New device will allow deaf people to hear with their tongue

Cochlear implants have proven quite successful in restoring hearing in deaf patients, but the surgery is invasive, expensive and not suitable for all patients. For this reason, as reported by the British Telegraph, a team of scientists from the University of Colorado in USA are working on a device that will allow deaf patients to "hear" by simply placing a small device on their tongue. "It will be a much simpler procedure than surgery and we believe it will be a much cheaper option than cochlear implants," said John Williams, an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. "What we are trying to achieve is another form of sensory substitution. Cochlear implants are very effective and have transformed the lives of many people, but they are not suitable for everyone. We believe that our device will be just as effective, but it will reach many more people and at a lower cost," he added.

Professor Williams has spent much of his career developing electric propulsion systems for spacecraft and as a result has been exposed to very powerful vacuum devices used to simulate conditions outside our atmosphere, which led to tinnitus. So when he read about cochlear implants he decided to create his own, less invasive version.

Cochlear implants take sounds from outside the body, convert them into electrical signals and transmit them directly to the auditory nerve. The new tongue-based device will work in a similar way, picking up sounds from an acoustic microphone and sending them into the mouth via Bluetooth, then transmitting the signal to the sensitive nerves in the tongue.

Dr. Williams and his colleagues, as the same publication reports, have spent a year testing various prototypes. They recently filed a provisional patent and started a company to market it. The prototype they now have in their hands is a large device, but the researchers believe that they will eventually be able to "fit" it into a tiny unit that can be "worn", without being seen, inside the mouth.