The University of Melbourne

Cochlear Pty. Ltd.

The Univ. of Melbourne

Commonwealth of Australia, Dept. of Science & Technology

Peter M Seligman

James Finlay Patrick

Peter John Blamey

Richard C Dowell

David K Money

Graeme Milbourne Clark

Janusz A Kuzma

Yit C Tong

John Bruce Millar

Peter A Crosby

Christopher N Daly

James M Harrison

An improved pulsatile system for a cochlear prosthesis is disclosed. The system employs a multi-spectral peak coding strategy to extract a number, for example five, of spectral peaks from an incoming acoustic signal received by a microphone. It encodes this information into sequential pulses that are sent to selected electrodes of a cochlear implant. The first formant (F1) spectral peak (280-1000 Hz) and the second formant (F2) spectral peak (800-4000 Hz) are encoded and presented to apical and basal electrodes, respectively. F1 and F2 electrode selection follows the tonotopic organization of the cochlea. High-frequency spectral information is sent to more basal electrodes and low-frequency spectral information is sent to more apical electrodes. Spectral energy in the regions of 2000-2800 Hz, 2800-4000 Hz, and above 4000 Hz is encoded and presented to three fixed electrodes. The fundamental or voicing frequency (F0) determines the pulse rate of the stimulation during voiced periods and a pseudo-random aperiodic rate determines the pulse rate of stimulation during unvoiced periods. The amplitude of the acoustic signal in the five bands determines the stimulus intensity.

Multi-peak speech processor

Multi-peak speech procession

Apparatus is provided for improving the coupling between an external inductive transmitting coil and an internal inductive receiving coil to transmit power and/or data to the receiving coil from the transmitting coil. The structure includes a coupling coil inductively coupled to the transmitting coil to increase the Q factor and hence the energy transfer between the transmitting coil and the receiving coil.

Power transfer for implanted prostheses

A cochlear implant system includes an electrode array (1) comprising multiple platinum ring electrodes in a silastic carrier to be implanted in the cochlea of the ear. A receiver-stimulator (3) containing a semiconductor integrated circuit and other components is implanted in the patient adjacent the ear to receive data information and power through tuned coil (5) using an inductive link (6) from a patient-wearable external speech processor (7) including an integrated circuit and various components which is configured or mapped to emit data signals from an EPROM programmed to suit each patient electrical stimulation perceptions through testing of the patient and his implanted stimulator/electrode using a diagnostic and programming unit (12) connected to the processor by an interface unit (10). The system allows use of various speech processing strategies including dominant spectral peak and amplitude and compression of voice pitch so as to include voiced sounds, unvoiced glottal sounds and prosodic information. Biphastic pulses are supplied to various combinations of electrodes by a switch controlled current sink in various modes of operation. In-place testing of the implant is also provided. Various safety features are incorporated to insure that harmful impulses are not imposed on the patient. Transmission of data is by a series of discrete data bursts which represent the chosen electrode(s), the electrode mode configuration, the stimulating current, and amplitude determined by the duration of the amplitude burst.

Cochlear implant system for an auditory prosthesis

Speech processor

Growing community of inventors

Essendon, Australia

Peter M Seligman