Patent No. 3766331 Hearing aid for producing sensations in the brain

 

Patent No. 3766331  Hearing aid for producing sensations in the brain (Zink, Oct 16, 1973)

Abstract

A pulsed oscillator or transmitter supplies energy to a pair of insulated electrodes mounted on a person's neck. The transmitter produces pulses of intensity greater than a predetermined threshold value and of a width and rate so as to produce the sensation of hearing without use of the auditory canal thereby providing a hearing system enabling otherwise deaf people to hear.

Notes:

Description

The present invention relates to means and techniques useful in conveying information and is particularly useful in hearing systems for otherwise deaf persons.

The present invention is described in specific relation to systems enabling deaf persons to have communicated to them information initially in sound or audible form with such information being transformed into unique pulses that key a transmitter which develops a carrier above the audio frequency range, such carrier thus modulated being applied via insulated electrodes to excite a deaf person's cochlea such that the person has the sensation of "hearing" that information initially in sound or audible form.

For these purposes, information in audible form is converted into a special form which is transmitted to appropriate areas of the brain. More specifically, such information is converted into essentially trigger pulses which are transmitted to the brain without the necessity of use of the person's auditory track, thereby in effect bypassing such auditory track. These trigger pulses are required to be of a predetermined threshold intensity below which intensity that part of the brain, considered the cochlea, is not excited.

It is considered that once a pulse exceeds a predetermined intensity, its pulse width and its rate of occurrence may be used to create the sensations of frequency or tone and loudness.

It is considered that the cochlea is the electronic generator of the auditory system and that with normal hearing all signals reaching the cochlea are mechanical sound signals, and that not until the cells attached to the tectorial membrane are caused to oscillate does the conversion from mechanical to electronic take place. As alluded to previously, the auditory nerve system including the auditory transmission platform are excited in a novel way such that it functions to produce the desired electrical output without the necessity for the presence of the person's auditory track.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide means and techniques incorporating these features.

A specific object of the present invention is to provide a system of this character which enables normally deaf persons to hear.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a system of this character which does not depend upon operation of the person's auditory track.

Another specific object of the present invention is to provide a system wherein information is conveyed to the cochlea in the form of coded pulses.

While the particular embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that changes and modifications may be made without departing from the invention in its broader aspects and, therefore, the aim in the appended claims is to cover all such changes and modifications as fall within the true spirit and scope of this invention.