Magnetic Hearing Aid, Ear Implant

[Allen L. Barker]

[Here's an interesting reference which I came across at the Whitaker site:
A tiny implanted magnet the size of a pencil tip stimulates the cochlea...
It is not entirely clear from this web page exactly how it operates, but
I'm assuming that the electromagnet vibrates the implanted magnet (and hence
the round window), transferring and amplifying the sound.
The interesting thing is the *additional* processing that they discuss
performing on the sound, like cancellation and enhancement. Sound familiar?
Note that a person with such a magnetic implant on their round window would
also tend to hear other strong *externally* imposed magnetic fields...
Beyond just a magnet, a more advanced device could also sense and telemeter
out vibrations from the round window -- or perhaps aid in the remote sensing
of such vibrations. Such ear-level implanted devices also remind me of the
Brian Wronge case:
http://www.brazilboycott.org/BrazilByct/update.html
http://www.brazilboycott.org/BrazilByct/help.html
]

Magnetic Hearing Aid Could Open New "Window" for Hearing Impaired
http://www.whitaker.org/news/hearing.html

[...]

The unique device would capture sounds with a miniature microphone
implanted in the ear. After passing through a small processing unit and
an electromagnetic coil, both also implanted, amplified vibrations would
be sent to the inner ear via a tiny magnet attached to the inner ear's
round window, a thin membrane at one end of the cochlea.

About as large as a pencil point, the tiny magnet would send vibrations
through the cochlea, the fluid-filled organ shaped like a snail shell, and
stimulate its thousands of hair cells used in normal hearing. The new
device is the first to use an electromagnet to stimulate the inner ear via
the round window.

A major feature of Spindel's approach is that the device doesn't obstruct
the normal hearing process. "Leaving the middle ear system intact and
establishing a second independent input pathway to the inner ear opens
the possibility for using the normal acoustic pathway and round window
electromagnet simultaneously to establish constructive and destructive
sound patterns in the inner ear," said Spindel.

The device could enhance the sound of a person's voice, for example, by
generating sound waves matching those of the voice as it reaches the ear.
What ultimately reaches the brain and what the user actually hears is the
net effect of combining the natural sound patterns with those generated
by the magnetic hearing device. In this way, the sound waves from the
device amplify the desired sound.

To reduce background noise, however, the device simply generates a sound
pattern that mirrors the pattern of the undesirable sound. In this case,
when coupled with the natural sound pattern, the net effect the user
actually hears is little or no sound at all; each sound wave is the opposite
of the other and they cancel each other out.

Spindel said he envisions a human prototype with a separate external
control device used to tune in the desired frequencies and tune out unwanted
sounds and noise. Changes in the settings would be relayed to the fully
implanted hearing device remotely. Further development depends on future
funding, said Spindel.

[...]

--
Mind Control: TT&P ==> http://www.datafilter.com/mc
Home page: http://www.datafilter.com/alb
Allen Barker