Descrizione del progetto
Impianti acustici autoalimentati e di nuova generazione
Per ripristinare l’udito nelle persone affette da perdita dell’udito sensorineurale grave o profonda vengono impiegati impianti cocleari con l’obiettivo di oltrepassare le cellule ciliate danneggiate nell’orecchio e stimolare direttamente il nervo acustico attraverso un elettrodo cocleare. Con oltre 40 anni di utilizzo, la tecnologia alla base degli impianti cocleari è in fase di miglioramento. Il progetto OPERA, finanziato dall’UE, svilupperà il primo impianto cocleare di nuova generazione completamente impiantabile, a bassa potenza e con raccolta dell’energia (autoalimentato) che imita i naturali meccanismi uditivi dell’orecchio. L’obiettivo consiste nel fornire all’utente un suono più naturale e chiaro. La caratteristica più importante è rappresentata dal metodo impiegato per ricaricare la batteria: l’energia viene raccolta attraverso la vibrazione generata dalle onde sonore, alimentata da un semplice auricolare collegato a un generatore di toni.
Obiettivo
Today, congenital or acquired hearing loss affects around 6% of the world population (over 460 M people, of 7% are children) and presents significant impact on people’s social, emotional, and economic wellbeing. Sensorineural impairment, which represents the majority of the profound deafness, is caused from irreversible damage to cochlear hair cells rendering them non-functional/missing. It can be restored using cochlear implants (CIs), which are used to bypass the damaged hair cells and directly stimulate the auditory nerve by means of a cochlear electrode to repair hearing in people with severe-to-profound sensorineural hearing loss. CIs are used for more than 40 years and today implanted in around 420.000 individuals worldwide. However, conventional CIs have major drawbacks. OPERA, with its potential to eliminate these drawbacks, will be the first fully implantable, low-power, energy harvesting (self-powered), next generation CI mimicking the natural hearing mechanism of the ear. Thus, it is expected to give the user a more natural and clear sound. Moreover, being fully implanted, it will not suffer from mechanical damage risks or contact with water, and raise no aesthetic concerns by users. The system does not use magnets, eliminating the MRI limitation in all conventional implants. One of the most important features of OPERA is its novel battery charging method by which the device harvests energy through the vibration generated by sound waves, fed by a simple earplug connected to a tone generator. In OPERA project, we aim to; validate technical performance and functionalities compared with state-of-the-art systems; perform stakeholder analysis and determine the main requirements for clinical practice; validate the design choices against the regulatory requirements; validate the economic and societal benefits; carry out a freedom to operate analysis and protect the IP; consolidate the business model, set up the product value chain and prepare the business plan.
Campo scientifico
Programma(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
ERC-POC-LS - ERC Proof of Concept Lump Sum PilotIstituzione ospitante
06800 Ankara
Turchia