US 12,357,816 B2
Dynamic current steering
Stefan Jozef Mauger, Macleod (AU); and Zachary Mark Smith, Greenwood Village, CO (US)
Assigned to Cochlear Limited, Macquarie University (AU)
Filed by Cochlear Limited, Macquarie University (AU)
Filed on Sep. 18, 2020, as Appl. No. 17/025,365.
Application 17/025,365 is a continuation of application No. 15/009,146, filed on Jan. 28, 2016, granted, now 10,814,126.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/165,261, filed on May 22, 2015.
Prior Publication US 2021/0069495 A1, Mar. 11, 2021
Int. Cl. A61N 1/08 (2006.01); A61N 1/05 (2006.01); A61N 1/36 (2006.01)
CPC A61N 1/0541 (2013.01) [A61N 1/36038 (2017.08)] 19 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An apparatus, comprising:
one or more sound input elements configured to receive one or more sound signals;
at least one sound processor configured to generate one or more processed signals representative of the one or more sound signals;
a plurality of stimulation channels each terminating at one or more electrical stimulating contacts implantable in a recipient; and
a stimulator arrangement configured to simultaneously generate, based on at least one of the one or more processed signals, overlapping time varying current fields representative of at least one of the one or more sound signals across at least first and second stimulation channels of the plurality of stimulation channels that collectively result in a time varying change in a locus of the overlapping time varying current fields,
wherein the stimulator arrangement is configured to dynamically split current between the first stimulation channel and the second stimulation channel, and to control instantaneous amplitudes of the overlapping time varying current fields based on one or more attributes of the at least one of the one or more sound signals, such that a location of the locus of the overlapping time varying current fields progresses over time from the first stimulation channel to the second stimulation channel,
wherein the stimulator arrangement is configured to dynamically vary a rate of change of the location of the locus of the overlapping time varying current fields at one or more locations between the first stimulation channel and the second stimulation channel based on one or more attributes of the one or more sound signals.