Programs & Speeds

[Guest guest]

Janice, , ,

I don't mean to butt in here but I might be able to help explain this

a little. All the names and numbers can be very confusing and I know

the Audi's are tremendously busy and often just don't have the time

for long explanations, but this is the way I like to explain these

terms.

First of all your Cochlear Implant Processor is actually a computer

and all those names are referring to are the computer programs or

software that processes the sound the Mic picks up and turns it into a

digital signal for the implant, the numbers are simply the speed at

which they operate. That is the simplest way I can explain it! There

are a few more things and I will give you an idea (from my

understanding anyway) of what this all means.

The programs used on the Freedom are;

CIS - (Continuous Interleaved Sampling) this was the first program

developed for Cochlear Implants and was/is used by all 3 manufacturers

it uses a fairly fast rate of speed. This program separates or filters

sounds into 20 different bands and sends each band or sound to a

specific electrode.

Speak - (Spectral peak) This was developed by Cochlear, this program

separates sounds into 8 bands or groups and sends the signals to a

group of electrodes depending on the sound it has processed.

ACE - (Advanced Combination Encoder) Specific to Cochlear this program

separates sound into a set number of Channels or Bands and fires the

electrode groups very rapidly. ACE is a " Variable rate " program

meaning it can be programmed to operate at different speeds for

example 900hz, 1200 Hz, 1800hz, and the newer version of this program

(called Hi Ace) operates at 2400hz.

SAS - (simultaneous analog strategy) I do not know much about this

program it is used mainly on the Advanced Bionic's products, from what

I understand it compresses sound into 8 bands and then fires any or

all electrodes continuously, the information I have on this states it

has not met with great success, but it is not very current and I

believe there have been substantial improvements recently.

Now having said all that my understand is that ACE and Hi Ace are the

most popular programs used today with the Freedom Processor, my Audi

has told me the trend seems to be to start new patients off with a

high rate of speed (this is what she is doing anyway) and as they

adapt the rate is lowered. This can vary from clinic to clinic and I

believe it depends on the patient and the particulars of their hearing

loss as well. The benefit of this seems to be patients adapt quicker

with a faster rate and once the brain has adjusted the rate is slowed

the battery life is longer. I have seen some debate on keeping faster

program speeds and for some patients this works for me slower is

better but we are all different so experimenting may be needed. I know

my Audi has found that her AB patients mostly prefer faster rates

while Nucleus patients generally like slower rates. The one thing that

is consistent is that slower rates do improve battery life and if you

like a slower speed you will get more time from a set of batteries.

I hope this is all not to " Geekie " I sometimes get to technical and

these things are not easily explained in simple terms, oh and I have

not even mentioned the options for the Freedom programs, (ADRO, Auto

Sensitivity, Beam, Whisper, TeleCoil Mixing) but this post is long

enough now. If you want me to babble on about those too let me know I

can actually explain the options better than the programs. And if I

have made mistakes with any of this I would appreciate anyone who

notices correcting me, or adding some more information that makes it

simpler to understand.

Sorry for the long post and I do hope it helps.

Regards

Mike " Ears Hopin " P

Implanted June 3rd, 2005

Activated July 6th, 2005

Nucleus Freedom

Message: 16

Date: Sun, 2 Apr 2006 22:01:08 -0400

From: <janinfla@...>

Subject: Re: : Question

, ,

What are you talking about? ace? 900 and 1200 hertz? Huh? I know what

hertz

is but...? Got a question for you... I am not hearing lowbass sounds

in

music. I was fitted with a processor on Jan. 12 of this year so it

has been

two and a half months. Am I missing something? Or will that come

later? I

used to hear low sounds with an hearing aid very well but now I can't.

I

know music sounds very messy to me right now and it will sound better

later.

My audiologist is so swamped as two other audie left the clinic so she

is

stuck with about 1000 clients! BTW, anyone out there looking for a

job?

It's in Miami . We need new audies here...

Janice

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