• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.63-71
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• 2017

In this paper, a signal processing circuit for semi-implantable middle ear hearing device is designed using the TCBT which is recently proposed for a new middle ear transducer that can be implanted at round window of cochlea. The designed semi-implantable hearing device transmits digital sound signal from external device located at behind the ear to the internal device implanted under the skin using inductive coupling link methods with high efficiency. The coils and signal processing circuits are designed and implemented considering the total transmission and reception distance including skin thickness of temporal bone for the semi-implantable hearing device. And also, to improve the data transmission efficiency, the output circuits which can supply sufficient signal power is designed. In order to confirm operation of semi-implantable hearing device using inductive coupling link, the circuit analysis was performed using PSpice, and the performance was verified by implementing a signal processing board of an available size.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.535-544
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• 1996

In this paper, we analyzed the coil-magnet type vibrating transducer for the implantable middle ear hearing aid which is appropriate for patient's hearing level, and an experimental transducer system is designed For the objective and quantitative analysis of the transducer, a theoretical equivalent model containing coil, magneto and inner ear is developed To perform effective evaluation of the transducer, a transforming ratio Tr is introduced and its range that is suitable for practical implantable middle ear hearing device is foun4 The result of applying physical parameters of ear system to the proposed analytical model shows that frequency response of the coil magrlet type vibrator is predominantly governed by resistive impedance of the coil rather than inertia effect of the magnet and the inner parameters. In addition, we realized an experimental middle ear hearing aid system to show the theoretical validity of designed system and this will provide the basis of the development for actually implantable system.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.5
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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.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.487-495
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• 1998

In this paper, a new type of implantable middle ear hearing aid, which consists of external loop coil, a small magnet and a simple external device, is proposed. The internal device of proposed type consists of only a small magnet and the external device does not need to be positioned behind the ear or in the ear canal. The proposed type is excellent in cosmetic sides and very convenient to use, because the external device can be hidden in upper garment and collar of clothes. Also, purposely this type doesn't need to be small on the size of battery, which means it has longer battery life. Therefore, the battery is not necessary to be charged frequently. It also can solve the difficulty of gap calibration at surgical operation which conventional Implantable middle. Therefore, the battery is not necessary to be charged frequently. It also can solve the difficulty of gap calibration at surgical operation which conventional implantable middle ear hearing aid has. We investigate the performance of proposed implantable middle ear bearing aid and we analyze that proposed type is appropriate for mild and severe hearing impaired person and the result of experiment showed the accuracy of our analysis. For the validation of our analysis we used the temporal bone at the experiment and confirm that ossicles can be vibrated when the proposed system In startled in the body.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.29-36
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• 2007

Recently, implantable middle ear hearing devices (IMEHDs) have been developed to overcome the problems of conventional hearing aids. In this paper, a piezoelectric floating mass transducer (PFMT) based on a PZT multi-layered actuator has been designed and implemented using the approximated mechanical vibration modeling for the PFMT and the analysis of vibration characteristics through the transformation into the equivalent electrical model. The implemented PFMT has been attached to the ossicle of a human cadaver's temporal bone and the in-vitro experiment has been performed. Through the experimental results, it has been verified that the PFMT applied into our developed implantable middle ear hearing device can be used for an IMEHD transducer.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.21-25
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• 2009

Generally, fully implantable middle ear hearing device (F-IMEHD) is implanted under the skin nearby human temporal bone with all components including implantable microphone and vibration transducer. The microphone and transducer have different characteristic before and after implant. Fitting process is performed for this characteristic change of them and proper performance of hearing aids for each patient. Conventional hearing aids and partially implantable hearing aids, they have wired connector for fitting process. However in case of F-IMEHD, it is difficult this wired connection, because all components of F-IMEHD is implanted. In this paper, fitting software that can be apply wireless fitting hardware for F-IMEHD has been designed and implemented. It can find out proper fitting parameter reflecting characteristics of the microphone and transducer for patients who has difficulty in hearing.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.24 no.7
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• pp.379-386
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• 2005

Among various kinds of hearing aids which have been developed so far. the conventional air conduction hearing aids have some problems such as the acoustic distortion, an howling effect due to acoustic feedback. Another type of hearing aid. the cochlear implant system can be applied to the profound imparied person. However. it shows the disadvantage that there is no possibility of recovery of the acoustic organ such as ossicle. On the other hand. the implantable middle ear heaving device directly vibratos the ossicular chain and has better sound qualify. good cosmetics for appearance. and wide frequency responses so that it can overcome the defects or the conventional hearing aids. In this paper, a mathematical modeling and a momentum equation derivation of the DET has been performed. For the optimization of the structure dimension generating maximal vibrating force of the DET. the computer simulation using a finite element analysis (FEA) software has been performed. Also. the vibrating transducer has been designed to make the frequency characteristics or the transducer be similar to those of the normal middle ear. Through the experimental results, the measured vibration characteristics of the DET has been evaluated to verify the performance for the application to implantable middle ear hearing devices.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.19 no.2
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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.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.19 no.5
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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.

• Proceedings of the KOSOMBE Conference
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• v.1996 no.05
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• pp.243-247
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• 1996

Electro-magnetic type implantable middle ear hearing aid has been empirically developed. But for further improvement of the system performance more quantitative approach is necessary. In this paper, we analyzed vibrating transducer which is most important to design the system, appropriate for given hearing level, and implemented it. Using this transducer, implantable hearing aid system are developed. To verify the design process, we experimented with driving metal strip by the developed system. From the experiment, frequency response of implemented device showed good characteristic at audio frequency and we confirmed that each part of the developed system operated well.