, an artificial cochlea implanted person is connected with the terminal server throughthe wearable technology, the remote operation can be realized, the use state of a user can be recorded, the use effects and rehabilitation quality can be improved, the service cost is reduced, and the service quality is improved.

The invention discloses an auditory scene recognition method for an artificial cochlea. The method comprises the steps that: (A) a pre-processing program module performs framing and windowing on a sound signal, (B) a feature extraction program module performs feature extraction on the preprocessed sound signal, and (C) a scene recognition program module performs a CNN operation on the sound signalwhich is subjected to feature extraction to obtain the probability value of each preset scene, determines a scene with a largest probability value as a final scene and outputs the scene. Through theCNN processing, different auditory scenes can be identified, instructions are provided for signal processing modules of subsequent speech enhancement, speech strategy and the like of a speech processor, therefore, the signal process of the speech processor is more matched with an auditory scene, a stimulation signal which is more matched with an actual auditory scene is outputted, the clarity andintelligibility of a speech signal of a patient in a noisy environment are improved, at the same time, the listening effect under a music scene can be improved, and the quality of life of an artificial cochlea implant patient is further improved.

The invention discloses an auditory scene recognition method for an artificial cochlea. The method comprises the steps of (A) establishing a standard scene training UBM, (B) performing framing and windowing on a sound signal, (C) identifying a pre-processed sound signal by frame, (D) performing feature vector extraction on a scene noise signal which is subjected to VAV processing, and (E) processing the signal which is subjected to feature extraction in a GMM-UBM system to obtain a likelihood score and finally identify the type of a scene. According to the method, by establishing a series of models, different auditory scenes can be identified, instructions are provided for signal processing modules of subsequent speech enhancement, speech strategy and the like of a speech processor, therefore, the signal process of the speech processor is more matched with an auditory scene, the clarity and intelligibility of a speech signal of a patient in a noisy environment are improved, at the sametime, the listening effect under a music scene can be improved, and the quality of life of an artificial cochlea implant patient is further improved.

The invention discloses a method for fixing an artificial cochlea implanting device, which is characterized in that the method uses titanium plates to fix an artificial cochlea electrode and a decoder which are implanted into the body respectively; the titanium plate for fixing the electrode is a strip sheet, and the middle part of the titanium plate is transversely provided with a semicircular through groove, and the two sides of the semicircular through groove are provided with a plurality of fixing holes; the titanium plate for fixing the decoder is a strip sheet of which middle part is provided with a convex edge, and the strip sheet is provided with a plurality of fixing holes; and the method comprises the following specific steps: manufacturing the fixing titanium plates, pre-bending and fixing. Compared with the prior art, the method solves the problems that the artificial cochlea cannot produce displacement and dislocation of stimulating electrode and the like in the human body, further improves the reliability and safety of the artificial cochlea, and avoids the hidden danger that the stimulating electrode after the operation cannot work normally because the decoder is released from a mounting groove and rotates in the groove so as to drive the stimulating electrode.

The invention discloses a novel artificial cochlea electrode comprising a casing. A magnet and a coil are arranged at the rear end inside the casing; a stimulator / receiver is arranged at the front endinside the casing; an electrode wire is arranged at the most front end of the casing; and a through hole is formed in the side of the front end of the casing. A wire wrapping device is arranged at the front end of the casing and is arranged at the stimulator / receiver; the electrode wire is led out of the stimulator / receiver, passes through the wire wrapping device, and then extends out of the casing through the through hole; and an electrode is arranged at the tail end of the electrode wire. According to the invention, the wire outlet of the electrode wire is arranged at the side of the frontend of the casing and thus the axial length of the artificial cochlea implanting bodies like a coil or a stimulator / receiver can be reduced; because of the wire wrapping device arranged in the casing, the electrode wire has high mobility; and the length of the artificial cochlea electrode can be reserved, so that the novel artificial cochlea electrode can be used in future.

The invention discloses an artificial cochlea implant chip leakage detection unit and an artificial cochlea implant chip leakage detection method. The leakage detection unit comprises a leakage resistor, a detection resistor, a pull-up resistor, a grounding resistor, a switch, a first selector, a second selector, a buffer, and an ADC unit. One end of the leakage resistor is connected with output-end detected electrodes of the first selector and the second selector, and the other end is connected with the ground or a power supply. One end of the detection resistor is connected with the input end of the first selector, and the other end is connected with the input end of the second selector via the switch. The input of the buffer is connected with the detection resistor and the switch, and the output of the buffer is connected with the ADC unit. By adopting the unit and the method of the invention, leakage of the output electrode of an artificial cochlea implant chip can be effectively detected inside the chip, and the safety of output is ensured.

The invention discloses an artificial cochlea implant. The artificial cochlea implant comprises an implant electrode, a decoder, a receiving coil, a coil elastic sheet, an implanted magnet, and a packaging silica gel for the implant electrode, the decoder, the receiving coil, the coil elastic sheet and the implanted magnet, wherein the implanted electrode, the decoder and the receiving coil are connected in sequence; the receiving coil is provided with a leading-out wire which is electrically connected with the decoder; the coil elastic sheet is fixedly arranged at the inner side of the receiving coil; the implanted magnet is fixedly arranged at the inner side of the coil elastic sheet; and the packaging silica gel wraps all the other components except the electrode stimulation end of theimplanted electrode. The artificial cochlea implant provided by the invention, through arrangement of the coil elastic sheet, the implanted magnet is stably and fixedly arranged at the inner side of the receiving coil, and displacement is avoided, so the receiving coil and an in-vitro coil have good positioning accuracy; meanwhile, the structural strength of the area of the receiving coil is improved, and good impact resistance is achieved.

The invention relates to an artificial cochlea implant chip function test platform. The artificial cochlea implant chip function test platform comprises a base, a test platform fixed on the base, a three-axis calibration mechanism which is fixed on the base and is arranged at one end portion of the test platform, a transmitting coil fixing seat which is used for fixing a transmitting coil and is connected with the three-axis calibration mechanism through a switching board, a to-be-tested chip positioning mechanism which is arranged on the test platform and is used for fixing a to-be-tested chip, a vernier caliper which is arranged on the test platform and is used for measuring the distance between a receiving coil and the transmitting coil of the to-be-tested chip, a test signal transmitter used for connecting with the transmitting coil, a sampling resistance circuit board used for connecting with the to-be-tested chip, and a computer used for testing discharging performance and reading backward read resistance, wherein the position of the transmitting coil fixing seat is adjusted through rotation of the three-axis calibration mechanism. Compared with the prior art, the artificialcochlea implant chip function test platform has advantages of compact structure, convenient installation, more accurate and reliable operation, and the like.

The invention relates to the field of medical apparatuses in the otology department, in particular to a middle ear repeated dosing device and an artificial cochlea implanted electrode. The middle earrepeated dosing device comprises a hollow bag and a connecting pipe connected to the lower side of the bag. A check valve is arranged at the joint of the bag and the connecting pipe. An opening is formed in the upper side of the bag and provided with a biological semi-permeable film. The bag is placed between malleus and incus long crus. The upper side of the bag makes contact with a tympanic membrane. A groove is transversely formed in the upper side of the bag. The groove of the bag is clamped on a malleus handle. A quite safe, convenient and economical new technique method is created for relieving the cochlea electrode implanting traumatic reaction, conducting regeneration inducing and substituting on auditory nerve cells, optimizing the artificial cochlea implanting effect and improving the speech recognition ability of a patient.