Researchers prototype implantable microphone for de

Researchers prototype implantable microphone for deaf - EE Times

MANHASSET, NY -- A proof-of-concept prototype microphone implanted in the middle ear promises to partly offset the need for wearing an outer hearing aid. The device would still require patients to wear a charger behind the ear while sleeping to recharge an implanted battery. The current prototype of the packaged, middle-ear microphone measures 2.5 x 6.2 mm and weighs 25 mgrams, or less than a thousandth of an ounce. The package is to be reduced to 2 x 2 mm, according to researchers Darrin J. Young, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Utah and USTAR, the Utah Science Technology and Research initiative. The National Institutes of Health says almost 220,000 people worldwide with profound deafness or severe hearing impairment have received cochlear implants, about one-third of them in the United States, where two-fifths of the recipi...

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