Sound-processing strategy for cochlear implants
AssigneeThe University of Melbourne
InventorsPeter John Blamey, Colette McKay, Hugh McDermott
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Abstract
A sound processing method for auditory prostheses, such as cochlear implants, which is adapted to improve the perception of loudness by users, and to improve speech perception. The overall contribution of stimuli to simulated loudness is compared with an estimate of acoustic loudness for a normally hearing listener based on the input sound signal. A weighting is applied to the filter channels to emphasize those frequencies which are most important to speech perception for normal hearing listeners when selecting channels as a basis for stimulation.
Claims17
A multi-channel cochlear prosthesis including a patient implantable tissue stimulating multi-channel electrode array adapted to be positioned in a cochlea from the apical region of the cochlea to the basal region of the cochlea, a patient implantable multi-channel stimulator connected to said array, and a patient externally worn programmable speech processor for processing sound signals into electrical stimulation signals that are transmitted to said stimulator, said prosthesis further comprising:
- means based on a dominant peak extraction in the region of between about 280 Hz to about 1000 Hz for determining a first formant spectral information in said sound signal and stimulating at least one electrode in the apical region of said electrode array in accordance with the spectral information of said formant;
- means based on a dominant spectral peak extraction in the region of between about 800 Hz and about 4000 Hz for determining a second formant frequency in said sound signal and stimulating at least one electrode in said basal region of said electrode array in accordance with the spectral information of said formant;
- and,
- at least one high frequency band filter for extracting spectral information in at least one region of the spectrum of said sound signal and stimulating at least one predetermined electrode in said electrode array in accordance with said extracted spectral information, said predetermined electrode being in said basal region of said electrode array.
A method of processing an audio spectrum signal received from a microphone to produce signals for stimulating a patient implantable tissue stimulating multi-channel electrode array adapted to be positioned in a cochlea from the apical region of the cochlea to the basal region of the cochlea, said method comprising selecting a first dominant frequency peak from said audio signal from a frequency band of between about 280 Hz and about 1,000 Hz and stimulating at least one electrode in the apical region of said electrode array in accordance with the spectral information contained in said first peak;
- selecting a second dominant frequency peak from said audio signal from a frequency band of between about 800 Hz and about 4,000 Hz and stimulating at least one electrode in the basal region of said electrode array in accordance with the spectral information contained in said second peak;
- extracting spectral information in at least one region of the spectrum of said audio signal and stimulating at least one predetermined electrode in said electrode array in accordance with said extracted spectral information, said predetermined electrode being in said basal region of said electrode array.
(new) A method of speech coding an audio spectrum signal received from a microphone to produce signals for stimulating a patient implantable tissue stimulating multi-channel electrode array adapted to be positioned in a cochlea from the apical region of the cochlea to the basal region of the cochlea, said method comprising bandpass filtering said audio spectrum signal into a plurality of bands within and beyond the normal range of a second (F2) formant frequency peak of said audio spectrum signal whereby additional high frequency information is provided to a patient.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.