Patent ID: 11872408
Assignee: OTICON MEDICAL A/S
Field: Medical technology (Instruments)
Classification: CPC A | IPC A

Claim 12:
13. A cochlear implant hearing aid system, comprising
an external part including a sound pickup unit configured to pick up sound from the environment and a sound processing unit configured to process said sound,
an implant part including an implant processing unit and a plurality of cochlea stimulation electrodes for stimulation of a cochlea of a user, wherein the implant processing unit is disposed within a component configured to be arranged between a skin and a skull of the user, the component including electromagnetic circuitry configured to establish a power and/or data communication link with the external part, the cochlea stimulation electrodes being disposed on a carrier extending out of the component,
a near-infrared transmitter configured to transmit near-infrared waves having a wavelength of 700-900 nm through tissue to a near-infrared sensor;
wherein said near-infrared transmitter is an internal near-infrared transmitter provided on said implant part and configured to transmit said near-infrared wave towards a cortex of said user,
wherein said near-infrared sensor is an internal near-infrared sensor provided on the component of said implant part and configured to detect said near-infrared waves scattered by said cortex of said user, and
wherein said implant processing unit is a digital signal processor configured to process said detected near-infrared waves scattered by said cortex according to Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) or functional NIRS (fNIRS) image processing to provide cortical responses to sounds picked up by the sound pickup unit.