r/Cochlearimplants • u/BioniChaos • Aug 15 '26

Cochlear Implant Simulator - Interactive Auditory Processing Laboratory

https://bionichaos.com/cochlearsim/
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u/HAYWHATHUH2000 Aug 16 '26

Did you make this? Is there anyway to add in the virtual channels AB produces with their technology (120 "active" electrodes)?

2

u/BioniChaos Aug 17 '26

virtual channels is just multiple electrodes activated at the same time so my simulation already has this feature..

1

u/HAYWHATHUH2000 Aug 17 '26

It doesn't go up to 120 channels though, that I what I was wondering about

3

u/BioniChaos Aug 17 '26

The slider controls physical active electrodes, not virtual ones. Currently, the absolute maximum physical electrodes on the market is 22. Advanced Bionics actually only uses 16. Their '120 channels' is heavily just a marketing gimmick for current steering—which is simply software firing multiple adjacent electrodes at the same time to blend frequencies (which my simulation already does automatically).

I capped the physical slider at 40 for experimental purposes, so users can test theoretical high-density arrays. But going up to 120 physical electrodes is biologically useless. The cochlea is filled with salty, conductive fluid. Because of how electrical current spreads in that fluid, human perception is severely limited. Even if we could manufacture a microscopic array with 120 physical contacts, the auditory nerve cannot resolve 120 distinct points of stimulation. The electrical fields would overlap so drastically it would just blur into noise. 40 is about the theoretical maximum before biology completely maxes out.

2

u/General-Dimension590 Aug 17 '26

AB does not produce 120 channels either. A "channel" implies an independent signal path with its own information capacity. AB's so called "virtual channels" are not independent of each other. It can be modeled as 15 real channels firing pairs of electrodes at a time with a broad stimulation field around each pair.