Systems and methods for facilitating interaural time difference perception by a binaural cochlear implant patient

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10342976-B2
Application number	US-201615741217-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 30, 2016
Priority date	Jul 10, 2015
Publication date	Jul 9, 2019
Grant date	Jul 9, 2019

Abstract

A binaural cochlear implant system (system) includes first and second microphones associated with first and second ears of a patient, respectively. The microphones detect an audio signal presented to the patient and output first and second signals representative of the audio signal as detected at the first and second ears, respectively. The system also includes a first sound processor that receives the first signal from the first microphone and the second signal from a second sound processor by way of a communiation link with the second sound processors. The first sound processor generates first and second fine structure signals representative of fine structure information of the first and second fine structure signals, respectively, and generates a timing pulse signal based on the first and second fine structure signals. The first sound processor uses the timing pulse signal to represent to the patient an interaural time difference between the first and second signals.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A binaural cochlear implant system comprising:
a first microphone associated with a first ear of a patient and that
detects an audio signal at the first ear as the audio signal is presented to the patient, and
outputs, as the audio signal is presented to the patient, a first signal representative of the audio signal as detected by the first microphone at the first ear, the first signal including first fine structure and envelope signal elements;

a second microphone associated with a second ear of the patient and that
detects the audio signal at the second ear as the audio signal is presented to the patient, and
outputs, as the audio signal is presented to the patient, a second signal representative of the audio signal as detected by the second microphone at the second ear, the second signal including second fine structure and envelope signal elements;

a first sound processor associated with the first ear of the patient and that is communicatively coupled directly to the first microphone; and
a second sound processor associated with the second ear of the patient and that is communicatively coupled directly to the second microphone;
wherein the first sound processor
receives the first signal directly from the first microphone,
receives the second signal from the second sound processor by way of a communication link that interconnects the first and second sound processors,
determines, based on the first and second fine structure signal elements, that a first feature of the first fine structure signal element and a second feature of the second fine structure signal element both correspond to a particular feature of the audio signal,
generates, based on the determination that the first and second features of the respective first and second fine structure signal elements both correspond to the particular feature of the audio signal, a first timing pulse signal, and

uses the first timing pulse signal to represent, to the patient, an interaural time difference (“ITD”) between the first signal output by the first microphone and the second signal output by the second microphone.

2. The binaural cochlear implant system of claim 1 , wherein the second sound processor:
receives the second signal directly from the second microphone;
receives the first signal from the first sound processor by way of the communication link that interconnects the first and second sound processors;
independently determines, independent from the first sound processor and based on the first and second fine structure signal elements, that the first feature of the first fine structure signal element and the second feature of the second fine structure signal element both correspond to the particular feature of the audio signal,
generates, based on the independent determination that the first and second features of the respective first and second fine structure signal elements both correspond to the particular feature of the audio signal, a second timing pulse signal; and
uses the second timing pulse signal to represent, to the patient, the ITD between the first signal output by the first microphone and the second signal output by the second microphone.

3. The binaural cochlear implant system of claim 2 , further comprising a first cochlear implant implanted within the patient and associated with the first ear, and a second cochlear implant implanted within the patient and associated with the second ear, wherein:
the first timing pulse signal includes a first timing pulse occurring at a first time;
the second timing pulse signal includes a second timing pulse corresponding to the first timing pulse and occurring at a second time;
the first time is offset from the second time by a time offset amount, the time offset amount based on the ITD between the first signal and the second signal and representative of a spatial position of a source of the audio signal being presented to the patient with respect to respective spatial positions of the first ear and the second ear of the patient;
the first sound processor uses the first timing pulse signal to represent the ITD to the patient by directing the first cochlear implant associated with the first ear to apply electrical stimulation to the patient at the first time; and
the second sound processor uses the second timing pulse signal to represent the ITD to the patient by directing the second cochlear implant associated with the second ear to apply electrical stimulation to the patient at the second time offset from the first time by the time offset amount based on the ITD.

4. The binaural cochlear implant system of claim 1 , wherein:
the generation by the first sound processor of the first timing pulse signal includes generating a first plurality of ITD timing pulses for inclusion in the first timing pulse signal, each ITD timing pulse included in the first plurality of ITD timing pulses offset, from a corresponding ITD timing pulse included in a second plurality of ITD timing pulses generated for inclusion in a second timing pulse signal by the second sound processor, by a time offset amount based on the ITD between the first signal and the second signal; and
the first sound processor directs a cochlear implant implanted within the patient and associated with the first ear to apply electrical stimulation representative of the first signal to the patient at one or more times corresponding to the first plurality of ITD timing pulses included in the first timing pulse signal.

5. The binaural cochlear implant system of claim 4 , wherein:
the generation by the first sound processor of the first timing pulse signal further includes generating a plurality of periodic timing pulses for inclusion in the first timing pulse signal, the plurality of periodic timing pulses interspersed with the first plurality of ITD timing pulses included in the first timing pulse signal and occurring periodically based on a predetermined pulse rate; and
the first sound processor further directs the cochlear implant implanted within the patient to apply electrical stimulation representative of the first signal to the patient at one or more times corresponding to the first plurality of periodic timing pulses included in the first timing pulse signal.

6. The binaural cochlear implant system of claim 5 , wherein:
the predetermined pulse rate at which the plurality of periodic timing pulses is generated is regulated independently from an average pulse rate at which the plurality of ITD timing pulses is generated; and
the predetermined pulse rate at which the plurality of periodic timing pulses is generated is regulated to be at least twice as high as the average pulse rate at which the plurality of ITD timing pulses is generated.

7. The binaural cochlear implant system of claim 1 , wherein the first sound processor further:
divides the first signal received directly from the first microphone into a plurality of analysis channels each corresponding to a different frequency range included in a plurality of frequency ranges, the plurality of analysis channels including a particular analysis channel corresponding to a particular frequency range included in the plurality of frequency ranges; and
divides the second signal received from the second sound processor by way of the communication link into the plurality of analysis channels;
wherein
the first fine structure signal element corresponds to the particular analysis channel and is representative of fine structure information only included in a portion of the first signal that is in the particular frequency range of the particular analysis channel, and
the second fine structure signal element corresponds to the particular analysis channel and is representative of fine structure information only

Assignees

• Advanced Bionics Ag
• Chen Chen
• Litvak Leonid M

Inventors

• Chen Chen
• Litvak Leonid M

Classifications

• A61N1/36038 Primary

  Cochlear stimulation · CPC title

• H04R2225/67

  Implantable hearing aids or parts thereof not covered by H04R25/606 · CPC title

• H04R2225/43

  Signal processing in hearing aids to enhance the speech intelligibility · CPC title

• H04R25/554

  using a wireless connection, e.g. between microphone and amplifier or using Tcoils · CPC title

• H04R25/552

  Binaural · CPC title