Sound Awareness Hearing Prosthesis

摘要

The present application discloses a hearing prosthesis configured to alert a user of the presence of sound while operating in a sound awareness mode of operation. When a user of the hearing aid removes the external sound processor and microphone, traditionally, a hearing prosthesis does not produce any audio stimulus. Here, the systems and methods will alert a user to sounds in his or her environment when the external sound processor and microphone are decoupled from the internal components of the hearing prosthesis. In some embodiments, the hearing prosthesis may have an acoustic receiver that is implanted in the recipient. The implanted acoustic detector may be used to detect an aspect of a sound above a threshold level. The threshold may be chosen so the detected sound is a loud sound such as a fire alarm.

主权项

1. A medical implant comprising:
a transducer implanted in a recipient of the medical implant and configured to detect sound; and a processor implanted in the recipient and configured to compare one or more aspects of the detected sound with one or more corresponding aspect thresholds, wherein the medical implant is configured to stimulate the recipient with an alert signal when at least one signal aspect exceeds a corresponding signal aspect threshold.