Cochlear Implants - with No Exterior Hardware From: Product Design & Development - 02/10/2014 A cochlear implant that can be wirelessly recharged would use the natural microphone of the middle ear rather than a skull-mounted sensor. Cochlear implants - medical devices that electrically stimulate the auditory nerve - have granted at least limited hearing to hundreds of thousands of people worldwide who otherwise would be totally deaf. Existing versions of the device, however, require that a disk-shaped transmitter about an inch in diameter be affixed to the skull, with a wire snaking down to a joint microphone and power source that looks like an oversized hearing aid around the patient’s ear. Researchers at MIT's Microsystems Technology Laboratory (MTL), together with physicians from Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary (MEEI), have developed a new, low-power signal-processing chip that could lead to a cochlear implant that requires no external hardware. The implant would be wirelessly recharged and would run for about eight hours on each charge. Read the entire article at: http://www.pddnet.com/news/2014/02/cochlear-implants-%E2%80%94-no-exterior-hardware http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2014/cochlear-implants-with-no-exterior-hardware-0209.html http://www.wirelessdesignmag.com/news/2014/02/cochlear-implants-no-exterior-hardware Links: Medical Advance: The Gift of Sound http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/medical-advance-gift-sound-22436599?tab=9482930§ion=1206853&playlist=1363340 All in the ear - Chandrakasan teams to create wirelessly charged cochlear implant using middle ear's natural microphone https://www.eecs.mit.edu//news-events/media/all-ear-chandrakasan-teams-create-wirelessly-charged-cochlear-implant-using-middle MIT's Microsystems Technology Laboratory (MTL) https://www.eecs.mit.edu/research/25 Marcus Yip http://www.mit.edu/~yipm/