Geoffrey R. Ball

As a child, Geoffrey Ball suffered from a severe fever attack and as a result developed sensorineural hearing loss. After sometime, it became clear that this could not be corrected by using conventional hearing aids. As a young man, he searched for an alternative solution and in doing so was continually informed that active middle ear implants were only in the first development phase.

Following his biomedical degree, Geoffrey Ball worked for many years in the field of neuroscience, biomedical and auditory research, he also is a pioneer in field the biomechanics of hearing. He developed a new type of Laser Doppler Vibrometer along with a based on the signal processing software developed in cooperation with Jont Allen (of Bell Labs). The result was the most sensitive optical vibrometer ever developed at the time. Ball was able to use this device to build and test the smallest hi-fidelity transducers in the world. This work lead to the development of the Floating Mass Transducer (FMT), a minute electromechanical converter which was suitable in transferring vibrations to the ossicles, the smallest bones in the body that transmit vibrations from the ear drum to the inner ear. He then went on to develop the Vibrant Soundbridge, a middle ear implant which comprises an implantable part, known as the VORP, which supplies the FMT with appropriate sound signal. The implant is powered by an externally worn audio processor. Geoffrey Ball was himself one of the first patients to be implanted with the Vibrant Soundbridge and is currently a bilateral user. He is the only living person known who was implanted with a medical device to cure a chronic medical condition that he also invented.[1][2]

He is the author of the 2011 autobiographical book "No More Laughing at the Deaf Boy" (288 pages, Haymon-verlag, Innsbruck-Wein) that tells the story from his boyhood in California to the creation and eventual dissolution of his company Symphonix Devices Inc.

Since 2003, Geoffrey Ball has lived just outside Innsbruck, Austria with his wife and three sons.

Geoffrey Ball has over 102 issued and pending US and international patents covering 26 patent families in the field of hearing implants, drug delivery, neuro-stimulation and other implantable medical devices.[3][4]

1998 Silicon Valley Inventor of the Year

1999 Engineer of the Year

2001 Politzer Society Prize for RTF paper

2002 2nd Annunzio Award in Science and Medicine

2013 Red Dot Design Award [5]

2013 Austrian State Prize for Innovation (Science and Medicine) [6]

2013 Life Award [7]

• Implantable hearing device performance measured by laser doppler interferometry

Gan R;Dormer K;Wood M;Ball G;Dietz T Ear Nose Throat J, 76(5), 1997, p. 297-309

• Scanning laser doppler vibrometry of the middle ear ossicles

Ball G;Huber A;Goode R. Ear Nose Throat J, 76(4), 1997, p. 213-222

• A new implantable middle ear hearing device for mixed hearing loss: a feasibility study in human temporal bones

Huber A;Ball G;Veraguth D;Dillier N;Bodmer D;Sequeira D Otol Neurotol, 00, 2006, p. 00-00

• COMPARISON OF MEASUREMENTS TO DETERMINE TRANSDUCER PERFORMANCE OF AN ACTIVE MIDDLE EAR IMPLANT (AMI)

Winter M.;Ball G;Gnadeberg D.;Weber B.;Battmer R;Lenarz T. -, 2002, p. 581-587

• Partially Implantable Vibrating Ossicular Prosthesis

Dietz TG;Ball GR;Katz BH International Conference on Solid-State Sensors and Actuators, 1997, p. 433-436

• The Vibrant Soundbridge: Design and Development

Ball GR Adv Otorhinolaryngol, 69, 2010, p. 1-13

• Temporal Bone Studies of a Round Window Implantable Hearing Device. Spindel JH, Ball G. Poster Presentation at the 2006 ARO meeting; Baltimore, Maryland. Feb. 5, 2006.
• Laser Doppler vibrometer (LDV)--a new clinical tool for the otologist

Goode RL;Ball G;Nishihara S;Nakamura K Am J Otol, 17(6), 1996 Nov, p. 813-822

• Otologists Test Ears with Optical Laser Interfermoetry

Ball G. Photonics Spectra. 1992 August (8) 96-98

• . . . und ich höre doch! (aka English version "No more laughing at the deaf boy")

Ball, G. Published Book 2011. P. 1-311. Haymon Verlag, Innsbruck-Wien (www.hymonverlag.at)

• Floating Mass Transducers for Middle Ear Applications Ball G, Maxfield B. Proceedings on Second International Symposium on Electronic Implants 1996:8 p 88-94 (But I think this was published as a side bar in an Italian publication)
• Wenn der Schädelknochen Menschen hören lässt Ball, G. Electronik 11/2013 p 36-40 (electroniknet.de)

• http://www.audiologyonline.com/interview/interview_detail.asp?interview_id=56
• http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2002-09-01/news/0209010397_1_vibrant-soundbridge-conventional-hearing-aid-hearing-loss
• http://www.freepatentsonline.com/5857958.html