Geoffrey R. Ball
Geoffrey R. Ball (born 1964 ) is an American physiologist (focus on biomechanics) and inventor.
After the physiology studies at the University of Oregon and a system management studies at the University of Southern California, he was co-founder of Symphonix Devices Inc., a company that pioneered the development of middle ear implants was and the Vibrant Soundbridge brought to the market. Since 2003, Ball is the technical director (CTO ) at VIBRANT MED -EL, Innsbruck ( Austria ).
Life
Geoffrey Ball suffered after a severe fever in his childhood, a sensorineural hearing loss. This was not corrected in time with conventional hearing aids. Looking for an alternative, he received as a teenager again and again the information that active middle ear implants only in the development stage.
After his studies biomedicine ball worked for many years in the field of hearing research, with a focus on middle ear structures. Result of this work was the development of the Floating Mass Transducer (FMT ), a tiny electromechanical transducer which was likely to pass on vibrations to the ossicles. Building the Vibrant Soundbridge middle ear implant of an implantable part ( VORP - Vibrating Ossicular Prosthesis ) on the FMT developed ball is with the FMT and an externally worn audio processor. Geoffrey ball was then himself one of the first patients who were implanted with the Vibrant Soundbridge. Today it carries the implant on both sides. Meanwhile, several thousand people wear this implant.
Since 2003, Geoffrey Ball lives near Innsbruck in Tyrol ( Austria ).
In December 2011, the autobiography of Geoffrey R. Ball appeared under the title " ... and I hear that! A technological adventure between Silicon Valley and the Alps" in the Austrian Haymon Verlag.
Patents
Geoffrey Ball has registered more than 80 U.S. and international patents, primarily in the area of hearing implants, neurostimulation and other medical devices.