**6. Conclusions**

In this chapter, we have provided a vision for hearing restoration from an engineering point of view that could serve as a guide in the research and development of the next-generation CIs. We suggest that the future of digital hearing restoration lies in the optical spectrum, both in terms of communication and stimulation techniques. We envisioned and explained potential architectures that enable the utilization of optical technologies in CIs. Finally, we introduced key features and performance indicators that could decide their success or failure.
