Methods and systems of automatically detecting an impedance of one or more electrodes in a cochlear implant system

A method comprising:

• directing, by a sound processing unit, an implantable cochlear stimulator coupled to a plurality of electrodes to generate an electrical stimulation current in accordance with one or more stimulation parameters;
• automatically detecting, by the sound processing unit, an impedance of at least one of the electrodes;
• using, by the sound processing unit, the detected impedance to identify a disabled electrode included in the plurality of electrodes;
• and
• directing, by the sound processor, the implantable cochlear stimulator to use current steering to compensate for the disabled electrode.

A system comprising:

• a processor configured to direct an implantable cochlear stimulator coupled to a plurality of electrodes to apply an electrical stimulation current by way of at least one electrode included in the plurality of electrodes in accordance with one or more stimulation parameters;
• and
• an impedance detection module configured to automatically detect an impedance of the at least one electrode;
• wherein the processor is further configured to adjust, in accordance with the detected impedance, a pulse width of the electrical stimulation current to maintain constant a total electric charge level of the electrical stimulation current.