Graeme Clark Collection
Permanent URI for this collection
Search Results
1 - 2 of 2
-
ItemBionic ears: their development and future advances using neurotrophins and inherently conducting polymers( 2004)The development of the multiple-channel bionic ear for hearing and speech understanding in profoundly deaf people is the result of integrating biological and physical sciences with engineering. It is the first clinically successful restoration of sensory and brain function, and brings electronic technology into a direct functional relationship with human consciousness. It presently transmits essential place and coarse temporal information for the coding of frequency, but the fine temporal and place excitation of groups of nerve fibres is inadequate for high-fidelity sound. This is required for adequate musical appreciation and hearing in noise. Research has demonstrated that nerve growth factors preserve the peripheral processes of the auditory nerves so that an electrode array placed close to these fibres could produce this fine temporal and spatial coding. The nerve growth factors can be incorporated into inherently conducting polymers that are part of the array so the peripheral processes can be preserved at the same time as they arc electrically stimulated.
-
ItemThe Bionic ear towards 2000 and beyond: The William Carey Lecture 20th August 1998( 1999)I consider it a great honour to have been invited to give the William Carey Lecture, especially when one considers how much Carey contributed to the welfare of people in India. He was an outstanding man with many gifts and wide-ranging interests and influence --in fields as diverse as botany, economics, medicine, print and communications technology, libraries, engineering, conservation, agriculture, social reform, astronomy and Indian religions. All his work was done in the name of God, and his Christian belief. My address is entitled The Bionic Ear: Towards 2000 and beyond. I want to emphasise from the start that research directions beyond the year 2000 are built upon the achievements of the past and the present. Furthermore, although we have made great progress with the Bionic Ear, we have some distance to go before we can give most people near normal hearing.