Artificial vestibular organ system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10478286-B2
Application number	US-201515474224-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 30, 2015
Priority date	Nov 7, 2014
Publication date	Nov 19, 2019
Grant date	Nov 19, 2019

Abstract

An artificial vestibular organ system includes an artificial semicircular canal; a liquid filled in the artificial semicircular canal; artificial hair for sensing movement of liquid in the artificial semicircular canal; a signal conversion unit for converting an electrical or magnetic signal generated from the artificial hair into a body stimulation signal; a body stimulation pulse generation unit for transmitting the body stimulation pulse converted by the signal conversion unit to the ampulla; and a power unit. The artificial hair can be constituted in a pressure sensing manner or in a speed sensing manner for sensing the flow rate. The pressure sensing type can be formed of flex sensor, a piezoelectric sensor, or an FSR sensor, and the velocity sensing type can include rotary wings rotated according to the flow of the liquid or a speed measuring instrument for measuring the rotating speed of the rotary wings.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An artificial vestibular organ system comprising: an artificial semicircular canal;
an artificial hair in the artificial semicircular canal configured to generate an electrical or magnetic signal according to changes in position; and
a body stimulation pulse generation unit configured to generate a body stimulation pulse using the electrical or magnetic signal generated from the artificial hair to transmit the body stimulation pulse to an ampulla,
wherein the artificial hair is disposed on one surface of an interior of the artificial semicircular canal and is configured to sense a movement of a liquid.

2. The artificial vestibular organ system according to claim 1 , further comprising a power unit configured to supply power to the artificial hair and the body stimulation pulse generation unit.

3. The artificial vestibular organ system according to claim 1 , wherein the artificial hair comprises a pressure sensing type artificial hair for sensing a pressure according to the movement of the liquid.

4. The artificial vestibular organ system according to claim 3 , wherein the pressure sensing type artificial hair comprises a triboelectric sensor using triboelectric charging.

5. The artificial vestibular organ system according to claim 3 , wherein the pressure sensing type artificial hair comprises a flex sensor.

6. The artificial vestibular organ system according to claim 3 , wherein the pressure sensing type artificial hair comprises a piezoelectric sensor.

7. The artificial vestibular organ system according to claim 3 , wherein the pressure sensing type artificial hair comprises a force sensing resistor (FSR) sensor.

8. The artificial vestibular organ system according to claim 1 , wherein three artificial vestibular organ systems are located at three different axes to recognize all directions.

9. The artificial vestibular organ system according to claim 8 , wherein the three different axes are pitch, yaw and roll axes.

Assignees

• Univ Inha Res & Business Found

Inventors

• Kim Kyu Sung
• Shim Hyeon Min
• Lee Sangmin
• Lee Woo Key
• Shim Bong Sup
• Hong Ki Hwan
• Park Soon Hyoung

Classifications

• A61F2002/183

  Ear parts · CPC title

• A61F2/18 Primary

  Internal ear or nose parts, e.g. ear-drums {(implants for middle ear ventilation or drainage A61F11/202)} · CPC title

• A61N1/0526

  Head electrodes (A61N1/0551 takes precedence) · CPC title

• A61F11/04

  Methods or devices for enabling ear patients to achieve auditory perception through physiological senses other than hearing sense, e.g. through the touch sense {(electronic stimulation of auditory nerves A61N1/36036)} · CPC title

• A61N1/36128

  Control systems · CPC title