Cochlear implant system and method

A method comprising:

• receiving, by a processor, an electric audio signal;
• processing, by the processor, the electric audio signal, thereby providing a processed electric audio signal;
• receiving, by a transducer driver, the processed electric audio signal;
• transmitting, by the transducer driver, the processed electric audio signal to electro-acoustic transducer elements that are at least arranged within a cochlea;
• and
• vibrating at least one electro-acoustic transducer element of the electro-acoustic transducer elements in response to the at least one electro-acoustic transducer element receiving the processed electric audio signal, thereby providing a vibrating stimulus based on the processed electric audio signal;
• and
• adjusting an audio signal processing characteristic of the processor based on an implantee input, wherein the implantee input is indicative of a perceived difference between the at least one electro-acoustic transducer element and at least one secondary electro-acoustic transducer element, and wherein adjusting an audio signal processing characteristic includes assigning an audio frequency bandwidth to the at least one electro-acoustic transducer element based on the implantee input.

A method comprising:

• providing, by an audio calibrator, a calibrating audio signal;
• driving, by a transducer driver, a first subplurality of electro-acoustic transducer elements based on the calibrating audio signal, thereby providing a vibrating stimulus based on the calibrating audio signal, the electro-acoustic transducer elements arranged on or in a substrate that is arranged within a cochlea;
• driving, by the transducer driver, a second subplurality of electro-acoustic transducer elements based on the first calibrating audio signal, the second subplurality of electro-acoustic transducer elements arranged on or in a different region of the substrate than the first subplurality of electro-acoustic transducer elements;
• receiving, by the audio calibrator, an implantee response indicative of a perceived difference between the first subplurality and the second subplurality of electro-acoustic transducer elements that are driven the first calibrating audio signal;
• and
• assigning, by the audio calibrator, an audio frequency bandwidth to at least one of the first subplurality and the second subplurality of electro-acoustic transducer elements based on the implantee response.