Cochlear Implant technology has been around for years. But like most of the signing deaf community, I thought a surgery was a huge price to pay for a little bit of hearing. The industry has advanced so much in the last decade, with miniturization of parts and all the computer chip technology. The Cochlear Implant of today is really helping the deaf to hear.
A Cochlear Implant is an electronic device designed to provide useful hearing and improved communication ability to people who are profoundly hearing impaired. For most individuals with a profound hearing loss, even the most powerful hearing aids, provide little or no benefit.
Hearing aids make sounds louder and deliver the amplified sounds to the ear. Making sounds louder doesn't help a profoundly deaf ear to "hear" as the sensory receptors of the inner ear, called hair cells, are usually damaged. In contrast, what cochlear implants do is bypass damaged hair cells and directly stimulate the hearing nerves with electrical current, allowing people who are profoundly/totally deaf to receive sounds.
CLARION® converts sounds in the
environment into an electrical code and sends this code to
the hearing nerves. Below is a step-by-step outline of how
CLARION works: 1.
Sound waves enter the system
through the powerful microphone located in the single-unit
headpiece and are converted into an electrical signal.
2.
This signal is sent to the speech processor via the thin
cable that connects the headpiece to the speech processor.
3. The
speech processor converts the electrical signal into a
distinctive code that has been determined to be the most
useful for sound and speech understanding. 4.
Once processed, the
electrically coded signal is sent back up the thin cable to
the headpiece and is transmitted across the skin via radio
waves to the implant. 5. The
implant decodes the signal and delivers it to the array of
electrodes positioned deep within the cochlea. 6. The
electrodes bypass the damaged hair cells and directly
stimulate the hearing nerve fibers within the cochlea.
7.
Stimulation of the hearing nerves causes electrical impulses
to be delivered to the brain where they are interpreted as
sound. The entire process -- from incoming sound to
processing in the brain -- occurs so rapidly that the user
hears sound as it happens.
The company that makes
Clarion Cochlear Implants is Advanced
Bionics.
Visit their site for amazing videos (all captioned) and more
detailed information.
Many thanks to Advanced Bionics for the use of the pictures from their site. © 2000 Advanced Bionics
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