CSU "tongue-hearing" device has potential to revolutionize research in deafness and deaf culture
Researchers at Colorado State University are paving the way for alternative solutions to deafness. They have discovered that with unique mapping of the tongue, along with a bluetooth sound receptor, tongues can use vibration frequencies to transmit signals to the brain in order to help the deaf understand vocal and nonvocal sounds around them.
Researchers at Colorado State University are paving the way for alternative solutions to deafness. They have discovered that with unique mapping of the tongue, along with a bluetooth sound receptor, tongues can use vibration frequencies to transmit signals to the brain in order to help the deaf understand vocal and nonvocal sounds around them.
With the deaf community reaching a record high of almost 17% of the American population, research on how to effectively restore hearing has caused a major movement at Colorado State. Spearheading this project is John Williams, a professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department. His research shows that with a bluetooth enabled earpiece that can detect sound waves from surrounding environments, and a receptor retainer in the mouth, the devices can communicate in order to effectively signal the brain to understand frequencies and process them as sound.
While this technology initially seems complex, it is, in many ways, simpler than the traditional option of improving the hearing impaired: the cochlear implant. Since the wide dissemination of the cochlear implant in 2010, costs have increased to over $40,000 for the entire procedure, a cost that can be seemingly unattainable for many families.
New headway with tongue mapping technology aims to bring the hard of hearing a cheaper alternative to the cochlear implant, hoping it will benefit a wider span of the deaf population. There is no projected cost of the brain-tongue communication technology as of yet, but it is anticipated to be significantly less than the competition.
Hearing with your tongue may seem counterintuitive at first, but with simple training it comes as second nature. Williams explains that the technology uses a microphone to detect sound waves from the surrounding area, transmits them into word representing patterns and electrical impulses and they are sent to an electrode dense retainer located on the roof of the mouth. Once these distinct patterns have been transmitted into electronic signals in the retainer, the wearer must press the tongue to the roof of the retainer in order to feel the vibration patterns. How do these vibration patterns translate into understood words? After continuous exposure to the retainer, the brain is able to understand the vibration signals as spoken words.
The device, coming out of Colorado State, operates with bluetooth connections from the microphone on the earpiece to the electrode retainer. With the electrical impulses travelling wirelessly and being converted into the vibration sensations on the tongue, the idea is that the plasticity of the brain will overcome the loss of auditory ability and make up for it with understanding of tongue sensations. It is assumed that with constant exposure to these vibration patterns, the brain will associate specific patterns with words or groups of words, enabling the the deaf to “hear” what’s happening around them.
- Nicole Heyman, Copy Editor
While this technology initially seems complex, it is, in many ways, simpler than the traditional option of improving the hearing impaired: the cochlear implant. Since the wide dissemination of the cochlear implant in 2010, costs have increased to over $40,000 for the entire procedure, a cost that can be seemingly unattainable for many families.
New headway with tongue mapping technology aims to bring the hard of hearing a cheaper alternative to the cochlear implant, hoping it will benefit a wider span of the deaf population. There is no projected cost of the brain-tongue communication technology as of yet, but it is anticipated to be significantly less than the competition.
Hearing with your tongue may seem counterintuitive at first, but with simple training it comes as second nature. Williams explains that the technology uses a microphone to detect sound waves from the surrounding area, transmits them into word representing patterns and electrical impulses and they are sent to an electrode dense retainer located on the roof of the mouth. Once these distinct patterns have been transmitted into electronic signals in the retainer, the wearer must press the tongue to the roof of the retainer in order to feel the vibration patterns. How do these vibration patterns translate into understood words? After continuous exposure to the retainer, the brain is able to understand the vibration signals as spoken words.
The device, coming out of Colorado State, operates with bluetooth connections from the microphone on the earpiece to the electrode retainer. With the electrical impulses travelling wirelessly and being converted into the vibration sensations on the tongue, the idea is that the plasticity of the brain will overcome the loss of auditory ability and make up for it with understanding of tongue sensations. It is assumed that with constant exposure to these vibration patterns, the brain will associate specific patterns with words or groups of words, enabling the the deaf to “hear” what’s happening around them.
- Nicole Heyman, Copy Editor