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- Hacker News
- Is the battery safe to be implanted. I ask because of fire and poisoning risksby ivell
- So I think thos would be something that needs to be started at a young age with lots of exposure training. My father in law is deaf and has a cochlear implant but often removes at points because it gets overwhelming for him to hear all the noise all the time. This seems like it would not afford him the luxury of that.
- > There are no external components to wear, to remove, or to manage.
But also:
> The unit is recharged using a car-key-size unit called a GoPod, which attaches magnetically to the charging coil through the scalp.
How is that not an external component to manage?
Also, what if you need a new battery? What if the device malfunctions and you need to turn them off? What if the lithium battery gets damaged and catches fire?
It seems like a bad idea to fully embed the unit to me...
by causesothere - This probably sounds really obvious, but I underestimated how isolating even slight deafness can be.
Have a really nice chatty senior (70s) at my volunteering job who was very jovial with everyone, always cheered me up because I worry about the amount elder-loneliness in my town sometimes. He lost some of his hearing over the years, and even with decent hearing aids and people taking his hearing into account he participates much less in conversation during our breaks.
by Semkas - CIs are incredible pieces of technology. But I'd encourage people to spend some time learning about sign languages. While fluency takes a long time, sign languages are really wonderful languages that can be so much more expressive in some ways than spoken languages.
Obviously, it's not either or. I just want to encourage folks who find this interesting to consider also looking into taking an intro to sign language class.
by causesothere - When I first heard about Cochlear Implants I thought this is magic. That we can replace a part of the body that does some calculation mechanically with a real time computer simulation of it blew my mind.
Nowadays these implants must be quite common. At least I encounter people wearing ones regularly. If their life can get more convenient with an implantable version this is fantastic news.
by weinzierl - They think the lithium ion battery inside will need to be replaced in 15 years.
I feel like implants like this should require an open connectivity standard between the stimulator in the cochlea and the processor.
A friend has a bone anchored hearing aid, with an osteointegrated post. The two different companies that make BAHAs use different posts. Which requires more surgery if they want to change brands. It could trivially be made compatible and swappable instead.
There is no vendor lock-in quite like prosthetic vendor lock-in.
Trusting a company for 15 years to keep making a replacement product seems crazy.
by blamestross - There's a good thread on Reddit from a recipient of this implant talking about his experience: https://www.reddit.com/r/Cochlearimplants/comments/1wu4zjz/t...
In related news, 2 companies have begun human trials on genetic therapy for the most common cause of hearing loss (GJB2). I'm sure cochlear implant companies are a bit nervous about this development!
by janeerie