Programmable neurostimulator
First Claim
1. A programmable neurostimulator comprising an external part linked to an internal part designed to be implanted in a patient'"'"'s body, said internal part having a plurality of outputs, each one of said plurality of outputs being provided with an independent control unit and memory and with a current source, and being connectable to an independent electrode, so that each one of a plurality of independent electrodes is independently selectable and addressable.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A programmable neurostimulator and methods, characterized by its modular design is provided, comprising: an internal part based on a mixed-signal ASIC giving access to a complete control on the injected charges, and new channel concept allows performing any stimulation strategy and permit to use any stimulation mode (monopolar, bipolar, quadripolar . . . ); and an external part, built around a DSP and having a digital architecture, which allows to program any signal-processing algorithm, and to store different algorithms and stimulation strategies to be used and selected by the patient himself. An algorithm enables the use of as many filters as needed and the selection of their characteristics and of their associated channels. A vector quantization based stimulation method uses a finite set of element sounds defining all speech characteristics, in such a way that the patient is exposed to a limited number of stimulation sequences allowing the complete identification of the speech phonemes. A wavelet packet based stimulation method is developed towards a new multi-rhythm multi-resolution stimulation strategies that have never been used before. An appropriate hardware as well as a very user-friendly interface clinical s ftware supports all these aspects.
125 Citations
71 Claims
- 1. A programmable neurostimulator comprising an external part linked to an internal part designed to be implanted in a patient'"'"'s body, said internal part having a plurality of outputs, each one of said plurality of outputs being provided with an independent control unit and memory and with a current source, and being connectable to an independent electrode, so that each one of a plurality of independent electrodes is independently selectable and addressable.
-
36. A programmable neurostimulator comprising an internal part and an external part, wherein said internal part comprises a digital portion and an analogue portion, said digital portion controlling said analogue portion by executing a set of command words, said internal part being built around an integrated circuit having a plurality of electrodes as current outputs channels;
- said external part supporting a plurality of sound processing methods and a plurality of stimulation strategies, so that said programmable neurostimulator allows a plurality of stimulation methods by combining said plurality of sound processing methods with said plurality of stimulation strategies.
- View Dependent Claims (37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43)
- 44. A stimulation method for a neurostimulator, wherein said stimulation method includes a sound processing technique and a stimulation strategy.
-
53. A signal analyser having a modular architecture using, and independent of, a plurality of stimulation strategies as part of stimulation methods and built around a digital signal processor, comprising:
-
an operating system, which allows controlling general tasks;
a signal-processing unit to analyze a signal and to determine different aspects thereof to be taken into account;
a stimulation strategy unit to represent said aspects of the signal; and
an encoding unit of the system output;
wherein anyone of said functional parts can be programmed independently of the others. - View Dependent Claims (54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 62, 63)
-
- 59. A cochlear prosthesis comprising an internal part to be implanted in an inner ear of a patient linked to an external sound analyzer, wherein said external sound analyzer is completely digital and uses a stimulation method comprising a sound processing technique sustaining a stimulation strategy to represent the sound, and an encoding unit of the sound so represented to be conveyed to the inner ear.
Specification