US 7,321,797 B2
Incremental stimulation sound processor
Peter J. Blamey, South Yarra (Australia); Bonar Dickson, Abbotsford (Australia); and Brett A. Swanson, St. Ives (Australia)
Assigned to Cochlear Limited, Lane Cove, NSW (Australia)
Filed on Feb. 28, 2005, as Appl. No. 11/66,999.
Prior Publication US 2006/0195160 A1, Aug. 31, 2006
Int. Cl. H04R 25/00 (2006.01); A61F 11/04 (2006.01); A61N 1/36 (2006.01)
U.S. Cl. 607—57  [607/56] 32 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A cochlear implant having a speech processor configured to convert a received electrical signal representing received ambient sound into instructions defining stimulation signals to deliver an excitation pattern to a recipient's auditory nerve, the cochlear implant comprising:
a modeler configured to calculate a model of an excitation pattern currently existing on the auditory nerve;
an increment generator configured to determine a difference between an ideal excitation pattern representing the received ambient sound and said existing excitation pattern in order to generate an incremental excitation pattern; and
apparatus for generating stimulation signals for delivery to the auditory nerve based on said incremental excitation pattern.