Implantable Hearing Prosthesis Noise Cancellation via Accelerometer Feedback

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Solution Overview

Problem

Hearing prostheses, particularly those with implantable microphones, face challenges in distinguishing between desired acoustic signals and unwanted body-borne noise, leading to reduced speech intelligibility and increased noise levels, especially in individuals with conductive or sensorineural hearing loss.

Innovation Solution

The implementation of an implantable microphone assembly with a motion sensor and adaptive filters to differentiate between ambient sound and body-borne noise, using a system that incorporates an external microphone for data comparison to adjust noise cancellation algorithms and improve signal processing.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If an implantable microphone is used to capture sound, then the ability to provide hearing perception is improved, but body-borne noise interference increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvehearing perception capabilityVSAvoidbody-borne noise interference

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSObject-affected harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

The patent introduces an accelerometer as an intermediary device that measures body vibrations separately. This intermediary sensor allows the system to identify and subtract body-borne noise components from the microphone signal without directly interfering with the sound capture process, effectively separating the harmful noise from the useful acoustic information

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Solution Approach 2:

The system employs feedback by using the accelerometer signal to generate a noise estimate that is subtracted from the microphone output. This feedback mechanism continuously adjusts the noise cancellation based on real-time body vibration measurements, improving hearing perception while compensating for body-borne noise interference

Inventive Principle:

Principle #23Feedback

2Measurement precision

If noise cancellation processing is applied, then speech intelligibility is improved, but system complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvespeech intelligibilityVSAvoidsignal processing complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

Measurement precisionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments the noise cancellation task into distinct functional components: an accelerometer for vibration measurement, a separate processing path for generating noise estimates, and a subtraction stage for combining signals. This segmentation allows each component to perform a specific function, improving speech intelligibility through systematic noise removal while keeping the overall system complexity manageable through modular design

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

3Object-affected harmful factors

If adaptive noise cancellation is implemented, then noise reduction effectiveness is improved, but computational requirements increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvenoise reduction effectivenessVSAvoidcomputational energy consumption

Core Design Contradiction:

Object-affected harmful factorsVSUse of energy by moving object

Solution Approach 1:

The patent replaces complex adaptive filtering algorithms with a more computationally efficient approach based on direct signal subtraction using accelerometer data. By substituting mechanical vibration measurement with electronic signal processing, the system achieves effective noise reduction through simpler computational operations, reducing energy consumption while maintaining noise reduction effectiveness

Inventive Principle:

Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

Data Source

PatentEP3298802B1Advanced management of an implantable sound management system

Publication Date: 2021.06.23 COCHLEAR LIMITED

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AI summary

A hearing prosthesis, including an implantable microphone, and a sound management system, wherein the hearing prosthesis is configured to set an operational parameter of the sound management system based on input from a microphone external to the recipient of the implantable microphone.