A cochlear implant is an implanted electronic hearing device, designed to produce useful hearing sensations to a person with severe to profound nerve deafness by electrically stimulating nerves inside the inner ear.
These implants usually consist of 2 main components:
The externally worn microphone, sound processor and transmitter system.
The implanted receiver and electrode system, which contains the electronic circuits that receive signals from the external system and send electrical currents to the inner ear.
Currently made devices have a magnet that holds the external system in place next to the implanted internal system. The external system may be worn entirely behind the ear or its parts may be worn in a pocket, belt pouch, or harness.
Cochlear Implants
Clarion Cochlear Implants The web site for Clarion has an excellent site that has a large number of areas to visit. It has cochlear implant history, press releases, components of the Clarion Multi-Strategy Cochlear Implant System, candidacy, patient info, and an interactive area.
Cochlear Corporation Excellent site!! This web site is from the makers of the Nucleus 24 Cochlear Implant system. It has information about the product, a kid zone, patient and parent information, and a search site.
MED-EL... Medical Electronics Nice site that has an American and international web site area. The American area is currently being updated, but the international portion is in English also. Very basic information in the patient info area. Has a library, product information, and recent news.
Cochlear Implants: Restoring Hearing to the Deaf This is an article out of The Harvard Mahoney Neuroscience Institute Letter. It is a personal perspective on cochlear implants. It has some basic information about cochlear implants, and how a patient may feel about the experience
Cochlear Implants... AllHear A large volume of information that deals more with how a patient is effected by a cochlear implant. The patient's perspective is heavily covered. It has specific articles for patient and parents to read.
Hearing ... A New Choice for Deaf Children and Adults Nice site that is not technical in nature, but has some good solid information. It is an article that is designed in a question and answer format. Very basic.
British Cochlear Implant Group
This site allows patients and other hearing healthcare providers the opportunity to exchange questions and comments with cochlear implant professionals.
The Portland Hospital for Women and Children
Very nice web site for patients and doctors. It has some really good links for cochlear implants. It also has some really cool stuff on other topics. Check out the virtual body.
Self Help for Hard of Hearing People, Inc. SHHH is an organization dedicated to improving the lifestyles of people who are hard of hearing. It has a variety of links to clubs, international organizations, state commissions on deafness and a large number of other links that may be helpful in other areas.
Center for Auditory Prosthesis Research Excellent site that sends quarterly reports to the National Institute of Health about projects that are being completed. There are several reports that can be viewed online, others are available in print. Very interesting site to visit!
BionicEar.org Nice web site that has a lot of information for people. I believe it is the web site for the University of Melbourne in Australia
Basic Signal Analysis Advanced site that looks at different formulas for signal analysis. It says basic in the title, but it seems to be pretty advanced and filled full of formulas.
Acoustical Society of America Nice site that has links to other acoustic related sites, general information about acoustics, and an area where you can listen to sounds.
Speech Reception ... Virtual Tour of the Ear Excellent site! This web site links to a large number of areas in speech perception. Some of the topics are word frequency, speech production, McGurk effect, and auditory perception.
Hearing Loss This article is about the transduction of sound with an outline of a variety of differential diagnosis for hearing loss.
Sound Propagation Very nice article about the movement of sound. It has diagrams that help in the understanding of sound propagation and wavelength movement.
Hearing and Perception Excellent article that has great pictures that help in explaining the anatomy of the ear and the perception of sound. It also has an area that you can click on to get a narrative description of the ear if the computer has a sound card.
Taking the Waveform Apart Nice article that has information about sine and cosine function, Fourier analysis, and, sonograms and spectral analysis of sound.
Decibels An intermediate article about the decibel and the different ways to calculate it. It looks at converting voltage or pressure ratios to decibels.
Wave and Vibration Tutorial
Good web site to get lots of valuable information. It is actually from a Physics III class. It would be good to take a look if you are currently in a physics of sound class or anything similar
