Hearing aid
AssigneeElectro-Physical Research, Inc.
InventorCurtiss R. Schafer
Life of this patent
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Abstract
"Hearing" without involving the ear is realized by electrical conduction of the sound-representing signals on a carrier optimally in the frequency range of 15-60 kHz, from an electrode held against a person's head to the auditory cortex and possibly to the auditory nerve. This is here called a "cortical hearing aid". The ability of the person to recognize sounds with a cortical hearing aid is notably enhanced by introduction of significant distortion of the audio signals, especially low-order harmonics of the audio frequencies. The distortion acts as a substitute for distortion ordinarily occurring in the ear but disregarded in the hearing process.
Claims10
A cortical hearing aid comprising a source of audio frequency signals, means for providing a carrier-frequency signal, a modulator responsive to the audio frequency signal source and the carrier-frequency signal means to provide a modulated carrier-frequency signal, and means including an electrode coupled to the modulator and adapted to be placed against a subject's head to couple the modulated signal into the subject, said hearing aid including means for imposing harmonic distortion greater than 5% on the audio frequency signal.
The method of enabling a person to effect cortical sensing and recognition of a variety of sounds including speech and music, including the steps of providing an electrical signal having a spectrum of audio frequencies, providing a carrier-frequency signal, modulating the carrier-frequency signal with said electrical signal, impressing the output of the modulator on an electrode coupled to the person's head so as to effect cortical sensing of the spectrum of audio frequencies, said method including the step of imposing harmonic distortion of at least 5% on said electrical signal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.