Charging-induced implant operation
AssigneeCochlear Limited
InventorsJan Raymond Janssen, Koen Van den Heuvel, Richard Bruce Murphy
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Presented herein are techniques for initiating a night-time mode of operation in an implantable hearing prosthesis in response to detection of night-time recharging operations. More specifically, an implantable hearing prosthesis comprises a rechargeable battery that is configured to be recharged via an external night-time charging device, such as a pillow charger. The implantable hearing prosthesis is configured to detect inductive charging of the rechargeable battery by the external night-time charging device. In response, the implantable hearing prosthesis is switched to a night-time mode of operation.
Claims20
A method, comprising:
- at an implantable medical device comprising a rechargeable battery and an implantable coil:
- receiving, via the implantable coil, inductive charging signals transmitted by an external coil of an external night-time charging device to the implantable coil via an inductive link;
- determining, based on the inductive charging signals received at the implantable coil, that the rechargeable battery is being charged by the external night-time charging device;
- and
- in response to determining that the rechargeable battery is being charged, switching the implantable medical device to a night-time mode of operation.
An implantable component, comprising:
- an implantable coil configured to be inductively coupled to an external coil of an external night-time charging device to form an inductive link over which the implantable coil receives inductive charging signals;
- an implantable rechargeable battery;
- and
- an implant controller configured to determine, based on the inductive charging signals received at the implantable coil, that the rechargeable battery is being charged by the inductive charging signals received from the external night-time charging device, and, in response to determining that the rechargeable battery is being charged, initiate a night-time mode of operation for the implantable component.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.