Cochlear Implant Control Signal Filtering for Speech Intelligibility

Solution Overview

Problem

Conventional cochlear implants generate unnecessary nerve stimulation impulses, leading to increased complexity and energy consumption, as they fail to effectively filter out irrelevant activity events in the auditory signal, which are not crucial for intelligibility of speech.

Innovation Solution

A method and device that calculate and filter out activity events in the auditory model based on characteristic patterns, specifically recognizing line-shaped curves and trajectories, to derive a control signal for the cochlear implant, thereby eliminating irrelevant information and reducing data processing requirements.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Loss of information

If conventional cochlear implants generate nerve stimulation impulses based on all detected activity events, then the completeness of auditory information is improved, but the device complexity and energy consumption increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecompleteness of auditory informationVSAvoidcomplexity of cochlear implant

Core Design Contradiction:

Loss of informationVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent extracts and removes irrelevant activity events from the auditory signal processing chain. By identifying and eliminating activity events that do not contribute to speech intelligibility (such as those below certain amplitude thresholds or lacking specific temporal patterns), the system reduces the number of nerve stimulation impulses generated, thereby simplifying device operation and reducing energy consumption while preserving essential auditory information.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Solution Approach 2:

The patent applies different processing criteria to different regions of the auditory signal. By analyzing activity events at multiple locations in the auditory model and applying location-specific filtering rules (e.g., different amplitude thresholds for different frequency regions or spatial locations), the system optimizes the balance between information preservation and complexity reduction for each local region.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #3Local quality

2Loss of information

If conventional cochlear implants generate nerve stimulation impulses based on all detected activity events, then the completeness of auditory information is improved, but the energy consumption increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecompleteness of auditory informationVSAvoidenergy consumption of cochlear implant

Core Design Contradiction:

Loss of informationVSUse of energy by moving object

Solution Approach 1:

The patent extracts and removes irrelevant activity events from the auditory signal processing chain. By identifying and eliminating activity events that do not contribute to speech intelligibility (such as those below certain amplitude thresholds or lacking specific temporal patterns), the system reduces the number of nerve stimulation impulses generated, thereby simplifying device operation and reducing energy consumption while preserving essential auditory information.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Solution Approach 2:

The patent applies partial action by processing only the most relevant activity events rather than all detected events. By setting thresholds and selection criteria that filter out less important events, the system performs sufficient processing to maintain speech intelligibility while avoiding the excessive energy consumption that would result from processing every detected activity event.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #16Partial or excessive action

3Measurement precision

If conventional cochlear implants process all activity events without filtering, then the accuracy of auditory representation is improved, but the productivity of signal processing decreases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveaccuracy of auditory representationVSAvoidproductivity of signal processing

Core Design Contradiction:

Measurement precisionVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent extracts and removes irrelevant activity events from the auditory signal processing chain. By identifying and eliminating activity events that do not contribute to speech intelligibility (such as those below certain amplitude thresholds or lacking specific temporal patterns), the system reduces the number of nerve stimulation impulses generated, thereby simplifying device operation and reducing energy consumption while preserving essential auditory information.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Solution Approach 2:

The patent performs preliminary filtering and selection of activity events before generating control signals for the cochlear implant. By pre-processing the auditory signal to identify and remove irrelevant events early in the processing chain, the system reduces the computational burden on subsequent stages, thereby improving overall processing productivity while maintaining accuracy for the relevant events that proceed through the system.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Data Source

PatentUS7797051B2Method, device and computer program for generating a control signal for a cochlear implant, based on an audio signal

Publication Date: 2010.09.14 FRAUNHOFER GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FORDERUNG DER ANGEWANDTEN FORSCHUNG EV

AI summary

A method of generating a control signal for a cochlear implant based on an audio signal includes calculating first information on an activity pattern over time at a plurality of inner hair cells of an auditory model, which results based on the audio signal, and filtering out activity events described by the first information, based on a recognition of a characteristic pattern in the activity pattern, whereby cleared information is obtained. The cleared information is further used as a control signal for the cochlear implant, or the control signal for the cochlear implant is derived from the cleared information.