Transhuman. DuinoBot, The Arduino For The Youngest. Lightweight Muscle Suit : DigInfo. Cyberdyne HAL Robot Suit and Cybernics research #DigInfo. A Retinal Prosthesis Turned On By Light. The use of light to control neurons could enable significantly more powerful brain-machine interfaces. First, it allows biomedical engineers to activate chosen sets of neurons, not simply whatever cells happen to be near the stimulation site, as with electrodes.
Light can also be used to inhibit a neuron’s firing, whereas electrodes can only stimulate. Most intriguingly of all, the engineering of light-triggered brain cells could begin to pave the way to a hybrid computer that uses an optical link to unite biological and silicon components. But first, we’d need a light-emitting technology well suited to our neurons. One major engineering challenge is that the light source must emit 1-milliwatt-per-square-millimeter pulses to induce brain cells to fire, according to Degenaar and his colleagues at Imperial College, in London. The researchers' LED chip spells out the word 'optical.' Each emitter in the 16-by-16 micro-LED array had its own current source, allowing for individual control.
Fiber to the Brain. Today, surgical procedures for implanting electronic devices that stimulate the heart muscle to correct abnormal cardiac rhythms are considered routine. But addressing the brain in this way--and reaching areas deep within the cerebral mass without destroying neurons en route--is another matter. While surgeons have successfully installed electrodes in the brain that have restored a semblance of sight or hearing, stopped the tremors of Parkinson's disease, and cataloged the brain's responses to environmental stimuli, they've always had to break in through the skull.
That procedure damages healthy brain tissue, exposes patients to infection, and leaves wires sticking out of their heads. And over time, scar tissue forms around the electrodes, encapsulating them and isolating them from the active brain tissue. Now a promising new procedure has been proposed [see photo]. One solution for making this stepping down of wire gauges possible was changing the type of wire. --Willie D. Diodes Built Inside Fiber. This article was modified on 21/03/2011 8 March 2011—Materials scientists at MIT say they’ve found a way to build simple semiconductor devices inside a fiber.
This new manufacturing process could create fibers with logic, image-processing, and photovoltaic capabilities that could one day lead to smart, self-powered fabrics, say researchers. Nicholas Orf a post-doctoral researcher in Yoel Fink's laboratory at MIT managed to synthesize semiconductor materials inside to a fiber, so that as the fiber is drawn out, the semiconductor forms into simple diodes with electrical contacts. "You could end up with a piece of material that’s a kilometer long," says Fink. A report on their work appears in this week’s early edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Optical fiber is made starting with a thick, cylindrical boule of material—generally silica, although Orf and his colleagues used a polymer instead. This article appeared in print as “How to Draw a Diode. " First BiDirectional RoboRoach Prototype.