Patent No. 3629521 Hearing systems
Patent No. 3629521 Hearing systems (Puharich et al., Dec 21, 1971)
Abstract
The present invention relates to the stimulation of the sensation of hearing in persons of impaired hearing abilities or in certain cases in persons totally deaf utilizing RF energy. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for imparting synchronous AF or "acoustic" signals and so-called "transdermal" or RF signals. Hearing and improved speech discrimination, in accordance with one aspect of the present invention, is stimulated by the application of an AF acoustical signal to the "ear system" conventional biomechanism of hearing, which is delivered to the brain through the "normal" channels of hearing and a separate transdermal RF electrical signal which is applied to the "facial nerve system" and is detectable as a sensation of hearing. Vastly improved and enhanced hearing may be achieved by imparting an AF acoustic signal to the ear system by means of "conventional" transducers, such as electroacoustic speakers of "in the ear" hearing aids; piezoelectric or mechanical transducers of conventional "bone conduction"-type hearing aids; and so-called "intraoral bone conduction transducers" of the type employed in the hearing system disclosed in Puharich and Lawrence U.S. Pat. No. 2,995,633 and No. 3,170,993 and No. 3,156,787, and by simultaneously applying a transdermal signal, which signal is an RF carrier signal amplitude modulated with AF information across the head of the subject, the head acting as capacitance in LC series resonance of the RF carrier frequency. Importantly, the applied balanced transdermal signal is in the form of a substantially pure sine wave, and it is applied to the head through one bare and one insulated electrode. The applied transdermal signal is applied to the periaural and stylomastoid regions of the head and, accordingly, the apparatus of the invention may be readily adapted for use in the temples of "eyeglass" hearing aid devices.
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