The Sound of Paralympic Glory Rings True For Australian Cochlear Implant

Half a world away from Cochlear Ltd, the Sydney-based company that developed the world famous Nucleusâ cochlear implant, there is a 35-year-old deaf blind tandem cyclist named Kathy Urschel from rural New York State training to compete in the Paralympic games scheduled for this October in Sydney.

Kathy lost her sight at age 21 and became profoundly deaf seven years later. Without the help of her implant, she could not hope to compete. Having won a silver medal in tandem cycling at the 1996 Paralympics in Atlanta, Georgia. Kathy has the determination it takes to win; Cochlear has the technology. Together, they just might have a shot at Paralympic glory.

How it works

In tandem cycling, the pilot issues racing commands to Kathy through a microphone wired from the pilot’s jersey to Kathy’s external electronic speech processor. The processor sends the commands to Kathy’s internal implant, which allows her to hear by electrically stimulating her hearing nerve

The Implant

This leadership depends on continued innovations. In March of this year, Cochlear received the Australian Design Award. This was in recognition of the company’s technological achievement in designing the

Nucleus 24 ContourÔ , their newest implant, which has a unique self-curling electrode array.

Designing for sound

Any product that is designed to be placed in the body places special constraints on materials and miniaturisation, with long-term reliability a critical product requirement. At the same time, the cochlear implant industry is a competitive market, so rapid product development is also a necessity.

Some of the tools used by Cochlear during the design process included CAD (Computer Aided Design) software giant PTC’s Pro/ENGINEERâ and Pro/MECHANICAâ . These computer-based tools were used for the design, prototype, tooling and manufacture of the Nucleus 24 Contour. "Using PTC’s Pro/ENGINEER allowed us to develop several models on-screen before a single prototype was constructed," explained John Parker, General Manager of Design and Development at Cochlear. "This crucial step saved time and money in terms of man-hours and the expense of manufacturing several prototypes."

According to Parker, getting to the point of actual manufacture involved an intense and complex R & D process. This process included thousands of hours of collaboration between scientists, engineers, surgeons and audiologists from across the globe. Developing a product that features complex three-dimensional shapes such as those of the minute size and intricate detail found in the Nucleus 24 Contour pushed Cochlear’s design and development team to the edge of 3D modeling and Computer Aided Design (CAD).

The Nucleus implant that Kathy has provides the flexibility to meet her individual hearing needs. In October, Kathy will be trying to achieve her goal of going one better than the Atlanta silver medal. Helping Kathy turn her dreams into reality will be the roar of the crowds that ring in Kathy’s ears thanks to the wonders of the Nucleus implant.

And that’s music to anyone’s ears.