Partially implantable hearing assistance system

Abstract

A partially implantable hearing assistance system, having: an external unit (10) to be worn at least in part in a user's ear canal (12), a device (14) for capturing audio signals from ambient sound, an audio signal processing unit (16, 18) for generating first intermediate signals from said audio signals, and at least one electroacoustic output transducer (20, 20A) in order to make the user's eardrum (46) vibrate according to the first intermediate signals; and an implantable unit (22, 122) having an input transducer (42) located in the user's middle ear for capturing second intermediate signals from the vibration of the eardrum (46), an actuator (26, 60) for stimulating the user's hearing, and a driver unit (48, 148) for transforming the second intermediate signals into an input signal to the actuator (26, 60).

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.