Light activated hearing device

US8600089B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• MEDIZINISCHE HOCHSCHULE HANNOVER · DE

Inventors

• Gentiana Wenzel · Hannover, DE
• Hubert H. Lim · Minneapolis, US
• Thomas Lenarz · Hannover, DE
• Holger Lubatschowski · Hannover, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Feb 1, 2010
• Grant date: Dec 3, 2013
• Expiry date: Apr 1, 2030

Classification

• Technology area (CPC Y): Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
• CPC primary: Y10T29/49826
• WIPO field: Audio-visual technology
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

The invention relates to a hearing aid device for humans with impaired hearing, who have an at least partially functional cochlea and a functional nervous signalling pathway from the cochlea via the auditory nerve to the brain. The hearing aid device contains a receiver, a transducer of the sound or other acoustic signals into electrical current serving as a signal representing a sound, a pulsed irradiation source connected to the transducer for receiving the electrical current and for generating modulated pulsed irradiation in dependence from the electrical current, and preferably one or more optical fibers optically coupled to the exit of the pulsed irradiation source, wherein the optical path for conduction of irradiation within the device ends directly opposite a functional element of the natural vibration transduction pathway, e.g. adjacent the skull, the tympanic membrane, the hammer, the incus, the stapes, the outside of the cochlea, the otic capsule, the round window membrane, or the oval window membrane.