| Restoring hearing with discrete device: A middle-ear microphone for more convenient cochlear implants Posted: 30 Apr 2012 07:10 AM PDT Cochlear implants have restored basic hearing to some 220,000 deaf people, yet a microphone and related electronics must be worn outside the head, raising reliability issues, preventing patients from swimming and creating social stigma. Now, engineers have developed a tiny prototype microphone that can be implanted in the middle ear to avoid such problems.  |