Bone conduction hearing aid

A hearing aid for improving hearing perception in a hearing impaired patient, the hearing aid comprising:

• a structural member fabricated for insertion into the patient's ear canal, said structural member having a first end in opposed relation to a second end;
• a non-surgically implanted, nonacoustic vibrator carried by said structural member and operable to directly produce vibrations which are transferred by the mastoid bone to a cochlea of the user, said nonacoustic vibrator being positioned in the ear canal adjacent the mastoid bone when the first end of the structural member is inserted into the ear canal;
• a microphone attached to the structural member adjacent the second end for receiving acoustic vibrations and producing a microphone signal corresponding to the sensed acoustic vibrations;
• electronics carried by said structural member for receiving and amplifying the microphone signal to produce an amplified microphone signal that is received by the vibrator, said electronics including feedback reduction circuitry for reducing feedback from the nonacoustic vibrator to the microphone;
• and
• a power supply for supplying electrical power to the electronics.

A hearing aid for improving hearing perception in a hearing impaired patient, the hearing aid comprising:

• a structural member fabricated for insertion into the patient's ear canal, said structural member having a first end in opposed relation to a second end;
• a non-surgically implanted, nonacoustic vibrator carried by said structural member and operable to directly produce vibrations which are transferred by the mastoid bone to a cochlea of the user, said nonacoustic vibrator being positioned in the ear canal adjacent the mastoid bone when the first end of the structural member is inserted into the ear canal;
• a microphone attached to the structural member adjacent the second end for receiving acoustic vibrations and producing a microphone signal corresponding to the sensed acoustic vibrations, said microphone being vibrationally isolated from the nonacoustic vibrator to inhibit vibration feedback in the microphone signal;
• electronics carried by said structural member for receiving and amplifying the microphone signal to produce an amplified microphone signal that is received by the vibrator;
• and
• a power supply for supplying electrical power to the electronics.

A method for improving hearing perception in a patient, the method comprising:

• sensing acoustic vibrations with an acoustic vibration sensor;
• producing an acoustic vibration signal corresponding to the sensed acoustic vibrations;
• amplifying the acoustic vibration signal to produce an amplified acoustic vibration signal;
• inserting a non-surgically implanted, nonacoustic vibrator in the patient's ear canal adjacent the mastoid bone, said nonacoustic vibrator being operable to directly produce vibrations which are transferred by the mastoid bone to a cochlea of the patient;
• and
• vibrating the nonacoustic vibrator with the amplified acoustic vibration signal.