Electric-stimulus rate encoding algorithm of Mandarin tonal information in cochlear implant

Abstract The modern multi-channel cochlear implants usually extract and encode the temporal envelope cues. This kind of algorithms can hardly satisfy the users who speak tonal languages, such as Mandarin. Many studies have tried to enhance the recognition ability of Mandarin through encoding tonal information and made suggestions to frequency-modulate the fixed pulse-rate carrier with the extracted tonal information based on the rate-pitch theory in electric hearing. However, how to encode and deliver the tonal information such as F 0 by changing electric-stimulus rate has not got further study in clinical electric-stimulus mode. The present paper focuses on this matter by piecewise calculating the appreciable electric-stimulus rates. Then an electric-stimulus encoding algorithm of Mandarin tone is brought forward and testified through acoustic simulations. Such conclusion can be drawn that this algorithm of electric-stimulus rate could convey tonal information well and help to enhance the Mandarin speech...