Cochlea hearing aid fixed on eardrum

• US 9,901,736 B2
• Filed: 05/13/2016
• Issued: 02/27/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 05/14/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kuang-Chao Chen, Silicon Motion Incorporated California (Silicon Motion)
• Original Assignee: Kuang-Chao Chen, Silicon Motion Incorporated California (Silicon Motion)
• Inventors: Chen, Kuang-Chao, Yeh, Kuo-Liang
• Primary Examiner(s): Gedeon, Brian T
• Application Number:
  US15/154,505
• Publication Number:
  US 20160331965A1
• Time in Patent Office: 655 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/0541 Cochlear electrodes
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/36038 Cochlear stimulation
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/37217 characterised by the communication link, e.g. acoustic or tactile
• CPC Class Codes: G02C 11/06 Hearing aids construction of hearing aids H04R25/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/58 Use of machine translation, e.g. for multi-lingual retrieval, for server-side translation for client devices or for real-time translation

Abstract

A cochlea hearing aid device for helping users to hear includes a cochlea electrode and a driver circuit. The driver circuit has a casing for installing at a through hole on an eardrum of the user. The cochlea electrode is installed within the cochlea of a user. The driver circuit is connected to the cochlea electrode in order to signal process a voice data and provides a corresponding driving signal for cochlea electrode. Therefore, the neural cells in the cochlea of the user will be stimulated and helped the user to hear.

Claims

1. A cochlea hearing aid device for helping user to hear, comprising:

a cochlea electrode, disposed at the cochlea of a user;

a driver circuit, comprising a casing that is configured to be installed at a through hole on the eardrum of the user, and the driver circuit being electrically connected to cochlea electrode, wherein the driver circuit signal processes a voice data in order to provide a corresponding driving signal for driving the cochlea electrode; and

a plurality of hand-held electronic apparatuses transmitting different wireless signals to the driver circuit respectively, and the driver circuit synthesizing received wireless signals, wherein at least one of hand-held electronic apparatuses stores a plurality of scenario parameters, and transmits a controlling signal to the driver circuit based on a selected scenario parameter, wherein the driver circuit adjusts an output parameter of the cochlea electrode according to the controlling signal transmitted by the hand-held electronic apparatus.

2. The cochlea hearing aid device of claim 1, wherein a contacting portion of the casing is attached to the through hole on the eardrum in order to locate the driver circuit at an appropriate position.

3. The cochlea hearing aid device of claim 1, further comprising a digital processing circuit for generating and adjusting the voice data.

4. The cochlea hearing aid device of claim 1, further comprising a voice amplifier and a voice collector, wherein the voice collector collects an external sound and the external sound is amplified by the voice amplifier then provides the voice data.

5. The cochlea hearing aid device of claim 4, wherein the voice amplifier and the driver circuit are connected via a signal wire.

6. The cochlea hearing aid device of claim 4, wherein the voice amplifier and the driver circuit are configured to communicate via wireless protocol.

7. The cochlea hearing aid device of claim 1, further comprising a wireless circuit disposed within the driver circuit for receiving the wireless signal and converting the wireless signal to the voice data.

8. The cochlea hearing aid device of claim 7, further comprising a processing circuit being disposed on a pair smart glass, the processing circuit providing the voice data to the driver circuit.

9. The cochlea hearing aid device of claim 1, wherein at least one of the hand-held electronic apparatuses is a mobile phone.

10. The cochlea hearing aid device of claim 1, further comprising a power circuit disposed within the driver circuit that provides the power to the cochlea electrode and the driver circuit.

11. The cochlea hearing aid device of claim 10, wherein the power is transmitted from the power circuit for eardrum to driver circuit via wireless manner.

12. The cochlea hearing aid device of claim 10, wherein the user uses a pair of the cochlea hearing aid devices, and the output parameter of the cochlea electrodes of each cochlea hearing aid device is adjustable respectively.

13. The cochlea hearing aid device of claim 12, wherein the cochlea electrodes provide different corresponding voice signals with a direction perception to the eardrum for helping the user to hear.

14. The cochlea hearing aid device of claim 1, wherein through a translating process the origin voice signal from the outside is translated to a corresponding voice signal with a replaced content.

15. The cochlea hearing aid device of claim 14, wherein the voice data extracts portion of the origin voice signal from the outside and repeatedly plays.

16. The cochlea hearing aid device of claim 14, wherein the translating process is a foreign language translating process.

17. The cochlea hearing aid device of claim 14, wherein the translating process is a dialect translating process.

18. The cochlea hearing aid device of claim 1, wherein the voice data extracts at least one keyword form the origin voice signal from the outside, and at least one keyword is accentuated.

19. The cochlea hearing aid device of claim 1, wherein the driver circuit adjusts weight of different wireless signals according to the controlling signal.