Cochlear implants (CIs) and hearing aids (HAs) are advanced assistive hearing devices that perform sound processing to achieve acoustic to acoustic/electrical stimulation, thus enabling the prospects for hearing restoration and rehabilitation. Since commercial CIs/HAs are typically constrained by manufacturer design/production constraints, it is necessary for researchers to use research platforms (RPs) to advance algorithms and conduct investigational studies with CI/HA subjects. While previous CI/HA research platforms exist, no study has explored establishing a formal evaluation protocol for the operational safety and reliability of RPs. This study proposes a two-phase analysis and evaluation paradigm for RPs. In the acoustic phase 1 step, a signal processing acoustic space is explored in order to present a sampled set of audio input content to explore the safety of the resulting output electric/acoustic stimulation. In the parameter phase 2 step, the configurable space for realizable electrical stimulation pulses is determined, and overall stimulation reliability and safety are evaluated. The proposed protocol is applied and demonstrated using Costakis Cochlear Implant Mobile. Assessment protocol observations, results, and additional best practices for subsampling of the acoustic and parameter test spaces are discussed. The proposed analysis-evaluation protocol establishes a viable framework for assessing RP operational safety and reliability. Guidelines for adapting the proposed protocol to address variability in RP configuration due to experimental factors such as custom algorithms, stimulation techniques, and/or individualization are also considered.

中文翻译：

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推进人工耳蜗/助听器技术的研究平台评估框架：CCi-MOBILE 案例研究


人工耳蜗（CI）和助听器（HA）是先进的辅助听力设备，可进行声音处理以实现声到声/电的刺激，从而为听力恢复和康复带来前景。由于商业 CI/HA 通常受到制造商设计/生产的限制，因此研究人员有必要使用研究平台 (RP) 来推进算法并对 CI/HA 受试者进行调查研究。虽然之前存在 CI/HA 研究平台，但没有研究探索建立正式的 RP 运行安全性和可靠性评估协议。本研究提出了 RP 的两阶段分析和评估范式。在声学阶段 1 步骤中，探索信号处理声学空间，以呈现一组采样的音频输入内容，以探索所得输出电/声刺激的安全性。在参数阶段2步骤中，确定可实现的电刺激脉冲的可配置空间，并评估整体刺激的可靠性和安全性。所提出的协议使用 Costakis Cochlear Implant Mobile 进行应用和演示。讨论了评估协议观察结果、结果以及声学和参数测试空间二次采样的其他最佳实践。拟议的分析评估协议为评估 RP 运行安全性和可靠性建立了一个可行的框架。还考虑了调整所提出的协议以解决由于自定义算法、刺激技术和/或个性化等实验因素导致的 RP 配置变化的指南。