But like most of the signing deaf community, I thought a surgery was a huge price to pay for a little bit of hearing. The industry has advanced so much in the last decade, with miniturization of parts and all the computer chip technology. The Cochlear Implant of today is really helping the deaf to hear. A Cochlear Implant is an electronic device designed to provide useful hearing and improved communication ability to people who are profoundly hearing impaired. For most individuals with a profound hearing loss, even the most powerful hearing aids, provide little or no benefit.
Hearing aids make sounds louder and deliver the amplified sounds to the ear.
I had the Clarion Hi-focus, with positioner implanted on the right side. Sound waves enter the system through the powerful microphone located in the single-unit headpiece and are converted into an electrical signal. This signal is sent to the speech processor via the thin cable that connects the headpiece to the speech processor. The speech processor converts the electrical signal into a distinctive code that has been determined to be the most useful for sound and speech understanding. Once processed, the electrically coded signal is sent back up the thin cable to the headpiece and is transmitted across the skin via radio waves to the implant.