• 대한의용생체공학회:의공학회지
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• 제26권5호
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• pp.309-317
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• 2005

It is expected that fully-implantable middle-ear hearing devices (FIMEHDs) will soon be available with the advantages of complete concealment, easy surgical implantation, and low power operation to resolve the problems of semi-implantable middle-ear hearing devices (SIMEHDs) such as discomfort of wearing an external device and replacement of battery. Over the last 3 years, a Korean research team at Kyungpook National University has developed an FIMEHD called ACRHS-1 based on a differential floating mass transducer (DFMT). The main research focus was functional improvement, the establishment of easy surgical procedures for implantation, miniaturization, and a low-power operation. Accordingly, this paper reviews the overall system architecture, functions, and experimental results for ACRHS-1 and its related accessories, including a wireless battery charger and remote controller.

• 한국멀티미디어학회논문지
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• 제19권2호
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• pp.189-199
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• 2016

Many implantable hearing aids are being developed as alternatives to conventional hearing aids which has inconveniences for use and social stigma that make hearing-impaired people avoid to wear it. Particularly, the fully-implantable middle ear hearing devices (F-IMEHD) are being actively studied for mixed or sensorineural hearing impaired people. In development of F-IMEHD, the most difficult problem is improving the performance of implantable microphone. Recently, Cho et al. have studied the tympanic membrane installed microphone which has better sensitivity and is easier to operate on patient than the microphone implanted under the skin. But, it may cause howling problem due to the feedback signal via oval window and ossicle chain from the transducer on round window in the middle ear cavity, therefore, a feedback canceller is necessary. In this paper, we designed NLMS (normalized least mean square) adaptive feedback canceller for F-IMEHD with tympanic membrane installed microphone and a transducer implemented at round window, and computer simulation was performed to verify its operation. The designed adaptive feedback canceller has a delay filter, a 64 point FIR fixed filter and a 8-tap adaptive FIR filter. Computer simulation of the feedback path is modeled by using the data obtained through human cadaver experiment.

• 대한의용생체공학회:의공학회지
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• 제28권4호
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• pp.539-548
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• 2007

In the paper, a wireless charger with the function of auto-shutdown for fully implantale middle ear hearing devices (F-IMEHD) has been designed. The wireless charger can communicate with an implant module to be turned off automatically shutdown after an internal rechargeable battery has been fully-charged by electromagnetic coupling using two coils. For the communication with an implant module, the wireless charger uses the load shift keying (LSK) method. But, the variation of the mutual inductance due to the different distance between two coils can cause the communication error in receiving the fully-charged signal from an implant module. To solve the problem, the implemented wireless charger has a variable reference generator for LSK communication. The wireless charger generates proper level of the reference voltage for a comparator using an ADC (analog-to-digital converter) and a DAC (digital-to-analog converter). Through the result of experiment, it has been confirmed that the presented wireless charger can detect signals from implantable module. And wireless charger can stop generating electromagnetic flux after an implanted battery has been fully charged in spite of variable coil distance according to different skin thickness.

• 재활복지공학회논문지
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• 제4권1호
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• pp.29-34
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• 2010

완전 이식형 보청기는 기존 보청기가 가지고 있는 여러 문제점들을 해결하기 위해 연구 개발되고 있다. 이러한 완전이식형 보청기에 사용되는 이식형 마이크로폰은 일반적으로 측두부의 피부아래 이식된다. 그런데 이식된 마이크로폰의 특성은 음식을 먹거나 치아의 마찰, 생체동잡음에 의해 영향을 받을 수 있다. 본 논문에서는 이식된 마이크로폰에 골전도를 통해 전달된 생체잡음신호가 미치는 영향을 조사하기 위하여, 사람의 측두부 및 피부의 특성이 유사한 물리모델을 제작하여, 이식된 마이크로폰의 감도측정실험을 수행하였다. 1 kHz의 순음신호를 이식된 마이크로폰에 인가하고, 동시에 여러 주파수대의 정현파진동을 인공뼈에 인가하여 측정되었다. 그 결과 마이크로폰의 출력은 골전도를 통한 신호의 영향을 받아 왜곡될 수 있으며, 그 영향은 주파수대역에 따라 달라짐을 확인하였다.

• 센서학회지
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• 제19권5호
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• pp.361-368
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• 2010

ACROSS device, which is composed of an implantable microphone, a signal processor, and a vibrating transducer, is a fullyimplantable middle ear hearing device(F-IMEHD) for the recovery of patients with hearing loss. And since a microphone is implanted under skin and tissue at the temporal bones, the amplitude of the sound wave is attenuated by absorption and scattering. And the vibrating transducer attached to the ossicular chain caused also the different displacement from characteristic of the stapes. For the gain control of auditory signals, most of implantable hearing devices with the digital audio signal processor still apply to fitting rules of conventional hearing aid without regard to the effect of the implanted microphone and the vibrating transducer. So it should be taken into account the effect of the implantable microphone and the vibrating transducer to use the conventional audio fitting rule. The aim of this study was to measure gain characteristics caused by the implanted microphone and the vibrating transducer attached to the ossicle chains for the gain compensation of ACROSS device. Differential floating mass transducers (DFMT) of ACROSS device were clipped on four cadaver temporal bones. And after placing the DFMT on them, displacements of the ossicle chain with the DFMT operated by 1 $mA_{peak}$ current was measured using laser Doppler vibrometer. And the sensitivity of microphones under the sampled pig skin and the skin of 3 rat back were measured by stimulus of pure tones in frequency from 0.1 to 8.9 kHz. And we confirmed that the microphone implanted under skin showed poorer frequency response in the acoustic high-frequency band than it in the low- to mid- frequency band, and the resonant frequency of the stapes vibration was changed by attaching the DFMT on the incus, the displacement of the DFMT driven with 1 $mA_{rms}$ was higher by the amount of about 20 dB than that of cadaver's stapes driven by the sound presssure of 94 dB SPL in resonance frequency range.

• 센서학회지
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• 제16권3호
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• pp.165-173
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• 2007

A differential floating mass transducer has been developed in Korea for fully implantable middle ear hearing devices (F-IMEHDs). In particular, the performance of a differential floating mass transducer (DFMT) is very important among the parts of the F-IMEHDs because the mechanical vibration generated by DFMT is delivered to the inner ear directly. In this paper, the electrical model is proposed to analyze the DFMT vibration characteristic using the mechanical model of the DFMT. The electrical model enables the simple analysis of DFMT vibration characteristics using a computer program. The proposed electrical model is simulated through PSpice as changing the values of passive elements in the electrical model. To verify the proposed model, the DFMT has been implemented on the basis of the simulated results and the experiment for vibration measurement has been carried out. Through the comparison, it is verified that the proposed model is useful to analyze the vibration characteristics of the DFMT.

• 재활복지공학회논문지
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• 제2권1호
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• pp.27-33
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• 2009

일반적으로, 완전 이식형 인공중이의 이식형 마이크로폰은 측두골 부근에 이식되어진다. 이 경우, 마이크로폰의 진동막이 외부 충격이나 생체 노이즈의 영향 받을 수 있으며 이런 문제를 해결하기 위하여 이식용 마이크로폰을 외이도 내에 이식하는 방법을 고려할 수 있다. 그러나 이소골에 이식된 진동 트랜스듀서에 의해서 고막으로부터 외이도 방향으로 음향 반향이 발생할 가능성이 있다. 본 논문에서는 사람의 귀와 유사한 특성을 가지는 귀 모델을 제작하여 프로브 마이크로폰의 위치를 변경해가며 외이도의 음향 반향을 측정하였고 실험결과를 통하여 외이도 내에서의 마이크로폰의 이식 위치를 추정해 보았다. 분석 결과 외이도에 마이크로폰을 이식할 경우 고막에서 멀어질수록 반향 신호가 감소함을 확인할 수는 있었으나, 반향 신호를 완전히 제거할 수 없기 때문에 외이도에 마이크로폰을 이식하기에는 부적합한 것으로 예상된다.