BIG RAPIDS, Mich. — Like many people, 5-year-old Britt Taylor needs glasses.
However, Britt was also born deaf. Given cochlear implants when he was about one year old, the devices that help him hear also get in the way of the glasses that help him see.
“It’s very complicated, particularly for children, because their ears are so small for the cochlear implants that sit right on top of the ear, as well as the spectacle frames, you know, that competes over the same space,” his father, Dr Daniel Taylor, explains.
Fortunately for Britt, Dr. Taylor is the newly-named dean of the Michigan College of Optometry at Ferris State University. When he and Micah Taylor, Britt’s mother, realized the 5-year-old would need glasses, they got to work.
In 2018, Dr. Taylor began researching, and with technical support from Ferris’ Product Design Engineering Technology Program and help from student Jaclyn Vander Ploeg’s senior project, a new prototype was born as a solution to the problem.
He calls it the “protoconch,” and it’s just been awarded a patent.
“It’s just a little ball and socket joint right there. And I can just lift this, lift this off, and set it right back on again,” says Dr. Taylor, describing his newest invention.
The protoconch, made possible by support from Ferris and grant funding from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, is the result of a 3-year process from initial concept to official patent.
Now, the device is in what’s known as the beta phase, meaning the device will now be prepared for public use.
“We were able to work with Into Being LLC, which is a 3D manufacturing company out of, here in Michigan, and they did some initial prototyping for us” he says. “If we’re able to get some additional funding, which we hope to through another grand here soon, then we’ll return probably to Into Being and have them do the remaining prototyping.”
Dr. Taylor hopes to have the protoconch available for both kids and adults, though with some differences.
“For kids, the main thing is security and comfort,” he says. “We have kids that come home with rashes above their ears because they have so much going on up there. And so, security, so things don’t fall off.”
As for adults, he says, the main priority is usability. Adult protoconchs should be easily removable.
The people who are most interested in the devices, however, are parents of children with cochlear implants.
Micah Taylor, who has a background in business, is just as much a part of the process as Dr. Taylor, even traveling to San Diego to rally for grant funding. “I have come on recently to mostly give our pitches for either grants or for talking to the market and trying to get the product actually made.”
She’s pushing for a license, then for a medical company to make the device available, and then for an efficient delivery system.
“We’re looking at options to create a logistical framework that will allow somebody to go online, simply click a button in order, and then we would assemble them on a pair of glasses and send a fully complete glasses system to them.”
In July, the Taylors hope to see the final round of prototyping, as well as FDA device regulation, for the device they say has benefitted their son’s well-being as well as his development in some highly formative years.
“Your most changeable time in your life, where your brain can develop to accept hearing as well as to accept vision, is in the first twelve years or so of life,” says Dr. Taylor. If cochlear implants can’t be worn comfortably, it can affect a child’s early development, he says.
In the end, though, the Taylors describe the protoconch as just another way to provide better access for kids with cochlear implants. “That’s just one extra step that they get to be more normal.”
Additionally, optometrists specializing in veterans affairs say the device could also be extremely helpful for veterans.
For more information on the protoconch, read here.
