The device attaches to the round window. It might someday be part of a hearing solution that could offer new hope to those with middle ear hearing loss (simply because it bypasses the middle ear). The cochlear implant is different. The cochlear implant bypasses the ear. The cochlear implant delivers a direct electrical signal through a fine strand of several electrodes set onto the auditory nerves. It sends a signal from a external receiver through an antenna directly to the auditory cortex without using the original pathways - ears. In contrast, this devices vibrates the round window .. a lot.

That's an interesting point - if a hearing loss is due to damaged hair cells, why simply batter those cells with more signal energy? The reason is this: there are two kinds of hair cells - outer hair cells (cells that vibrate in response to sound pressure) and inner hair cells (cells that send neural signals to the brain). Our ~12,000 vibrating outer hair cells are electromechanical transducers that change shape in response to sound pressure. The ear works because the outer hair cells feed signal energy into the input sound, making it clearer. Outer hair cell vibrations remove noise, sharpen frequencies and add color by way of harmonics and distortion products. If you have a hearing loss that can be treated with a conventional hearing aid, and your hearing loss is caused by hair cell damage, it is likely to be outer hair cell damage. Therefore, your hearing aid isn't battering those outer hair cells with louder noises. Sorry to say, the damaged outer hair cells are probably already gone. Instead the hearing aid is sending in a sound that has been reshaped and 'improved' to make up for the missing outer hair cells. That reshaped sound is then picked up by your inner hair cells, which are neurally-linked into your auditory cortex. Those cells receiving the augmented signal are probably just fine.