Cochlear Limited

About: Cochlear Limited is a company organization based out in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Cochlear implant & Hearing loss. The organization has 1290 authors who have published 1479 publications receiving 33109 citations. The organization is also known as: кохлеарные Americas & COCHLEAR LIMITED.

Scheduling information delivery to a recipient in a hearing prosthesis

Abstract: A hearing prosthesis for use by a recipient. The hearing prosthesis includes a receiver configured to receive sounds external to the recipient, a stimulator configured to stimulate tissue of the recipient to enhance recipient hearing, a sound analyzer configured to analyze the sounds received by the receiver, the sound analyzer further being configured to output a sound analysis signal indicative of the analyzed sounds, an information signal generator configured to output an information signal upon which an inputted indication that is provided to the recipient via the stimulator may be based, and an information scheduler configured to control the time at which the information signal is delivered to the stimulator based on the sound analysis signal.

Profound deafness treated by the Ineraid multichannel intracochlear implant.

Abstract: Twelve deaf adults and two deaf children were treated with the Ineraid (formerly Symbion) four channel intracochlear implant between September 1989 and October 1991 at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge. All were post-lingually totally deaf and had found themselves beyond the reach of hearing aids. The effect of the implant upon the patients ability to lip-read was tested with the speech tracking test, BKB sentences (comparable to CID sentences) and Boothroyd word lists (comparable to NU6 word lists). All patients showed an improvement in their ability to understand speech with the help of the implant. Discrimination of speech without lip-reading was tested with Boothroyd word lists and BKB sentences, eight patients (57 per cent) demonstrated some 'open set' speech discrimination. The acceptability of the carbon percutaneous pedestal is discussed from the patient's, audiologist's and surgeon's points of view.

Enhancing Music Features by Knowledge Transfer from User-item Log Data

Abstract: In this paper, we propose a novel method that exploits music listening log data for general-purpose music feature extraction. Despite the wealth of information available in the log data of user-item interactions, it has been mostly used for collaborative filtering to find similar items or users and was not fully investigated for content-based music applications. We resolve this problem by extending intra-domain knowledge distillation to cross-domain: i.e., by transferring knowledge obtained from the user-item domain to the music content domain. The proposed system first trains the model that estimates log information from the audio contents; then it uses the model to improve other task-specific models. The experiments on various music classification and regression tasks show that the proposed method successfully improves the performances of the task-specific models.

A New Antistuttering Device: Treatment of Stuttering Using Bone Conduction Stimulation With Delayed Temporal Feedback†

Abstract: Objectives: Stuttering is a communication disorder affecting approximately 1% of the adult population, some with severe manifestations. Speech therapy improves stuttering, but many do not receive enough benefit to communicate fluently. Antistuttering devices have been available for several years, but available technology has been limited in long-term success and reliability. The current study evaluates the effects of a prototype device using a modification of a currently used bone conduction hearing device with delayed auditory feedback on adult patients with significant stuttering problems. Study Design: A prospective nonrandomized study evaluating effects of a prototype device on stuttering in adult subjects. Methods: Ten stutterers ≥18 years of age were fit with a bone conduction device on a headband with temporal feedback delayed according to patient preference between 5 and 130 msec. Patients were asked to wear the device at least 4 hours per day for 4 weeks. Stuttering Severity Index-3 (SSI-3) tests were completed at prefit, immediate postfit, and at 2-week, 4-week, and 6-week intervals. Questionnaires were also completed at each visit. Results: Nine patients completed the entire study. A statistically significant decline in SSI-3 scores was documented from prefit compared with immediate postfit and 4 weeks follow up (P < .001) using the Tukey test method. Statistical significance was approached but not reached at 2 weeks. There was no significant difference between prefit and the 6-week follow up when patients had returned the device. Patients subjectively noted improvement in their speech and confidence using the device. Conclusions: A new antistuttering prototype using a modification of a bone conduction device with delayed temporal feedback is effective in decreasing stuttering in patients over a short time course. Further studies need to be completed to evaluate the long-term effects of the device.

Vacuum assisted drill cuttings dryer and handling apparatus

Abstract: A vacuum assisted drill cuttings dryer and handling apparatus has a vacuum tank and an associated vacuum pump and motor configured for use with a high speed centrifugal dryer. Cuttings are drawn from the shaker of a drilling rig into the centrifugal dryer by means of a vacuum created in the centrifugal dryer by the vacuum tank and an associated vacuum pump and motor. The dryer is provided with sealable exit doors that may be opened and closed in sequence to allow removal of the cuttings even as cuttings are drawn in to the centrifugal dryer. A fluids collection chamber in communication with vacuum lines between the vacuum tank and centrifugal dryer collects fluids drawn from the centrifugal dryer.