Choosing a Cochlear Implant?

Posted by Cliff on Saturday January 31, 2004 @11:11AM from the picking-the-right-technology dept.

sydsavage asks: "My mom, who is profoundly deaf, has finally qualified for a cochlear implant. She is having the procedure done at the University of Minnesota, and is scheduled for surgery in early March. The doctors have left it up to her to choose between two different implants. The differences between them are highly technical, and well above her level of comprehension. So she decided to ask her geek son to take a look at the differing technologies. Unfortunately, I'm a systems administrator, not an audio engineer or signal processing guru, and reading up on the technologies made this fact blaringly obvious to me. About the best I can tell her is one has more accessories available, as any good geek could ascertain. While this may have an impact on her decision, at the end of the day, she just wants to be able to hear better. Are there any slashdot readers with first or second hand experience with these two devices? Any signal processing engineers that would like to weigh in on the different technologies involved?"

"The two implants that are available to her are the Clarion, manufactured by Advanced Bionics, and the Nucleus, made by the Australian firm Cochlear.

The Nucleus system is the one with more bells in whistles, such as the ability to interface to FM systems for hearing impaired that are found in museums, auditoriums and theaters. It can also plug into an audio out jack of a tv, stereo or computer. It also has a built in 'tele-coil' for use with phones that are design to work with hearing aids.

My mother and I would both like to say thank you in advance for your help in making this life changing decision."

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