Help Bring Music to Cochlear Implant Wearers

Please support our project and get a singer's vocal coach app for free.

During the Cold War, the late electronics engineer John K. Bates, Jr. designed a radar defense system with the ear’s abilities. Classified and hidden from view, it remained unknown for decades. When the cochlear implant arrived, John realized he could create a better one.

Working in isolation, John developed a unique implant design that produced clear voices and music. However, due to its unconventional nature, the cochlear implant community didn't take the time to understand his creation and ignored it.

The Bates Cochlear Implant Project, a team of volunteers, is committed to preventing John’s design from fading into obscurity. We are developing a simulation of the Bates cochlear implant using the software commonly used by the cochlear implant industry. Subsequently, we will provide them with a thoroughly tested implant design in a language they understand and use social media to encourage them to give it a fair and unbiased review.

Still, we need a specialist in this new language, which our volunteers cannot afford, and we need your help.

We will offer you a fair exchange for your donation. We are developing an iPhone version of a Windows vocal coach application that assists singers in locating and correcting vocal faults. Once completed later this year, we will provide the paid version to all donors who contribute $25 or more. You will receive an app likely to be sold as a subscription worth more than $25, and the risk of our not finishing the app is zero.

Here is a review of the Windows version, which provides a glimpse into the potential of John's implant design.

“The most significant characteristic of this application is the visible manifestation of singing sound properties in a convincing mathematical way. You may control almost everything, from the exact pitch of the voice and the shaky voice (wrong vibrato frequency) from the annoying "voce caprile" ("He-goat voice" with high frequency) to the unacceptable "ballare la voce" ("dancing voice" with low frequency and big pitch intervals) up to realize the differentiation of simple legato, tenuto, portando, portato and glissando. The students can easily understand how to control their music phrasing, avoiding exaggerations, merely because they can observe what they sing.”

- Zachos Terzakis, Opera Tenor, Vocal Teacher, Athens, Greece