Category: Ears
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Direct brain path for sight, sound via implanted microscope
Rice University’s Jacob Robinson, with Yale and Columbia colleagues, are developing FlatScope — a flat, brain implanted microscope that monitors and triggers neurons which are modified to be fluorescent when active. While capturing greater detail than current brain probes, the microscope also goes through deep levels that illustrate sensory input processing — which they hope to…
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Toward a speech-driven auditory Brain Computer Interface
University of Oldenburg student Carlos Filipe da Silva Souto is in the early stages of developing a brain computer interface that can advise a user who he/she is listening to in a noisy room. Wearers could focus on specific conversations, and tune out background noise. Most BCI studies have focused on visual stimuli, which typically outperforms…
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AR + Kinect games assist the hearing, visually impaired
Reflex Arc‘s augmented reality games work with Microsoft Kinect to help children learn sign language and assist the visually impaired with exercise. Boris gestures sign language, and The Nepalese Necklace helps those with no limited sight with mobility training. The games encourage exercise and are designed to help blind children learn about spatial awareness, balance, coordination, and orientation.…
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Video messaging app for the hearing impaired
Glide combines the concepts of WhatsApp with Skype, enabling users to send short videos of themselves. It has become a popular communication tool for the hearing impaired, who use it for sign language messaging. The app has 20 million registered users. The company hopes to soon offer instant subtitles for sign language, and the ability to convert…
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Cochlear implant could improve senior cognition, mood
Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital researchers examined 94 cochlear implant patients 3 times — before they received the device, 6 months after implantation, and 1 year after implantation. A year after the implant, (65 – 85 year old) subjects heard words more clearly, and most had improved cognition and fewer depression symptoms. Dr. Isabelle Mosnier and colleagues detailed…
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iPhone controlled hearing aids
ReSound LiNX, Beltone First and the Starkey Halo are hearing aids that work directly with iPhones. Audio is sent to the device as it would a Bluetooth earpiece. It can also act as a remote control. One’s phone can be a hearing aid’s microphone, record information about when and where it is adjusted, and track how…
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Cochlear implant pulses deliver DNA for gene therapy
UNSW Professor Gary Housley used electrical pulses from a cochlear implant to deliver gene therapy, successfully regrowing auditory nerves. Until now, the “bionic ear” has been largely constrained by the neural interface. In the study, Professor Housley and colleagues used the cochlear implant electrode array for novel “close-field” electroporation to transduce mesenchymal cells lining the cochlear perilymphatic…
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“Bionic” ear merges electronics with tissue
http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S36/80/19M40/index.xml?section=topstories Princeton Professor Michael McAlpine has created a prototype artificial ear using 3D printing of cells and nanoparticles followed by cell culture to combine a small coil antenna with cartilage. This functional ear can “hear” radio frequencies far beyond the range of normal human capability.