Title :
A discrimination ability of time sequential signal by electrical stimulation to auditory nerves and its comparison with that by vibrotactile stimulation
Author :
Ifukube, Tohru ; Hirata, Yoshihiro ; Matsushima, Jun´ich
Author_Institution :
Res. Inst. of Appl. Electr., Hokkaido Univ., Japan
Abstract :
An experiment on the discrimination of time sequential stimuli of auditory nerves was carried out, and its result was compared with results for the vibrotactile sense. An extracochlear prosthesis that stimulates via an electrode superficially placed on the round window membrane of the cochlea is described. A new speech coding method is proposed for the prosthesis, for transmitting the pitch signal and the second formant frequency. In this method, an additional stimulation pulse is inserted among the pitch pulses, and the time delay from pitch to additional pulse is proportional to the second formant frequency. This coding method has been seen to be effective in recognizing about 60% of Japanese vowels
Keywords :
bioelectric phenomena; hearing; mechanoception; neurophysiology; prosthetics; speech recognition; Japanese vowels; auditory nerves; discrimination ability; electrical stimulation; extracochlear prosthesis; pitch signal; round window membrane; second formant frequency; speech coding method; stimulation pulse; time sequential signal; vibrotactile stimulation; Auditory system; Cochlear implants; Deafness; Electrical stimulation; Electrodes; Frequency; Prosthetics; Speech coding; Testing; Vocoders;
Conference_Titel :
Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, 1989. Images of the Twenty-First Century., Proceedings of the Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in
Conference_Location :
Seattle, WA
DOI :
10.1109/IEMBS.1989.96091
