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Cochlear-VII - Advances in Auditory Implants: signal processing and clinical aspects

From 01-11-2015 to 31-10-2018

Description

Concrete contributions to the improvement of fitting and signal processing in auditory implants. Translation of research results in to relevant clinical ideas and prototypes.
Concrete doelen en criteria:
Note that more specific and objective goals are presented at the end of each work package description in section 1D.2
WP1: After the successful pilot work in the previous project (IWT110722) we will develop a model to predict performance of bilateral or bimodal systems that will greatly speed up development of bilateral/binaural algorithms. We will develop a test-implementation of the most promising signal processing scheme for bilateral/bimodal processing and we will develop and research a fully integrated bimodal localization scheme based on ILD and ITD perception Fully integrated means that it will be implemented in a realistic Cochlear Implant (CI) and Hearing Aid model including all the peripheral gain models etc, as well. Finally we will execute research to generate clinical recommendations and guidelines on how to setup automatic gain control systems between a hearing aid and a Cochlear Implant in different ears. This will further enhance the bilateral/bimodal experience for our users.
WP2: We will optimize and simplify the current EASSR methods to make them clinically feasible, we will develop a method to predict speech-in-noise performance based on supra-threshold objective measurement and a method to de-select electrodes based on EASSR measurements in order to optimize performance with a cochlear implant. In addition we will work out a clinical scheme to fit a Codacs type implant based on objective ASSR easurements.
WP3: We will work on a research prototype of a real-time noise reduction scheme using ‘external node’ microphones. These external nodes can be any system external to the device placed at an unknown location which is able to stream audio to the device. In practice this will probably be Cochlear’s wireless mini-mic, or an IPhone streaming over Bluetooth LE. Further to the noise reduction performance benefit analysis, special attention to implementability of the scheme will be given. For instance we will look at the effect of signal compression, sample
rate mismatches, bit errors in the transmission, and latencies.
WP4: In this work package we will further research the feedback cancellation technology developed in the previous project. This feedback cancellation technology will be implemented in a real-time system and tested in real-time. In the previous project we have analysed bench performance and although the results are (very) promising further validation and evaluation work is needed with more realistic systems.
WP5: In this work package we will use existing data (recordings) of implantable microphones to develop an implantable microphone signal processing algorithm to optimize the user experience for future CI users with a fully implantable system. Specific attention will be given to specific body noises and distortions caused by the user’s own voice.
WP6: In this work package we will investigate and create the tools needed in the other work packages to drive the implants in a flexible way. We will develop a new version of our research platform that will work with commercially available hardware (Nucleus 6 processor). This platform is used in the above work packages and has been develop in earlier projects but the hardware that was used (L34) is no longer available. We will also investigate options for delivering a very flexible research tool for objective measures. Finally we will start nvestigating options to develop a research platform for our future implant system.