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IMPORTANT: My inventions are free for anyone or any company to exploit in any way they wish as long as my name is displayed as the original inventor in all printed or media material. The ideas may or may not be practical, they have not been checked for prior art, and they have not been assessed for safe use. These things must be the responsibility of those wishing to exploit them. For more check Free Inventions and Why this website?. Patent never applied for.
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SO
WHO NEEDS EARS?
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INTRODUCTION In
most cases, hearing aids are a big help for
hearing-impaired people, but they do have some serious
limitations. If several people are talking, or if there
is other background sounds present, the
hearing-impaired may hear the mixture of sounds as
garbled noise. Of course hearing aids will not help
completely deaf people at all. The
following is a description of an invention that should
work for both hearing-impaired people and completely
deaf people. With this proposed system, sound signals
will bypass the ears all together. No surgical
procedure or physical invasion of the body will be
required. The user will carry a packet of electronics
and a body strip. Both items can be concealed. DESCRIPTION A
small receiver in the pocket of a hearing-impaired
person will receive sound signals. So far this is like
existing hearing aids, but the similarity ends there.
Suitable electronics will divide the received
frequencies into a limited number of discrete ranges. A
single signal will represent the output for each range.
For example, one signal may represent a 6.0 to 6.5
kilocycle sound frequency and the next signal may
represent a 6.5 to 7.0 kilocycle sound frequency, etc..
Each signal (representing its discrete range) is then
sent to a stimulator. A string of such stimulators will
be mounted on a cloth strip in the order of the
frequency range that they represent. The lowest
frequency range stimulator would therefore be on one
end of the strip and the highest frequency range
stimulator would be on the other end of the strip. This
strip containing the stimulators will then be wrapped
around hearing-impaired person’s waist, or spiral
around their arm or leg. The strip may spiral about the
chest, or leg, more than once. Velcro might be suitable
for holding the strip in position. When
the electronics detects a sound frequency it will
activate only the stimulator that corresponds to its
range of frequencies. The stimulator must be such that
a person can feel it on their skin when it is
activated. The hearing-impaired will associate which
frequency range was activated by knowing its location
on the strip. The volume would be determined by the
intensity of activation. Twenty stimulators may be a
good number to experiment with. They may need to be
spaced two or three inches apart since they are not on
position sensitive parts of the body. Stimulators may
be mechanical, vacuum/pressure, or heat/cold activated.
See figure for a suggested stimulator design.
Experiments will be necessary to develop stimulators
that are comfortable, effective, and that do not tickle
or irritate the skin.
Suggested
stimulator design (greatly enlarged). LEARNING CURVE On
first use, a hearing-impaired person will probably not
make any sense of the signals they receive from the
stimulators. After all, this is entirely different from
nature’s way of hearing. There will be a learning
process. Just as it takes time for babies to learn to
talk and hear with any comprehension. However, with
persistence, it is expected that a person will
intuitively make the correlation of the sound frequency
and the location of the signal they receive from the
stimulator. If the person is not completely deaf,
hearing and feeling the stimulators simultaneously
should induce faster learning. Closed caption TV might
also be useful in correlating the spoken word with the
stimulators, especially with the totally deaf. Closed
caption would allow the person to gradually turn the TV
sound down, or off, or turn the closed caption off to
access how well they are learning the system.
Accidentally
torn shirt reveal that Jake is deaf as a gourd. Go to
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