I think I may have mentioned before that I am an electrical engineer at a very large electronics company. In fact, the company that I work for has provided integrated circuits to the cochlear implant industry in the past, and we have a lot of internal expertise in digital signal processing. So, I am always excited to hear about the "geek part" of cochlear implants. I love trips to the audi because I get a chance to see the latest stuff.
Now I am sure that most of you caught the January issue of Components in Electronics (I am sure you all have lifetime subscriptions). For the few of you that missed that riveting volume, there is a cool article about cochlear implant development in there. The piece discusses some work that is going on at Cochlear to interface between patients implants and "test stuff." In the past, researchers have used a MATLAB-based program to stimulate implants and gotten feedback from the patients directly. Recently, they have evolved this approach and have developed some cool real-time systems for "trying new stuff out."
As an engineer, it is obvious to me how critical this kind of work is. This is where the better implants and better coding strategies come from. The guys a Chochlear put it best:
"Without a good research platform, it's impossible to test new approaches efficiently," conclude Goorevich and Swanson. "Using the platforms that we have developed—and continue to develop—we have the opportunity to rapidly try new ideas, features, and algorithms that will help people hear better."
You can check out the full article here.
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