Our Daughter's Hardware

A Cochlear (Coke-lee-ear) Implant is a medical device that allows people with certain types of deafness to hear.

How the cochlear implant Works

1. Sound is received by the microphone of the external sound processor.
2. The sound is analyzed and digitized into coded signals by the sound processor, then transmitted to the implant under the skin.
3. The internal implant converts the signals into electrical energy and sends them to an electrode array inside the cochlea.
4. The electrodes stimulate the hearing nerve and the brain perceives signals as sound.

The Implant

This is the device our daughter has implanted under her skin, behind her ear.
The circles on the left are the receiver coil and the magnet.
The receiver coil is a small wire on the outer edge of the silicon disk. It receives signals from the transmitter coil on the outside of her head.
The magnet is the smaller dark circle in the center of the silicon disk. There is another magnet in the transmitter coil on the outside of her head. The two magnets keep the transmitter and receiver coils aligned, and keep the transmitter coil on the outside "stuck" to her head.
The metal rectangle in the middle houses electronics.
The two wires on the right are the ground electrode, and the electrode array that stimulates her hearing nerve fibres in her cochlea.

The Processor

This is the processor that our daughter wears behind her ears.