Title: A real-time implementation of cochlear implant stimulation strategy based on wavelet transform

Authors: Amira Derbel; Mohamed Ghorbel; Mounir Samet; Ahmed Ben Hamida

Addresses: Advanced Technology for Medical and Signals Laboratory, Research Unit in Information Technology and Medical Electronics, National Engineering School of Sfax, University of Sfax, Route Soukra km 3, Sfax, B.P.W, 3038, Tunisia ' Advanced Technology for Medical and Signals Laboratory, Research Unit in Information Technology and Medical Electronics, National Engineering School of Sfax, University of Sfax, Route Soukra km 3, Sfax, B.P.W, 3038, Tunisia ' Advanced Technology for Medical and Signals Laboratory, Research Unit in Information Technology and Medical Electronics, National Engineering School of Sfax, University of Sfax, Route Soukra km 3, Sfax, B.P.W, 3038, Tunisia ' Advanced Technology for Medical and Signals Laboratory, Research Unit in Information Technology and Medical Electronics, National Engineering School of Sfax, University of Sfax, Route Soukra km 3, Sfax, B.P.W, 3038, Tunisia

Abstract: This paper presents a real-time implementation of the wavelet transform (WT) approach on DSP platforms for a 21-channel cochlear implant (CI) stimulation strategy. DSP platforms provide an effective cost and portable platform for cochlear implant studies. The cochlear implant converts sounds which are received from the outside, into electrical pulses that stimulate nerve endings in the cochlea, in real time. These electrical stimuli are interpreted by the brain as sounds. Different versions of our implementation are examined and compared in terms of processing time speech and accuracy. For real-time experiment, it is crucial that the speech signal be processed with minimal delay from input to output. To achieve this purpose, optimisation techniques have been taken. Thanks to these steps, we have been able to reduce the processing time to approximately 10.5 µs on a 720 MHz TMS320C6416 DSP board. This experiment provides directive guidelines for our work to treat the speech signal sample per sample at real-time operation.

Keywords: cochlear prosthesis; auditory modelling; wavelet transform; real-time DSP; digital signal processing; implementation; optimisation; cochlear implant stimulation; electrical pulses; speech signals; bionic ears; deafness; hard of hearing; hearing loss; biomedical engineering.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBET.2012.050262

International Journal of Biomedical Engineering and Technology, 2012 Vol.10 No.3, pp.275 - 295

Published online: 12 Dec 2014 *

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