• 센서학회지
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• 제23권3호
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• pp.178-184
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• 2014

Key components of implantable hearing aids are consist of an acoustic sensor that collect external sound by suppressing the body noise, a signal processor module for compensation algorithm of hearing loss, and a output transducer which has tiny size but have high efficiency, respectively. In the partial implantable hearing aids, technologies of transducer and signal processor are so matured that can be applied not too much difficulty. However, due to the difficulties in implantable acoustic sensor technology, such as minimization of masticatory sound and damage of sensor's membrane from external impact, practical use of fully implantable hearing aids have not successful so far. In this paper, we have proposed a novel implantable acoustic sensor which has trans-tympanic structure, and is verified that the proposed method can be very useful for fully implantable hearing aids by cadaveric experiments.

• 한국멀티미디어학회논문지
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• 제22권8호
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• pp.923-929
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• 2019

In this paper, biomimetic based physical ear model proposed for measuring the characteristics of a hybrid-acoustic sensor for fully implantable middle-ear hearing aid. The proposed physical ear model consists of the external ear, middle-ear, and cochlea. The physical ear model was implemented based on the anatomical structure and CT images of the human ear. To confirm the characteristics of the ear model, the vibrational characteristics of the stapes was measured after applying sound pressure to the tympanic membrane. The measured results were compared with the vibrational characteristics of the human temporal bone specified by ASTM F2504-05. Through the comparison results, the feasibility of the proposed ear model was confirmed. Then, after attaching the hybrid-acoustic sensor to the ear model, the output characteristics of the ECM and acceleration sensor were measured according to the sound pressure. The measured results were compared with previous studies using human temporal bone, and the usefulness of the proposed physical ear model was verified through the analysis results.

• 재활복지공학회논문지
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• 제11권2호
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• pp.133-141
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• 2017

하이브리드 음향센서 (hybrid acoustic sensor)는 음압 기반의 음향센서 (ECM)와 진동 기반의 가속도 센서(acceleration sensor)가 접목된 구조이다. 이는 음향센서의 저주파 대역 감도와 가속도 센서의 고주파 대역 감도를 결합하여 저주파에서 고주파 대역까지 광범위하게 음향을 포집할 수 있다. 본 논문에서는 하이브리드 음향센서에 사용되는 가속도 센서를 제안하였다. 가속도 센서는 음향신호에 의해 발생되는 고막의 진동을 포집한다. 제안된 가속도 센서의 사이즈는 고막의 해부학적 구조와 음향센서인 ECM의 규격을 고려하여 직경 3.2 mm로 결정하였다. 그리고 하이브리드 음향센서가 고감도 광대역 특성을 가지도록 하기 위해서는 가속도 센서의 공진 주파수는 3.5 kHz 부근에서 생성되는 것을 목표로 하였다. 가속도 센서를 구성하는 진동막은 수학적 모델과 유한요소 해석을 통하여 기하학적 구조를 도출하였다. 이를 바탕으로 화학적 식각공정을 이용하여 진동막을 제작하였다. 그리고 제작된 진동막의 주파수 특성을 확인하기 위하여 외력에 의한 진동 측정 실험을 수행하였고, 실험 결과 진동막의 기계적 공진은 3.4 kHz에서 발생되었다. 그러므로 제안한 가속도 센서는 하이브리드 음향센서에 유용하게 활용될 수 있을 것으로 판단된다.

• 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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• 제18권4호
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• pp.286-293
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• 2009

The implantable middle ear hearing devices(IMEHDs) have been developed to overcome the conventional hearing aid's problem(ringing effect caused by the acoustic feedback, cosmetic problem, etc.). In the IMEHDs, the vibrating transducer is a key component because its vibration enables to hear for hearing impaired people. The vibrating transducer is implanted on ossicular chain by surgical operation. The coupling status between implanted transducer and ossicular chain has an effect on delivering vibrating force from transducer to stapes. Noninvasive method is required to investigate the output characteristics of IMEHDs after implementation. Recently, emitted sound pressure measuring method of tympanic membrane is proposed to investigate the output characteristics of IMEHDs. However, the relationship between displacement of stapes and sound pressure by tympanic membrane was not cleared. In this paper, displacement of stapes and sound pressure by tympanic membrane were measured using the differential floating mass transducer(DFMT) that implanted on the ossicular chain of the human temporal bone and physical ear model. Through the experiments results, the relationship between displacement of stapes and sound pressure by tympanic membrane was investigated.