tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/bionics-105/articlesBionics – The Conversation2020-09-02T03:57:06Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1453862020-09-02T03:57:06Z2020-09-02T03:57:06ZPain-sensing electronic silicone skin paves the way for smart prosthetics and skin grafts<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355754/original/file-20200901-22-yivt65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=36%2C0%2C3507%2C2478&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ella Maru Studio</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Skin is our largest organ, made up of complex sensors constantly monitoring for anything that might cause us pain. Our new technology replicates that – electronically.</p>
<p>The electronic artificial skin we’ve developed reacts to pain stimuli just like real skin, and paves the way for better prosthetics, smarter robotics and non-invasive alternatives to skin grafts.</p>
<p>Our prototype device mimics the body’s near-instant feedback response and can react to painful sensations with the same lighting speed at which nerve signals travel to the brain.</p>
<p>Our new technology, details of which are <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/aisy.202000094">published in Advanced Intelligent Systems</a>, is made of silicone rubber with integrated electronics. It mimics human skin, both in texture and in how it responds to pressure, temperature and pain.</p>
<p>Human skin senses things constantly, but our pain response only kicks in at a certain threshold. Once this threshold is breached, electric signals are sent via the nervous system to the brain to initiate a pain response.</p>
<p>You don’t notice when you pick up something at a comfortable temperature. But touch something too hot, and you’ll almost instantly recoil. That’s our skin’s pain-sensing system in action. </p>
<h2>Helping hand</h2>
<p>Our new pain-sensing electronic skin is a crucial step towards the development of “smart prosthetics” featuring sophisticated feedback systems. We want to develop medical devices and components that show similar pain sensing responses to the human body.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355936/original/file-20200902-16-1vvqtxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Sample of silicone skin" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355936/original/file-20200902-16-1vvqtxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355936/original/file-20200902-16-1vvqtxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355936/original/file-20200902-16-1vvqtxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355936/original/file-20200902-16-1vvqtxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355936/original/file-20200902-16-1vvqtxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355936/original/file-20200902-16-1vvqtxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355936/original/file-20200902-16-1vvqtxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Stretchable, smart silicone skin.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">RMIT University</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>Prosthetics significantly improve an amputee’s quality of life, but they still lack the ability to sense danger. A prosthetic hand does not sense when it’s placed on a hot surface, while someone with a prosthetic arm might lean on something sharp but won’t realise the damage being caused.</p>
<p>Technology that provides a realistic skin-like response can make a prosthetic much more like a natural limb. </p>
<p>With further development, our electronic skin could also potentially be used for skin grafts, in cases where the traditional approach is not viable.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355937/original/file-20200902-18-1wgbpqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Hand with silicone skin overlaid" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355937/original/file-20200902-18-1wgbpqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355937/original/file-20200902-18-1wgbpqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355937/original/file-20200902-18-1wgbpqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355937/original/file-20200902-18-1wgbpqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355937/original/file-20200902-18-1wgbpqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355937/original/file-20200902-18-1wgbpqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355937/original/file-20200902-18-1wgbpqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The new silicone skin could pave the way for smarter skin grafts.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">RMIT University</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<h2>Skin in the game</h2>
<p>We created our electronic skin by building on our research group’s previous breakthroughs in <a href="https://www.rmit.edu.au/news/all-news/2017/aug/eureka-moment-for-unbreakable-electronic-skin">stretchable electronics</a>, <a href="https://www.rmit.edu.au/news/newsroom/media-releases-and-expert-comments/2018/feb/clever-coating-opens-door-to-smart-windows">temperature-sensitive materials</a>, and <a href="https://www.rmit.edu.au/news/all-news/2015/october/nano-memory-cell-mimics-brains-longterm-memory">brain-mimicking electronics</a>.</p>
<p>For example, we used our process for integrating temperature-sensitive vanadium oxide, a material that can change its electronic behaviour in reaction to temperatures above a particular threshold (65°C in this case). </p>
<p>This material then triggers electrical signals similar to those generated by our nerve endings when we touch something hot. The electrical signal from the sensing part of the system (which is temperature- or pressure-sensitive) goes to a brain-mimicking circuit which processes the input and makes a decision based on threshold values. </p>
<p>The electrical output from the brain-mimicking circuit is like the nerve signals that initiate a motor response (such as moving your hand away) in the human pain response. </p>
<p>In our experiment, we measured the current generated. To use the silicone skin for real, this would need to be connected to nerve endings or apparatus that could initiate a motor response.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/its-not-easy-to-give-a-robot-a-sense-of-touch-118111">It's not easy to give a robot a sense of touch</a>
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<p>Our material responds just as fast as a real human pain response, mimicking the entire process from stimulus to response triggers from the brain – or in our case, the brain-mimicking circuit. The response is stronger depending on both the intensity and time of stimulation – just like a real human pain response.</p>
<p>The electronic skin brings to reality the threshold-based responses to pain, both in the way the skin reacts differently to pain above a certain threshold and how it takes longer for skin to “recover” from something that’s more painful. This is because stronger stimuli generate more voltage across the brain-mimicking circuit.</p>
<p>We can also modify this threshold in our devices to mimic the way injured skin (such as sunburnt skin) can have a lower pain threshold than normal skin. The electronic skin can also be used to increase sensitivity, which could be particularly useful in sports and defence as well as for skin grafts. </p>
<p>Another unique application could be smart gloves that could provide precise feedback from a surgeon’s hands when palpating tissue.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/prosthetic-limbs-affect-our-attitudes-to-disability-expressive-design-might-change-things-for-the-better-140796">Prosthetic limbs affect our attitudes to disability – expressive design might change things for the better</a>
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<p>Our silicone skin will need further development to integrate the technology into biomedical applications. But the fundamentals – biocompatibility and skin-like stretchability – are already there.</p>
<p>The next steps are working with medical researchers to make this even more “skin-like”, and to figure out how best to integrate it with the human body.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/145386/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Madhu Bhaskaran receives funding from Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>A new silicone ‘skin’ contains electronics that mimic the human body’s lightning-fast response to pain, potentially paving the way for smart prosthetics that can detect painful sensations.Madhu Bhaskaran, Professor, Electronic and Communications Engineering, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1197412019-07-16T18:44:43Z2019-07-16T18:44:43ZAn electronic chip that makes ‘memories’ is a step towards creating bionic brains<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282995/original/file-20190708-51284-1qai2nu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Researcher Taimur Ahmed holds the newly designed chip.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>What better way to build smarter computer chips than to mimic nature’s most perfect computer – the human brain?</p>
<p>Being able to store, delete and process information is crucial for computing, and the brain does this extremely efficiently.</p>
<p>Our new electronic chip uses light to create and modify memories, moving us closer towards artificial intelligence (AI) that can replicate the human brain’s sophistication.</p>
<p>To develop this, we drew inspiration from a new technique called <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/optogenetics-6523">optogenetics</a>, to develop a device that replicates the way the brain stores (and loses) information. Optogenetics involves using light to control cells in living tissue, typically nerve cells (neurons).</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/exciting-cells-and-controlling-heartbeats-could-optogenetics-create-drug-free-treatments-56539">Exciting cells and controlling heartbeats – could optogenetics create drug-free treatments?</a>
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<p>This area of science allows us to delve into the body’s electrical system with incredible precision, using light to manipulate neurons so they can be turned on or off. So what if we applied the same approach to designing computer chips?</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282997/original/file-20190708-51268-s7rak0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282997/original/file-20190708-51268-s7rak0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282997/original/file-20190708-51268-s7rak0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282997/original/file-20190708-51268-s7rak0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282997/original/file-20190708-51268-s7rak0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282997/original/file-20190708-51268-s7rak0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282997/original/file-20190708-51268-s7rak0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282997/original/file-20190708-51268-s7rak0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The RMIT brain chip.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Using light to make memories</h2>
<p>Neural connections happen in the brain through electrical impulses. When tiny energy spikes reach a certain threshold voltage, the neurons bind together - and you’ve started creating a memory.</p>
<p>Our new chip, details of which are published in the journals <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.201900966">Small</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201901991">Advanced Functional Materials</a>, aims to do the same thing using electronics. </p>
<p>It is based on an ultrathin material that changes electrical resistance in response to different wavelengths of light. This enables it to mimic the way neurons work to store and delete information in the brain.</p>
<p>This means we can simulate the brain’s inner workings simply by shining different colours onto our chip. </p>
<p>We have also demonstrated that the chip can perform basic information processing - involving simple <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logic_gate">logic operations</a> in which several inputs can be combined to produce a particular output. This ticks yet another box for brain-like functionality.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282996/original/file-20190708-51262-z9bbgr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282996/original/file-20190708-51262-z9bbgr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282996/original/file-20190708-51262-z9bbgr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282996/original/file-20190708-51262-z9bbgr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282996/original/file-20190708-51262-z9bbgr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282996/original/file-20190708-51262-z9bbgr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282996/original/file-20190708-51262-z9bbgr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282996/original/file-20190708-51262-z9bbgr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The chip is activated by different wavelegths of light.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<h2>How the chip works</h2>
<p>Shining a light onto the chip generates an electric current in the chip’s light-sensitive material. Switching between colours causes the current to reverse direction from positive to negative.</p>
<p>This direction switch is equivalent to the binding and breaking of connections between neurons in the brain, a mechanism that enables neurons to connect (and form new memories) or disconnect (and forget them again).</p>
<p>In optogenetics, light-induced modification of neurons causes them to turn on or off, enabling or inhibiting connections to the next neuron in the chain. This light-based process is what our chip can mimic.</p>
<p>To develop the technology, we used a material called black phosphorus, with a slightly deformed molecular structure due to missing atoms. Defects like this are typically viewed as a problem for electronics, but we have exploited it to our advantage. The defects allow us to manipulate the material’s behaviour to mimic both neural connections and disconnections, depending on the wavelength of light shining on it.</p>
<h2>Thinking ahead</h2>
<p>Our new chip takes us further on the path towards fast, efficient and secure light-based computing.</p>
<p>It also brings us an important step closer to creating a bionic brain that can learn from its environment just like we do.</p>
<p>Being able to replicate neural behaviour on an electronic chip also offers exciting avenues for research to better understand the brain and how it is affected by disorders that disrupt neural connections, such as Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.</p>
<p>The human brain is made up of billions of neurons in connected networks. They communicate with each other by using a sequence of electrical signals to express different behaviours, such as learning through sensory organs or more complicated processes like emotions and memory. </p>
<p>Any disruption to these signalling sequences can lead to a loss of these vital neural connections, potentially causing memory loss and dementia. </p>
<p>Curing these disorders would require identifying the faulty neurons and restoring their signalling routine, without affecting the functioning of other neurons in the network. </p>
<p>So by having a computer model of the brain, neuroscientists would be able to simulate brain functions and abnormalities, and work towards cures, without the need for living test subjects.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-brain-a-radical-rethink-is-needed-to-understand-it-74460">The brain: a radical rethink is needed to understand it</a>
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</em>
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<p>Our technology could also potentially be incorporated into wearable electronics, bionic prosthetics, or smart gadgets imbued with artificial intelligence. </p>
<p>But there are still several hurdles to clear before this technology can be commercialised. And needless to say, we still have a long way to go to build a network as large and complex as a human brain, or even a segment of it that could be useful to neuroscientists.</p>
<p>But we hope ultimately that this technology could interface with living tissues, giving rise to bionic devices such as retinal implants. The human retina contains cells that are sensitive to different wavelengths of light, generating a signal that the brain interprets as different colours. As our chip also responds differently to different wavelengths, it could potentially one day be used to make artificial retinas.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/119741/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Our brains create new memories, and forget old ones, by forging and breaking connections between nerve cells. Now researchers can do something similar using a light-sensitive electronic chip.Sumeet Walia, Senior Lecturer and Vice Chancellor's Fellow, RMIT UniversityTaimur Ahmed, Research Fellow, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/610592016-09-01T03:25:29Z2016-09-01T03:25:29ZCybathlon: A bionics competition for people with disabilities<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126787/original/image-20160615-14054-16isgqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Testing new ways to navigate a complicated world.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.cybathlon.ethz.ch/en/for-the-media/photo-gallery.html">ETH Zurich/Alessandro Della Bella</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Millions of people worldwide rely on orthotics, prosthetics, wheelchairs and other assistive devices to improve their quality of life. In the United States alone, there are <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apmr.2007.11.005">more than 1.6 million people with limb amputations</a>. The World Health Organization estimates the number of wheelchair users to be <a href="http://www.who.int/disabilities/publications/technology/wheelchairguidelines/en/">about 65 million people worldwide</a>.</p>
<p>It is important to improve the daily lives of people with disabilities or physical weaknesses, and allow them to be more independent. Unfortunately, current assistive technology does not fully address their needs. Wheelchairs cannot climb stairs; arm prostheses do not enable versatile hand functions. Powered support devices have limited battery life. The list goes on and on.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126783/original/image-20160615-14054-cjn6as.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126783/original/image-20160615-14054-cjn6as.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126783/original/image-20160615-14054-cjn6as.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126783/original/image-20160615-14054-cjn6as.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126783/original/image-20160615-14054-cjn6as.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126783/original/image-20160615-14054-cjn6as.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126783/original/image-20160615-14054-cjn6as.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Many people need help climbing stairs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.cybathlon.ethz.ch/en/for-the-media/photo-gallery.html">ETH Zurich/Alessandro Della Bella</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>People with disabilities are often disappointed with their devices’ performance, and choose not to use them. The main objection is that designs ignore user needs, such as individual preferences for device appearance, sizing and fitting for comfort and function, effort and time required to put on and take off, and device durability and weight.</p>
<p>Beyond the design issues, these tools are expensive. <a href="http://www.unicef.org/protection/World_report_on_disability_eng.pdf">Cost shuts many people out of using them</a>, regardless of how well they work.“ And stairs, steep ramps, narrow doorways and low tables can make the use of assistive technologies very cumbersome or even impossible.</p>
<p>It is an industry ripe for innovation. To encourage this work, I have founded <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12984-016-0157-2">a new kind of competition</a> promoting the development of useful technologies. In the Paralympics, parathletes aim to achieve maximum performance in sporting challenges. In our new contest, the <a href="http://www.cybathlon.ethz.ch/en/">Cybathlon</a>, people with physical disabilities will compete against each other at tasks of daily life, with the aid of advanced assistive devices – including robotic ones.</p>
<h2>Focusing on teamwork and technology</h2>
<p>In the Cybathlon, what’s being tested is not just the abilities of human athletes, nor only the equipment they use. Rather, it’s their symbiosis, balancing good technical performance of the device, and its control by the athlete.</p>
<p>Competitors will face off in six disciplines, for people with either limb amputations or limb paralysis of varying degrees, such as occurs after a spinal cord injury. We’ll organize a race focused on each of these technologies: powered leg prostheses, powered arm prostheses, functional electrical stimulation (FES) driven bikes, powered wheelchairs, and powered exoskeletons. The sixth competition is a racing game with virtual avatars controlled by brain-computer interfaces. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126784/original/image-20160615-14016-1lbdyum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126784/original/image-20160615-14016-1lbdyum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126784/original/image-20160615-14016-1lbdyum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126784/original/image-20160615-14016-1lbdyum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126784/original/image-20160615-14016-1lbdyum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126784/original/image-20160615-14016-1lbdyum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126784/original/image-20160615-14016-1lbdyum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Teams work together: a pilot in control, with others supporting and operating the technology.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.cybathlon.ethz.ch/en/for-the-media/photo-gallery.html">ETH Zurich/Alessandro Della Bella</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We ran test sessions in July 2015, and have slated the full competition for October 8 in Zurich. The devices involved can be prototypes developed by research labs or companies, or commercially available products. Competitors will be called pilots, as they must control a device that enhances their mobility. </p>
<p>Competing teams each consist of a pilot, scientists and technology providers, making the Cybathlon also a competition among companies and research laboratories. As a result there are two awards for each competition’s winning team: a medal for the pilot and a cup for the company or lab that made the device.</p>
<h2>The six competitions</h2>
<p>The competitions will simulate challenges people with disabilities face in daily life – situations that non-disabled people don’t think twice about but that can be insurmountable for others.</p>
<p><strong>Powered prosthetic legs</strong> Most leg prostheses require their users to <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.humov.2011.09.004">swing the artificial leg just so</a>, to properly align the knee, lower leg and foot. And they cannot transfer muscular power through the knee, using <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0966-6362(01)00162-X">thigh muscles to help climb stairs</a>, for example. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4klZXwE3-tI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">One of the best unpowered-knee prostheses, offering a quite symmetrical gait compared to most devices.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Powered leg prostheses can provide that missing power, but they are <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.robot.2014.08.012">difficult to control</a> unless the motor understands how the user wants to move. And even the best batteries are either too heavy or too short-lived to be a real solution. Our race will challenge pilots with above-knee amputations to use powered prosthetic legs to walk up and down stairs, stand up from a seated position, and otherwise navigate a complicated environment.</p>
<p><strong>Powered hands and arms</strong> Two-handed jobs, requiring either strength (like carrying a heavy box) or specific fine motor skills (like opening a small jar of jam) are challenging with even the best upper-arm prostheses. As a result, up to 60 percent of people with upper-limb amputation <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0363-5023(05)80278-3">don’t use their prosthetic device very much</a> or <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09638280410001645094">even at all</a>. People are <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03093640600994581">much less likely to reject</a> more advanced devices, like body-powered or electric ones. Pilots with amputations at or above the lower arm will use motorized prosthetic hands and arms to complete various household and food preparation tasks.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126782/original/image-20160615-14051-1xjec7k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126782/original/image-20160615-14051-1xjec7k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126782/original/image-20160615-14051-1xjec7k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126782/original/image-20160615-14051-1xjec7k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126782/original/image-20160615-14051-1xjec7k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126782/original/image-20160615-14051-1xjec7k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126782/original/image-20160615-14051-1xjec7k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Two-handed jobs needing fine motor skills can be very hard to complete.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.cybathlon.ethz.ch/en/for-the-media/photo-gallery.html">ETH Zurich/Alessandro Della Bella</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>Assisted cycling</strong> People with complete paraplegia don’t lose their muscles; they just lose the ability to control them. A technology called functional electrical stimulation (FES) can restore some of this function, sending electricity into otherwise dormant nerves to activate muscles. FES technology has been <a href="http://www.rehab.research.va.gov/jour/07/44/3/hardin.html">used for decades</a>. But the systems <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1682/JRRD.2011.03.0043">take a long time to set up</a>, don’t produce much muscle force, and tire out muscles quickly. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.rehab.research.va.gov/jour/07/44/3/hardin.html">Surgically implanted systems</a> give more <a href="http://www.rehab.research.va.gov/JOUR/03/40/3/pdf/Agarwal.pdf">specific control of particular muscles and higher force output</a>. But they are expensive and invasive, and carry more risks than external FES devices that are merely strapped to a person’s body. For these reasons, doctors and patients <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/sj.sc.3102101">don’t often use FES technology</a>.</p>
<p>In the Cybathlon, pilots with complete paraplegia will compete in a bike race, using FES devices to fire their leg muscles to drive the pedals.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Helping cyclists pedal with functional electrical stimulation.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>Powered wheelchairs</strong> Despite the Americans with Disabilities Act and other laws and regulations, public buildings are still <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/17483107.2010.522680">hard to enter and navigate in wheelchairs</a>. Most outdoor devices are too bulky and not agile enough for indoor use; commercial indoor wheelchairs can’t travel over uneven terrain or steps. So-called <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1682/JRRD.2004.08.0101">intelligent or smart wheelchairs, which can autonomously navigate in known environments</a> have been available for decades, but are very expensive and <a href="http://ebooks.iospress.nl/volume/assistive-technology-from-research-to-practice">used by relatively few people</a>.</p>
<p>Wheelchairs are becoming more powerful, but often their control systems are <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/MCS.2005.1411382">neither as effective nor as comfortable</a> as they could be. To push development of these functions, pilots with paralysis will take powered wheelchairs through an obstacle course with ramps, stairs, bends, doors and uneven terrain. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Powered wheelchair racing.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>Powered exoskeletons</strong> An alternative to wheelchairs are exoskeletal devices that <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1615/CritRevBiomedEng.2014010453">help people walk</a>. However, batteries only last a few hours, and the equipment is very bulky and heavy. Most of the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1561/2300000028">commercially available multi-joint exoskeletons</a> weigh between 46 and 62 pounds (21–28 kg). One device, called ”<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/17483107.2015.1080766">REX</a>“ weighs nearly 88 pounds! </p>
<p>Current commercial systems are so limited that they can’t even climb slopes or stairs. An obstacle course will test pilots’ and teams’ abilities to develop systems that can move through difficult areas.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TkqfetY4jjQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Moving with powered exoskeletons.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>Navigating by brain power</strong> In the brain-computer interface (BCI) race, pilots with paralysis of all four limbs will control a virtual avatar in a racing game displayed on a computer screen. The best pilots will be able to make their brain signals emit three different commands to overcome three different kinds of virtual obstacles. BCI technology is becoming more popular, but most systems take a long time to set up, can be uncomfortable, and <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s120201211">don’t function well outside the lab</a>. That has prevented its <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocp.2011.12.008">broad use in daily life</a>.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5jGcNbQhbg8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Racing with brain power alone.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Pushing the boundaries of the possible</h2>
<p>The Cybathlon will bring together people with disabilities or physical weaknesses, researchers and developers, governments and other agencies that fund services and research. It will also showcase the importance of this work to the general public. Our hope is that over time, these devices will become more affordable and more functional.</p>
<p>Unlike the Paralympic Games, pilots can use any technical aids they need, as long as they are safe. That enables people with more severe disabilities to compete. The goal is not to be the fastest or the strongest participant; rather it’s to be the most skilled pilot who can use advanced technologies to best overcome the challenges of everyday life.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/61059/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert Riener receives funding from Swiss National Science Foundation, Swiss Department of Inner Affairs, and private sponsors. </span></em></p>People with disabilities are often disappointed with their devices’ performance, and choose not to use them. To encourage innovation, a new competition tests assistive technologies.Robert Riener, Professor of Sensory-Motor Systems, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ZurichLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/547602016-03-01T13:53:53Z2016-03-01T13:53:53ZCybathlon will showcase what bionics could do for millions with disabilities<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112133/original/image-20160219-25855-13eaye3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Groundbreaking new technologies are finally leaving the lab.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alessandro Della Bella/ETH Zurich</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Following the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, this year will see the arrival of the <a href="http://www.cybathlon.ethz.ch/">Cybathlon</a>, the world’s first competition for parathletes and people with severe disabilities who compete with the aid of bionic implants, prosthetics and other assistive technology. </p>
<p>The Cybathlon will include six disciplines, each one specialised to the competitors’ type of physical need. Agility courses test those with bionic arms and legs, while races for powered wheelchairs and <a href="http://fortune.com/2014/08/27/exoskeletons-wearable-robotics/">powered wearable exoskeletons</a> include tackling obstacles such as flights of stairs. There is also a bike race for paralysed competitors using <a href="https://www.mstrust.org.uk/a-z/functional-electrical-stimulation-fes">electronic muscle stimulation</a> to move their legs, and a competition for those who have lost the ability to move their bodies but who are put back in control by means of a brain-computer interface.</p>
<p>It’s true that the Cybathlon is unlikely to feature the sort of athletic prowess found at the Olympics or Paralympics. But it will demonstrate what the technology is capable of, instead of it staying hidden in research labs, and focus effort and enthusiasm on improving it in order to revolutionise the lives of those with severe disabilities and life changing injuries. Organisers <a href="https://www.ethz.ch/en.html">ETH Zurich</a>, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, will bring together 80 teams of users, researchers, and the tech manufacturing industry to think about what is really needed to make technology that solves the everyday problems those living with disabilities face.</p>
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<p>It’s this focus on practical problems that has informed the design of the challenges. For example, the prosthetic arm race includes a station where the parathletes must slice a loaf of bread or pour a cup of coffee, and another where they must walk through a door while carrying a tray of objects. These are everyday activities taken for granted by most of us, but for the <a href="http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs352/en/">15m people</a> the World Health Organisation estimates are living with disabilities, they may be difficult or impossible.</p>
<p>While examples of technology such as bionic arms may be familiar, the brain-computer interface competition will be a surprise to most. A brain-computer interface is a system that interprets a person’s brain activity into one of several possible commands for equipment fitted to the competitor. This allows severely paralysed people whose cognitive and sensitive abilities are nevertheless intact to control equipment that can help them move or communicate.</p>
<p>It’s rare such interface systems leave a research lab, and many exist only in theory on the pages of research journals. They may seem like science fiction, yet they have existed in one form or another for decades. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112140/original/image-20160219-25894-9hia8n.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112140/original/image-20160219-25894-9hia8n.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112140/original/image-20160219-25894-9hia8n.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112140/original/image-20160219-25894-9hia8n.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112140/original/image-20160219-25894-9hia8n.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112140/original/image-20160219-25894-9hia8n.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112140/original/image-20160219-25894-9hia8n.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Paralysed racers use electrical stimulation to move their legs to power reclining cycles.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alessandro Della Bella/ETH Zurich</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Brain as machine controller</h2>
<p>There are several components to a brain-computer interface. The first one is of course the brain of the person. Electrical impulses in the brain are detected through electroencephalogram (<a href="http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/eeg/pages/introduction.aspx">EEG</a>) sensors attached non-invasively to the scalp, very much as they are in a hospital setting. These signals quite often include interference from muscular movement such as from the eyes, so the first step is to isolate the useful signal from the noise.</p>
<p>The signals are then processed in a step known as feature extraction. Approaches vary, but a common technique is for the user to imagine he or she is performing a movement, such as clasping and opening a hand. This mental imagery generates a particular pattern in the brain’s motor cortex which appears as an EEG signal that is easily recognisable and distinct from the background EEG activity.</p>
<p>The EEG signals are processed during feature extraction to make them more easily understood by the next component, the classifier, which identifies the intention of the user. A classifier identifies how the signal patterns differ when the user thinks of moving their left or their right hand, for example, or how these differ from signals generated as the user makes mental calculations. A good classifier learns these differences and identifies the most likely intention the user had, achieved through pattern matching and machine learning algorithms.</p>
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<p>The Cybathlon race will test competitors of the brain-computer interface race by means of a video game, in which the participants will map up to four different actions from the brain that need to be understood by the classifier of the system. The competitors must send the correct decision at the right time in order to race each others’ avatars represented in the game. The best system will be the one that most accurately recognises and quickly responds to its user’s brain activity, selects the right command and so allows he or she to win the race.</p>
<p>The appearance of brain-computer interfaces at Cybathlon is a rare opening outside the lab, that requires the systems’ developers to considerably improve them over those that need only function in lab experiments, for example by making them more reliable and able to cope with the user getting distracted.</p>
<p>Current systems aren’t yet ready for those whose lives they could so radically change. But the new developments of the last few years, which Cybathlon is encouraging further, will not only improve this technology but make it more suited to use by people living outside the lab – finally closing the loop on a technology that has been in the making for over 20 years.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/54760/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ana Matran-Fernandez is leader of BrainStormers, a team that will compete in the Brain-Computer Interface race at Cybathlon on behalf of Essex University.</span></em></p>After the Olympics and the Paralympics come the Cyberolympics – bionic men and women are coming to competitive sports.Ana Matran-Fernandez, PhD researcher, University of EssexLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/453092015-08-30T20:06:29Z2015-08-30T20:06:29ZFrom science fiction to reality: the dawn of the biofabricator<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92882/original/image-20150825-17783-1bizp8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=163%2C159%2C2325%2C1493&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Biofabrication takes place at the intersection of biology and technology.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Vern Hart/Flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><blockquote>
<p>We can rebuild him. We have the technology.
<br>- The Six Million Dollar Man, 1973</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Science is catching up to science fiction. Last year a paralysed man walked again after cell treatment <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/health-29645760">bridged a gap</a> in his spinal cord. Dozens of people have had <a href="http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2014/12/bionic-eyes-can-already-restore-vision-soon-theyll-make-it-superhuman/">bionic eyes</a> implanted, and it may also be possible to augment them to see into the infra-red or ultra-violet. Amputees can control bionic limb implant with <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/20/us-iceland-mind-controlled-limb-idUSKBN0O51EQ20150520">thoughts alone</a>. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, we are well on the road to <a href="http://www.nature.com/news/the-printed-organs-coming-to-a-body-near-you-1.17320">printing body parts</a>.</p>
<p>We are witnessing a reshaping of the clinical landscape wrought by the tools of technology. The transition is giving rise to a new breed of engineer, one trained to bridge the gap between engineering on one side and biology on the other. </p>
<p>Enter the “biofabricator”. This is a role that melds technical skills in materials, mechatronics and biology with the clinical sciences.</p>
<h2>21st century career</h2>
<p>If you need a new body part, it’s the role of the biofabricator to build it for you. The concepts are new, the technology is groundbreaking. And the job description? It’s still being written. </p>
<p>It is a vocation that’s already taking off in the US though. In 2012, Forbes rated <a href="http://www.forbes.com/pictures/lmj45jgfi/no-1-biomedical-engineering/">biomedical engineering</a> (equivalent to biofabricator) number one on its list of the 15 most valuable college majors. The following year, CNN and <a href="http://www.payscale.com/">payscale.com</a> called it the “<a href="http://money.cnn.com/pf/best-jobs/2013/full_list/">best job in America</a>”. </p>
<p>These conclusions were based on things like salary, job satisfaction and job prospects, with the US Bureau of Labour Statistics projecting a <a href="http://www.bls.gov/ooh/architecture-and-engineering/biomedical-engineers.htm">massive growth</a> in the number of biomedical engineering jobs over the next ten years. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92999/original/image-20150826-16668-1ll5606.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92999/original/image-20150826-16668-1ll5606.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92999/original/image-20150826-16668-1ll5606.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92999/original/image-20150826-16668-1ll5606.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92999/original/image-20150826-16668-1ll5606.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92999/original/image-20150826-16668-1ll5606.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92999/original/image-20150826-16668-1ll5606.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92999/original/image-20150826-16668-1ll5606.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Cochlear implant has brought hearing to many people.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dick Sijtsma/Flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Meanwhile, Australia is blazing its own trail. As the birthplace of the multi-channel <a href="http://www.cochlear.com/wps/wcm/connect/au/home/understand/hearing-and-hl/hl-treatments/cochlear-implant">Cochlear implant</a>, Australia already boasts a worldwide reputation in biomedical implants. Recent clinical breakthroughs with an implanted titanium <a href="http://www.csiro.au/en/News/News-releases/2014/3D-Heel-In-World-First-Surgery">heel</a> and <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-06-20/melbourne-man-receives-titanium-3d-printed-prosthetic-jaw/6536788">jawbone</a> reinforce Australia’s status as a leader in the field.</p>
<p>I’ve recently helped establish the world’s first international <a href="http://www.electromaterials.edu.au/biofab-masters-degree/">Masters courses for biofabrication</a>, ready to arm the next generation of biofabricators with the diverse array of skills needed to 3D print parts for bodies. </p>
<p>These skills go beyond the technical; the job also requires the ability to communicate with regulators and work alongside clinicians. The emerging industry is challenging existing business models. </p>
<h2>Life as a biofabricator</h2>
<p>Day to day, the biofabricator is a vital cog in the research machine. They work with clinicians to create a solution to clinical needs, and with biologists, materials and mechatronic engineers to deliver them. </p>
<p>Biofabricators are naturally versatile. They are able to discuss clinical needs pre-dawn, device physics with an electrical engineer in the morning, stem cell differentiation with a biologist in the afternoon and a potential financier in the evening. Not to mention remaining conscious of regulatory matters and social engagement.</p>
<p>Our research at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (<a href="http://www.electromaterials.edu.au/">ACES</a>) is only made possible through the work of a talented team of biofabricators. They help with the conduits we are building to regrow severed nerves, to the electrical implant designed to sense an imminent epileptic seizure and stop it before it occurs, to the 3D printed cartilage and bone implants fashioned to be a perfect fit at the site of injury. </p>
<p>As the interdisciplinary network takes shape, we see more applications every week. Researchers have only scratched the surface of what is possible for wearable or implanted sensors to keep tabs on an outpatient’s vitals and beam them back to the doctor. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, stem cell technology is developing rapidly. Developing the cells into tissues and organs will require prearrangement of cells in appropriate 3D environments and custom designed bioreactors mimicking the dynamic environment inside the body.</p>
<p>Imagine the ability to arrange stem cells in 3D surrounded by other supporting cells and with growth factors distributed with exquisite precision throughout the structure, and to systematically probe the effect of those arrangements on biological processes. Well, it can already be done. </p>
<p>Those versed in 3D bioprinting will enable these fundamental explorations. </p>
<h2>Future visions</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92878/original/image-20150825-17765-165uzrm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92878/original/image-20150825-17765-165uzrm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92878/original/image-20150825-17765-165uzrm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92878/original/image-20150825-17765-165uzrm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92878/original/image-20150825-17765-165uzrm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92878/original/image-20150825-17765-165uzrm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=682&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92878/original/image-20150825-17765-165uzrm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=682&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92878/original/image-20150825-17765-165uzrm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=682&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The 1970s TV show, Six Million Dollar Man, excited imaginations, but science is rapidly catching up to science fiction.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joe Haupt/Flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>Besides academic research, biofabricators will also be invaluable to medical device companies in designing new products and treatments. Those engineers with an entrepreneurial spark will look to start spin-out companies of their own. The more traditional manufacturing business model will not cut it.</p>
<p>As 3D printing evolves, it is becoming obvious that we will require dedicated printing systems for particular clinical applications. The printer in the surgery for cartilage regeneration will be specifically engineered for the task at hand, with only critical variables built into a robust and reliable machine.</p>
<p>Appropriately trained individuals will also find roles in the public service, ideally in regulatory bodies or community engagement.</p>
<p>For this job of tomorrow, we must train today and new opportunities are emerging <a href="http://www.electromaterials.edu.au/biofab-masters-degree/">biofab-masters-degree</a>. We must cut across the traditional academic boundaries that slow down such advances. We must engage with the community of traditional manufacturers that have skills that can be built upon for next generation industries.</p>
<p>Australia is also well placed to capitalise on these emerging industries. We have a traditional manufacturing sector that is currently in flux, an extensive advanced materials knowledge base built over decades, a dynamic additive fabrication skills base and a growing alternative business model environment.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/45309/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gordon Wallace receives funding from the Australian Research Council via the Centres of Excellence and Australian Laureate Fellowship schemes. With colleagues at QUT, Utrecht and Wurzberg they have established an International Masters in BioFabrication Course. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cathal D. O'Connell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>At the nexus of medical science, engineering, computer science and 3D printing is the biofabricator, a new career for the 21st century.Gordon Wallace, Executive Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science and Director of the Intelligent Polymer Research Institute, University of WollongongCathal D. O'Connell, Associate Research Fellow in 3D Bioprinting, University of WollongongLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/381152015-03-12T06:21:54Z2015-03-12T06:21:54ZBionic power trousers could help us get up the stairs<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/74541/original/image-20150311-24181-10orheb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C1%2C1200%2C768&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Definitely the wrong trousers, too much chafe.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/losturchin/3765401051/in/photolist-6JJExM-BbHAy-4rLrwa-9xri1L-o2EFGs-2AiSt-8mxbmg-4W2XGR-im3DN-gSYEb-3kr6u-56oGsX-dVZpK-aYHSw-99XNsg-dVZmP-76RHXF-8rcMZe-FC4R4-6dZGHN-6dZGyU-6dVy6n-6dVyfV-EYxPY">Colin Hurst</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The word “bionic” conjures up images of science fiction fantasies. But in fact bionic systems – the joining of engineering and robotics with biology (the human body) – are becoming a reality here and now. </p>
<p>Getting older and less steady on your feet? You need a <a href="http://www.livescience.com/47353-robot-exosuit-helps-paralyzed-move.html">bionic exoskeleton</a>. Having difficulty climbing those stairs? Try a pair of bionic power trousers. The biggest challenge for making these bionic systems ubiquitous is the huge range of situations we want to use them in, and the great variation in human behaviours and human bodies. At the moment there is simply no one-size-fits-all solution.</p>
<p>So, the key to our bionic future is adaptability: we need to make bionic devices that adapt to our environments and to us. To do this we need to combine three important technologies: sensing, computation and actuation. </p>
<p>Sensing can be achieved by using sensors which directly record brain, nerve and muscle activity, and by using on-body devices such as accelerometers which indirectly measure the movement of our limbs. Computers then link this information with models of human behaviour – often tailored to personal information about how the user moves – and predict the movements that the user is about to initiate. In the final stage, the computer systems use these predictions to divert energy to a set of power actuators. This actuation step provides the needed assistance and support, continually adapting to our changing bodies and the changing environment. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/74531/original/image-20150311-24194-19n4lg5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/74531/original/image-20150311-24194-19n4lg5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/74531/original/image-20150311-24194-19n4lg5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/74531/original/image-20150311-24194-19n4lg5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/74531/original/image-20150311-24194-19n4lg5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/74531/original/image-20150311-24194-19n4lg5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/74531/original/image-20150311-24194-19n4lg5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Soft robotics will be more natural than conventional hard bionics.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-119131810/stock-photo-future-technology-in-black-prosthetic-hand-on-white-ds-max-render-futuristic-innovation.html?src=csl_recent_image-1">Ociacia</a></span>
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<p>At present, most bionic assist devices are made from rigid materials such as metals and plastics, and are driven by conventional motors and gearboxes. These technologies are well established but their hardness and rigidity can be a great disadvantage. In nature, soft materials such as muscles and skin predominate, and as humans we find comfort in soft materials, such as holding hands or sitting on a sofa. </p>
<h2>Soft robotics for bionic bell-bottoms</h2>
<p>New “soft robotic” technologies are emerging which have the potential to overcome the limitations of conventional rigid bionics. These systems, as their name suggests, employ soft and compliant materials that work more naturally with the human body. Instead of rigid metals and plastics, they use elastic materials, rubbers and gels. Instead of motors and gearboxes, they’re driven by smart materials that bend, twist and pull when stimulated, for example by electricity. </p>
<p>These smart materials can mimic the contractions of biological muscles, and are often termed “artificial muscles”. With these advances we are now in a position to create radically new adaptive bionic devices for assistance and rehabilitation, including the smart bionic trousers. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/74530/original/image-20150311-24178-110ar4j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/74530/original/image-20150311-24178-110ar4j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/74530/original/image-20150311-24178-110ar4j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/74530/original/image-20150311-24178-110ar4j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/74530/original/image-20150311-24178-110ar4j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/74530/original/image-20150311-24178-110ar4j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/74530/original/image-20150311-24178-110ar4j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Smart trousers will make those stairs easier.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Monument,_London_-_Staircase.jpg">Mike Peel</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council recently <a href="http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/newsevents/news/prosthetichands/">announced</a> £5.3m investment into research targeted at the next generation of adaptive bionic devices. This includes funding for the development of soft robotic smart trousers that will help disabled and elderly people to maintain their mobility and independence. </p>
<p>The goal of the smart trousers project – a major collaboration between the Universities of Bristol, Leeds, Nottingham, Southampton, Strathclyde, Loughborough, and the West of England – is to demonstrate the feasibility of fully autonomous smart clothing. The smart trousers would be able to monitor the wearer’s intentions and give automatic power assistance when needed, for example when getting up from a chair or when climbing stairs. </p>
<p>Of course, this is more than just a technology exercise. The soft robotic clothing will need to be comfortable, easy to put on, hygienic and stylish. These are important considerations that need the direct input of the end users and this project will consult closely, throughout its duration, with the target end users and clinical experts. </p>
<p>The future of smart trousers may lie in even tighter integration with the human body. By implanting sensors under the skin that monitor nerve signals directly, even more precise information about the user’s intentions can be measured. This will enable future devices to have a much more natural relationship with the wearer. </p>
<p>The potential of this approach has been shown in the <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140673614617761">recent work</a> by the Medical University of Vienna, where three patients with serious hand injuries volunteered to have their hands amputated and replaced with functional prosthetic hands controlled by their own nerve signals. They were then able to perform more sophisticated manipulations with everyday objects then they were before the transplants. </p>
<p>These exciting new technologies look to herald a new era of soft robotic wearable bionic devices for assistance and rehabilitation which work in harmony with, and adapt to, our frail human bodies.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/38115/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonathan Rossiter receives funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). He works for the University of Bristol.</span></em></p>Bionic trousers could use artificial muscles to help wearers move about – and soft robotics technology will make the clothing comfortable and maybe even stylish.Jonathan Rossiter, Reader in Robotics, University of BristolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/274032014-06-10T04:52:40Z2014-06-10T04:52:40ZSimply copying nature is no way to succeed at inventing – just ask Leonardo da Vinci<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/49900/original/2kccx752-1401452286.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">One design that didn't take off.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/tom-margie/1430804368">tom-margie</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Where do inventions come from? There’s no magic formula, but there are ways to improve your creativity. One method is to look at nature. Some call this activity bionics, others call it biomimetics. Whatever you call it, it is big business: in recent years we have seen the rise of university courses, institutes and learned journals in the subject. The term I prefer is bio-inspired design, and here’s why.</p>
<p>If it hadn’t been for birds, I doubt if anyone would have even thought that it might be possible for something heavier than air to get airborne. With his flying machine, Leonardo da Vinci had a detailed design that looks, on paper, very impressive. But it doesn’t work. </p>
<p>Several centuries passed before we realised why. The bird’s wing performs two separate tasks, both of which are essential. By its shape, it provides lift when air passes over it. And by its movements it provides power. The crucial step to making aircraft was to separate these two functions, leaving the wing to do the lifting but transferring the power function to an engine and propeller, something no bird ever possessed.</p>
<p>There is an important lesson here. The first step is to imitate nature, and the second step is to abandon nature’s ways. At some point you have to give up the love affair, dump nature and move on. The problem is that simply copying nature doesn’t work. </p>
<p>Here is an example from my field – structural materials. Bones are an excellent material, providing support and strength. Currently we can’t make materials that reproduce a bone’s internal structure. But even if we could, we wouldn’t be able to use it in engineering structures for many reasons. </p>
<p>First, nature can live with failure, but we can’t. When we design a component for a car or aircraft, we need to ensure that the probability of failure of that part per year is something like one in a million. Because a vehicle has thousands of parts and is supposed to last for tens of years without catastrophic failure. </p>
<p>But nature is happy to work with much higher failure rates: the chance of breaking a bone if you are a monkey in the wild is about <a href="http://press.princeton.edu/titles/7313.html">2% per bone per year</a>. If engineers worked to that standard they would soon be looking for another job. The reason for this difference is that for nature the failure of an individual is of no consequence. What matters is the survival of the species. So nature is wasteful of individual lives, in a way which we risk-averse humans can’t tolerate.</p>
<p>In a recent paper, published in the <a href="http://pic.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/04/01/0954406214530881.abstract">Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science</a>, I consider several bio-inspired concepts. One is the work of the German engineering Claus Mattheck. His book Design in Nature: Learning from Trees is a classic on biomimetics. Mattheck’s lifelong love affair with trees has led to many important innovations in engineering design. </p>
<p>One of these considers the junction where the branch of a tree meets the trunk. Mattheck said the curvature around this junction was very cleverly designed to minimise the concentration of stress that occurs when engineers try to design the same shape. He suggested that the tree was sensitive to stress and so, as it grew, would deliberately place material in such a way as to minimise stress. He developed a computer programme to simulate tree growth, and the result was a fantastic reduction in stress concentration, allowing for more slender components. This is important, because shaving a few percent off the weight of a component in a car means lower material costs, less fuel usage, less CO<sub>2</sub> emissions and so on.</p>
<p>But when I go and actually look at trees, I don’t think Mattheck is right. I don’t think trees are doing what he thinks they are doing, and proving it would be quite difficult. But of course it doesn’t matter if you remember that nature was only the starting point, not the objective of the exercise.</p>
<p>Another example is the recent news that scientists have discovered an animal that runs faster than any other – and <a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/worlds-fastest-land-animal-has-new-name-meet-paratarsotomus-macropalpis-mite-made-speed-1577349">it’s a mite</a>. The story – no doubt distorting the original science – was that this mite runs faster than a cheetah if you measure speed in terms of how many body lengths it covers per second. </p>
<p>The report predicted that this fascinating result will be used by bioengineers to improve engineering design. Well, perhaps it will, but if so the inspiration will be the opposite of what it seems. It is well known that smaller animals can run faster when measured by body size – even the humble cockroach beats the cheetah on that measure. But a simple biomechanical model, applying the appropriate scaling laws, would suggest that all animals should be able to run at the same absolute speed, not the same relative speed. So the inspiration here will come from asking “why are the little guys so slow?”. </p>
<p>Nature can be a wonderful muse, an excellent starting point in the development of a new engineering device or material, but don’t make the mistake of thinking that nature has already solved your problems for you.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Next, read this: <a href="https://theconversation.com/nature-must-remain-at-the-heart-of-engineering-solutions-27904">Nature must remain at the heart of engineering solutions</a></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/27403/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Taylor does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Where do inventions come from? There’s no magic formula, but there are ways to improve your creativity. One method is to look at nature. Some call this activity bionics, others call it biomimetics. Whatever…David Taylor, Professor, Trinity College DublinLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/234352014-02-24T19:07:59Z2014-02-24T19:07:59ZIt’s time to build a bionic brain for smarter research<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42287/original/r7767jq9-1393205072.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">To really get into the brain's mechanisms, we need to build a working model.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/x9v/4380496280/sizes/o/">Tankakern/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The structure of the brain reveals a network of massively interconnected electrochemically active cells. It is known that information can be represented by changes of state within this network, but that statement falls far short of revealing how the brain supports thought, feelings, memory, intention and action. </p>
<p>How then to solve this problem? The physicist <a href="http://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/">Richard Feynmann</a> famously said “What I cannot create, I do not understand”. A report <a href="http://science.org.au/events/thinktank/thinktank_2013.pdf">published today</a> by the Australian Academy of Science proposes applying this approach to the study of the brain by creating a simulating the biological thought process within a new computer system. </p>
<p>In short: build a bionic brain. </p>
<p>The device could be truly revolutionary. A bionic brain built on biological principles could suggest entirely new approaches to artificial intelligence. It would be a new computer resource inspiring new solutions for fail-safe smart machines. Simulating thought in a bionic brain would also provide a whole new tool with which to investigate the operation of neural circuits. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42289/original/tq5nv2sb-1393205385.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42289/original/tq5nv2sb-1393205385.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42289/original/tq5nv2sb-1393205385.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42289/original/tq5nv2sb-1393205385.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42289/original/tq5nv2sb-1393205385.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42289/original/tq5nv2sb-1393205385.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=674&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42289/original/tq5nv2sb-1393205385.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=674&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42289/original/tq5nv2sb-1393205385.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=674&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/genista/3432987963/sizes/l/">Genista/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>A bionic brain would provide a whole new approach to the study of not just normal mental function, but also mental disorder such as psychosis, addiction and anxiety. It would provide a new resource to examine the causes of these disorders and even test proposed therapies. </p>
<p>Ultimately a bionic brain may even provide a solution for victims of brain damage or stroke by outsourcing some aspects of brain function to a prosthetic device. </p>
<h2>Big neuroscience</h2>
<p>Is this proposal realistic or simply science fiction? Neuroscience is currently experiencing a revolution and the bounds of what is realistic are changing rapidly. </p>
<p>Revolutionary innovations in <a href="http://www.childrenshospital.org/research-and-innovation/research-labs/introduction-to-proteomics">proteomics</a> (the study of proteins), informatics, microscopy and <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/the-science-of-medical-imaging">imaging techniques</a> are providing radical new approaches to map neural networks and relate function to network activity within the brain. </p>
<p>This has seen the birth of the new energetic field of <a href="http://www.neuroscienceblueprint.nih.gov/connectome/">connectomics</a>, which promises entirely new synthetic approaches to understanding how the brain works. Neuroscience is experiencing a technical revolution that is analogous to the impact of genomics on molecular biology. </p>
<p>Consider that in the 1990s sequencing the human genome was considered by many an impossibility: the human genome was simply too big to comprehend. New sequencing and computing technologies changed the limits of possibility, and the first draft human genome sequence was published by just 2003. </p>
<p>Similarly, discussion of mapping the networks of the human brain has changed form considering the endeavour a fantasy to wondering when it will be done, and by whom. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42291/original/xq5dr2tf-1393205515.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42291/original/xq5dr2tf-1393205515.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42291/original/xq5dr2tf-1393205515.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=240&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42291/original/xq5dr2tf-1393205515.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=240&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42291/original/xq5dr2tf-1393205515.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=240&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42291/original/xq5dr2tf-1393205515.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=302&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42291/original/xq5dr2tf-1393205515.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=302&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42291/original/xq5dr2tf-1393205515.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=302&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/scingram/100212089/sizes/l/">Scott Ingram Photography/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
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<p>To capitalise on this revolution both the <a href="http://health.usnews.com/health-news/news/articles/2013/02/18/us-plans-billion-dollar-project-to-study-the-brain">US</a> and <a href="http://dujs.dartmouth.edu/news/two-billion-euros-go-to-european-research-projects#.Uwqgi2SSzC4">Europe</a> have embarked on multi-billion dollar brain research initiatives. Special research funds have been set aside to transform neuroscience into Big Neuroscience by supporting bold and large scale interdisciplinary projects. </p>
<p>The US program is focused on developing and using new methods to map the human connectome. The European program is exploring how to understand and simulate brain function by use of supercomputers to model neural networks. </p>
<h2>Inspiring smarter brain research in Australia</h2>
<p>The glaring question is: what is Australia doing? </p>
<p>In July 2013 the Australian Academy of Science hosted a Think Tank for neuroscience researchers (including me) to consider <a href="http://www.science.org.au/events/thinktank/thinktank2013/index.html#sthash.N0t0p7Ec.dpbs">exactly this question</a>.</p>
<p>Obviously Australia is not in a position to launch its own multi-billion brain initiative (nor would that be strategic), but how can Australian neuroscientists best capitalise on the changing international neuroscience landscape? </p>
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<p>The good news is that currently Australian neuroscience is vibrant. As a result of strong university, medical research and healthcare systems Australia punches above its weight in neuroscience research. </p>
<p>But the Think Tank recognised that Australian neuroscience is typified by discipline-specific research conducted by strong but independent teams. The Think Tank recognised that to stay competitive it will be essential that Australian neuroscience rallies to larger-scale and interdisciplinary challenges. </p>
<p>A call for a strategic investment of funds in neuroscience was made to facilitate new forms of collaboration and enable better exchange between the wealth of information gathered within the health care system and medical research. </p>
<p>Focus groups identified specific challenges for targeted investment to galvanise research in the next decade. The bionic brain proposal was presented by one of these focus groups. </p>
<h2>A bionic brain: can Australia do it?</h2>
<p>Understanding the human brain well enough to simulate it may be some way off, but the group argued that rapid and incisive progress could be made by examination of animal systems. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42294/original/4nw5vjgf-1393205894.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42294/original/4nw5vjgf-1393205894.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42294/original/4nw5vjgf-1393205894.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=636&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42294/original/4nw5vjgf-1393205894.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=636&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42294/original/4nw5vjgf-1393205894.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=636&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42294/original/4nw5vjgf-1393205894.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=799&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42294/original/4nw5vjgf-1393205894.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=799&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42294/original/4nw5vjgf-1393205894.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=799&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/24557420@N05/5977429007/sizes/l/">*Psycho Delia*/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
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<p>Even simple animals with small brains are capable of solving complex problems. </p>
<p>Consider the myriad decisions a foraging honey bee must make in order to successfully harvest nectar from thousands of scattered flowers and find its way back to the hive. A bee does all this with a brain of just a few cubic millimetres. Whether a bee thinks could be an abstract question, but a bee <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-bees-dont-know-can-help-them-measuring-insect-indecision-20099">certainly demonstrates</a> spontaneous action, evaluation and decision.</p>
<p>Understanding how these functions emerged from the circuitry of something the scale of a bee brain, is an accessible question and would be the foundational work for understanding more complex brains.</p>
<h2>Looking ahead for Australian neuroscience</h2>
<p>The think tank concluded with a unanimous call that Australia simply cannot afford not to become involved in the new Big Neuroscience. Failure to engage would see Australia falling far behind at the most exciting time of this seminal field. </p>
<p>The benefits from an investment in neuroscience now must be weighed against the costs of inaction. These would be the costs to the Australian economy from lost intellectual property, and the consequences to Australian people of delayed solutions for mental illness. </p>
<p>The Think Tank showed that Australian neuroscience is strong, outward looking and certainly capable of the big ideas. Let us hope the community receives the support it needs to put these ideas into action. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/23435/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Barron is president of the Australasian Society for the Study of Animal Behaviour. He receives funding from the ARC, NHMRC and Herman Slade Foundation.</span></em></p>The structure of the brain reveals a network of massively interconnected electrochemically active cells. It is known that information can be represented by changes of state within this network, but that…Andrew Barron, Senior Lecturer in Zoology, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/191812013-10-14T19:27:34Z2013-10-14T19:27:34ZProsthetic wired to the brain could help amputees feel touch<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/33024/original/rfm5wrdv-1381767462.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C995%2C2529%2C1823&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">High five!</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">PNAS 2013</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Our ability to grasp and manipulate objects relies on feedback from our sense of touch. Without these signals from the hand, we would have trouble performing even the most basic activities of daily living, like tying our shoes or turning a doorknob. Touch is even critical for emotional communication. We touch the people we care about, and it makes our limbs feel like part of us.</p>
<p>Science has made tremendous advances in technology that <a href="http://on.wsj.com/1e8rqKg">taps into signals</a> from the brain to allow patients to move prosthetic limbs, but incorporating real-time sensory feedback would not only increase the dexterity and usefulness of robotic prosthetic limbs, but also make them feel like natural extensions of our bodies.</p>
<p>In my lab at the University of Chicago, we’re working to better understand how the sensory nervous system captures information about the surface, shape and texture of objects and conveys it to the brain. <a href="http://bit.ly/1fxW9DM">Our latest research</a> creates a blueprint for building touch-sensitive prosthetic limbs that one day could convey real-time sensory information to amputees and tetraplegics via a direct interface with the brain.</p>
<p>To restore sensory motor function of an arm, you not only have to replace the motor signals that the brain sends to the arm to move it around, but you also have to replace the sensory signals that the arm sends back to the brain. We think the key is to invoke what we know about how the brain processes sensory information, and to then try to reproduce these patterns of neural activity through stimulation of the brain.</p>
<p>The research is part of a project to create a modular, artificial upper limb that will restore natural motor control and sensation in amputees and it has involved lots of people from academia, government and business. Our team is working specifically on the sensory aspects of these limbs. </p>
<p>In a series of experiments with monkeys, whose sensory systems closely resemble those of humans, we identified patterns of neural activity that occur when monkeys were natural holding or manipulating objects. We then successfully induced these patterns through artificial means.</p>
<p>During tasks to identify when and where the skin has been touched and how much pressure is being exerted, the animals responded the same way to actual physical contact as they did to artificial stimulation of the sensory cortex of the brain.</p>
<p>The result of these experiments created a set of instructions that can be incorporated into a robotic prosthetic arm to provide sensory feedback to the brain through a neural interface. Such feedback will bring these devices closer to being tested in human clinical trials.</p>
<p>The algorithms we use to decipher motor signals have come quite a long way, where you can now control arms with seven degrees of freedom - the number of ways the human <a href="http://science.howstuffworks.com/robot2.htm">arm can pivot</a>. It’s very sophisticated. </p>
<p>But I think there’s a strong argument that prosthetics that seek to be extensions of ourselves will not be clinically viable until sensory feedback is also incorporated into the system. When it is, the functionality of these limbs will increase substantially. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/19181/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sliman Bensmaia receives funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency </span></em></p>Our ability to grasp and manipulate objects relies on feedback from our sense of touch. Without these signals from the hand, we would have trouble performing even the most basic activities of daily living…Sliman Bensmaia, Principal Investigator, University of ChicagoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/70372012-05-16T20:37:22Z2012-05-16T20:37:22ZBrain-controlled robotic arm toasts success with a drink<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/10711/original/68fqrr7s-1337134143.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A woman drinks using a robotic arm, something she hasn't been able to do with her own arms for 15 years.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Nature</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The world of brain-machine interfacing (<a href="http://computer.howstuffworks.com/brain-computer-interface.htm">BMI</a>) has a new posterchild. A study on people with <a href="http://www.spinal-injury.net/tetraplegia.htm">tetraplegia</a>, published in <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v485/n7398/full/nature11076.html">Nature</a>, has shown participants were able to control a robotic arm and hand over a broad space without any explicit training. </p>
<p>This builds on advances in BMI research, which have shown people with profound upper-extremity paralysis or limb-loss could use their brain signals to direct useful robotic arm actions.</p>
<p>Findings in this field have <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v453/n7198/full/nature06996.html">previously demonstrated</a> that able-bodied monkeys equipped with electrodes implanted into their brains can control a robotic arm, but until recently it was unknown whether people with profound upper-extremity paralysis or limb-loss could use their brain signals to direct a robotic arm. </p>
<p>The new study by Leigh R. Hochberg of Brown University and colleagues involved something known as the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDiWFcA0gaw">BrainGate neural interfacing system</a>, equipped with a 96-channel microelectrode array.</p>
<p>One of the participants, as you’ll see in the video below, was able to drink from a bottle using the robotic arm, something she had not been able to do with her own limb since a stroke nearly 15 years ago.</p>
<p>BMIs, also known as neural-interfacing systems, play a very important role in the advancement of the methods enabling humans to interact with and control a specific machine (such as a computer, a robotic arm, and so on). </p>
<p>Such interfaces can detect electrical signals from the brain in an invasive or non-invasive manner. The BrainGate system is an invasive technology that uses thin silicon electrodes surgically inserted a few millimetres into the <a href="http://www.getbodysmart.com/ap/nervoussystem/cns/brain/cerebrum/cortex/primarymotorcortex/tutorial.html">primary motor cortex</a>, a part of the brain that controls movements. </p>
<p>Non-invasive BMIs include those systems with electrodes attached on the surface of the skull. Although several techniques (such as <a href="http://kidshealth.org/parent/general/sick/eeg.html">electroencephalography</a> (EEG)) can record signals from the brain in a non-invasive manner, it is generally thought electrodes positioned inside the brain convey more information.</p>
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<h2>Thought-processing</h2>
<p>Brain signals acquired through either of the above techniques are then subjected to processing to remove the noise and any unwanted artifacts (the equivalent of static on your TV or radio) from the signal. </p>
<p>To decode movement intentions from neural activity, artificial intelligence models are then utilised to extract the most promising features – statistical descriptors of the brain signals – that discriminate between the signals related to the imaginations of different hand movements.</p>
<p>Finally, pattern-recognition algorithms trained with these features are employed to discriminate an intended hand-state based on the features extracted from the brain signals in real-time. </p>
<h2>All the right moves</h2>
<p>Although the robot’s movements reported by Hochberg and colleagues were not as fast or accurate as those of an able-bodied person, the participants successfully touched their target object (in this case some foam balls) on 49% to 95% of attempts. These findings were consistent across multiple sessions with two different robot designs. </p>
<p>What’s more, about two-thirds of successful reaches resulted in correct grasping. The authors further established the efficacy of brain control by one participant in the bottle-grasping and drinking task I mentioned earlier (see video above). This demonstrates that a neural-interface system can perform actions that are useful in daily life.</p>
<p>The results demonstrate the feasibility of this technology for use with people with tetraplegia (also known as quadriplegia). Years after injury to the central nervous system, BMIs are able to recreate useful, multidimensional control of complex devices directly from a small sample of neural signals.</p>
<h2>Indirect action</h2>
<p>In the context of existing research on the control of robotic arm movements for amputees and the disabled, there are two main classification schemes covering the approaches to interfacing the human brain with the external world. </p>
<p>These can be divided according to the method used to acquire the human intentions to perform a movement.</p>
<p>In the first scheme, the interface is implemented through an indirect link with the brain by utilising the human muscular activity, known as the <a href="http://www.webmd.com/brain/electromyogram-emg-and-nerve-conduction-studies">Electromyogram</a> (EMG). This forms a muscle-computer interface, as <a href="http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/groups/cue/MuCI/">recently coined by Microsoft</a>. </p>
<p>The EMG reflects the voluntary intentions of the central nervous system to contract a muscle (or group of muscles) and has been well studied and utilised in controlling robotic prosthetic devices. The vast majority of current research in this area is focused on the clinic applications of EMG-driven prosthetics. </p>
<p>But paralysis following spinal cord injury, <a href="http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-brain-stem-stroke.htm">brain stem stroke</a>, <a href="http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1170097-overview">amyotrophic lateral sclerosis</a> and other disorders can disconnect the brain from the body. This eliminates the ability to perform volitional movements and can render the indirect approach useless. </p>
<p>In such a case there is a need for direct access to the brain signals.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/10715/original/9pp3y3pp-1337138348.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/10715/original/9pp3y3pp-1337138348.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/10715/original/9pp3y3pp-1337138348.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/10715/original/9pp3y3pp-1337138348.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/10715/original/9pp3y3pp-1337138348.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/10715/original/9pp3y3pp-1337138348.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/10715/original/9pp3y3pp-1337138348.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Brainput monitors blood flow to infer the intentions of the user.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">MIT</span></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Brain invasion</h2>
<p>The progress achieved by Hochberg and colleagues with BrainGate falls within the second classification scheme, providing a direct link to the brain through the BMIs. This work paves the way for more advanced research for a variety of applications, including the control of robotic arms. </p>
<p>However, it should also be noted here that as well as the risks associated with surgery required to implant the BMIs, a disadvantage of such implants is the potential for scar tissue to form around the electrodes. This can result in a deterioration of signal quality over time.</p>
<p>Further efforts to understand, build, and control more powerful brain-signal-acquisition units will be crucial for widespread clinical application of neural-interface systems that can decode the intentions of the brain. </p>
<p>Perhaps the recently proposed wearable BMI known as <a href="http://www.technewsworld.com/story/Brainput-Project-Takes-a-Load-Off-Humans-Minds-75122.html">Brainput</a> by <a href="http://web.mit.edu/erinsol/www/papers/Solovey.CHI.2012.Final.pdf">researchers from MIT</a> (see image above) could be a future replacement to the invasive techniques. </p>
<p>This approach uses a non-invasive neuroimaging technology called <a href="http://www.spectroscopynow.com/coi/cda/detail.cda?id=1881&type=EducationFeature&chId=2&page=1">functional near-infrared spectroscopy</a> (fNIRS) to monitor the blood flow (blood oxygenation and volume) to infer human intentions.</p>
<p>As we move forward, the technology will become more sophisticated, and the results even more remarkable.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/7037/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rami Khushaba works for University of Technology, Sydney (UTS).</span></em></p>The world of brain-machine interfacing (BMI) has a new posterchild. A study on people with tetraplegia, published in Nature, has shown participants were able to control a robotic arm and hand over a broad…Rami Khushaba, Research Fellow, School of Electrical, Mechanical, and Mechatronic Systems, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/442011-04-04T20:57:51Z2011-04-04T20:57:51ZIn search of the Bionic Man<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/327/original/3045156028_d4db03a1f6_b.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption"> d db a f b</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">littlehonda_350/Flickr</span></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-right ">
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<span class="caption">The Bionic Woman had a profound effect on popular culture.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">unloveablesteve/Flickr</span></span>
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<p>In 1973, the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) first aired The Six Million Dollar Man, a made-for-television movie in which Steve Austin, an astronaut test-piloting a prototype aeroplane, experienced a seemingly unsurvivable crash.</p>
<p>As Austin was removed from the wreckage, “barely alive”, the narrator explained, “Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology.</p>
<p>"We have the capability to build the world’s first bionic man. Steve Austin will be that man. Better than he was before. Better, stronger, faster.”</p>
<p>What followed was nothing short of a global phenomenon. As a young boy attending school in California at the time, I vividly recall the day after this film aired. The narrator’s words were on everyone’s lips: “better, stronger, faster”.</p>
<p>We could now run faster with our imaginary bionic legs, lift incredible weight with our imaginary bionic arm, and read the date on a coin from kilometres away with our imaginary bionic eye.</p>
<p>The series that was inspired by the movie, and its spin-off program “The Bionic Woman” (Jamie Sommers had similar injuries to Steve from a skydiving accident, but instead of losing an eye she lost an ear), went on for five seasons, complete with accompanying toy action figures, comic books, wall posters, Halloween costumes and the like (some of which are still available on eBay!). It was huge.</p>
<p>Time has not treated these series well. Nearly 40 years later on late-night reruns, the special effects look cheesy and awkward, the storylines contrived and the sound effects – well, we all loved those sound effects so I won’t go there …</p>
<p>One wonders what $6 million could buy today. Surely what was fantasy in 1973 is reality now, right? Do we “have the technology”?</p>
<h2>Where we stand</h2>
<p>Sensory auditory neuroprostheses – bionic ears, if you will – have come the closest to meeting the expectations set out for us by Jamie Sommers’ pioneering bionic hearing which, week after week, saved the day by allowing her to hear the sinister plans of villians.</p>
<p>Today, more than 100,000 people around the world can hear again as a result of bionic ears – at least 70% of them using technology designed and built in Australia by <a href="http://www.cochlear.com/au">Cochlear Limited</a>. The results are nothing short of incredible.</p>
<p>I had the honour of working for Cochlear during the 1990s when the technology was first gaining acceptance as a genuine treatment for deafness.</p>
<p>As I commuted home on the train one day after work, I sat next to a woman who was wearing a small, round object behind her ear that looked a bit like the Mercedes Benz emblem.</p>
<p>I recognised it as being one of our implants – one of the implants I had helped to make safe and effective (I was so proud – even though I was just one of about 25 engineers working at the company at the time).</p>
<p>I pulled a business card from my wallet and showed it to the lady. She described how, when the device was first switched on, it sounded like “Donald Duck” and how, after a while, the people she knew from before she went deaf began to sound exactly the same as she remembered.</p>
<p>For me (who spent most days in a laboratory testing silicone polymers, ceramic encapsulations, radio telemetry and the fatigue resistance of platinum electrodes) this chance meeting made my day.</p>
<h2>Better, stronger, faster</h2>
<p>The promise of bionic limbs that can allow one to run 100 kilometres an hour and lift cars over their head has not quite lived up to expectations.</p>
<p>Certainly the robotics available today have these capabilities, but controlling these replacements to amputated legs and arms so that they can be used beneficially has proven far less successful than we, on the school yard in 1973, might have imagined.</p>
<h2>An issue of coordination</h2>
<p>As we walk, signals from our brain precisely control numerous muscles simultaneously. A robot can control numerous actuators simultaneously but only through the use of electronic signals that dictate when and where the movement is to occur.</p>
<p>When a bionic limb is used to replace a lost limb, the signals that once controlled the fingers, toes, and other muscles in the original sit dormant inside the remaining part of the limb. </p>
<p>The signals are still there, but accessing and deciphering them is a monumental task.</p>
<p>Signals are carried within the body by nerves. Nerve cells often contain axons (nerve fibers) that can extend long distances from the nerve cell’s body in order to transmit signals called “action potentials”.</p>
<p>When an action potential arrives at its destination, the result can be the contraction of a muscle, the hearing of a noise, the feeling of pain, or the experience of a memory.</p>
<p>Detecting these action potentials can, and in many cases do, tell us what has happened or what should happen next.</p>
<p>The problem is that there are billions of nerve cells, and they like to travel in groups – often enormous groups of thousands or millions of axons.</p>
<p>Knowing which one to listen to, and indeed how to listen to it, is what we haven’t been able to do particularly well. Yet.</p>
<p>We can do a few, basic commands (move arm, close fingers, open fingers, etc.) but so far coordinated movement has eluded us.</p>
<h2>We like it difficult</h2>
<p>Steve Austin’s bionic eye was not only the most far-fetched component of his $6 million bionic ensemble; it has also been the most sought-after goal in the field of implantable bionics in recent decades.</p>
<p>Today there are actually people walking around the streets of Germany, Britain, the United States and a growing number of other places with prototype bionic eyes.</p>
<p>The Australian Government has recently committed an incredible $50 million in research funding for us to achieve what was once believed to be impossible – <a href="https://theconversation.com/bionic-vision-the-fight-for-sight-236">to make the blind see again</a>.</p>
<p>I say “us” because I am one of the lead researchers on one of two teams funded by the Australian Research Council to achieve this objective by 2014.</p>
<p>One year into the four year project, all signs are indicating that we’re going to do it, and soon people will be walking around the streets of Australia with a bionic eye.</p>
<h2>The six million dollar question</h2>
<p>Did Steve Austin and Jamie Sommers foretell the future, or did they simply set expectations too high for humans to ever develop technologies that would satisfactorily assist in overcoming extensive injuries from crashing planes or skydiving accidents?</p>
<p>As a kid on a playground in 1973, it certainly looked achievable.</p>
<p>Four decades later, as the coordinator of a course called “Implantable Bionics” at the University of New South Wales, I’m still a believer.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/44/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gregg J. Suaning is employed by the University of New South Wales and is a Chief Investigator on Australian Research Council grants including the Special Research Initiative in Bionic Vision Technologies, Discovery Projects, and Linkages Projects with Cochlear Limited. He also holds a number of patents in the field of implantable bionics and has some small financial interests in biomedical companies including Cochlear Limited.</span></em></p>In 1973, the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) first aired The Six Million Dollar Man, a made-for-television movie in which Steve Austin, an astronaut test-piloting a prototype aeroplane, experienced…Gregg J. Suaning, Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2362011-03-24T00:00:00Z2011-03-24T00:00:00ZBionic vision: the fight for sight<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152/original/Eyes-kannukal.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Age-related macular degeneration is responsible for almost half of all cases of legal blindness in Australia</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Caduser</span></span></figcaption></figure><h2>What is the bionic eye?</h2>
<p>Often when we talk about the bionic eye, people get the idea of some sort of artificial eye implanted to replace visual function.</p>
<p>In reality, the “eye” comprises a series of components. It is an implanted system that includes a retinal implant with an array of electrodes that electrically stimulate surviving nerve cells at the back of the eye.</p>
<p>In a nutshell, this retinal prosthesis is designed to restore some sense of vision to people who are blind due to degenerative retinal conditions.</p>
<h2>Who are we?</h2>
<p><a href="http://bionicvision.org.au/" title="Bionic Vision Australia website">Bionic Vision Australia</a> is a group of research collaborators from Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra. </p>
<p>Our consortium is set up as a joint venture between five member organisations: <a href="http://www.bionicear.org/index.html" title="Bionic Ear Institute website">the Bionic Ear Institute</a>, <a href="http://www.cera.org.au/home" title="Centre for Eye Research Australia website">the Centre for Eye Research Australia</a>, <a href="http://www.nicta.com.au/" title="NICTA website">NICTA</a>, <a href="http://www.unimelb.edu.au/" title="University of Melbourne website">the University of Melbourne</a> and <a href="http://www.unsw.edu.au/" title="University of New South Wales website">the University of New South Wales</a>.</p>
<p>We also have researchers involved from two supporting organisations: <a href="http://www.anu.edu.au/" title="Australian National University website">Australian National University</a> and <a href="http://www.uws.edu.au/" title="University of Western Sydney website">the University of Western Sydney</a>. There are just over 100 researchers and students working on various parts of the project.</p>
<p>As part of our team, we have experts in the fields of ophthalmology, biomedical engineering, electrical engineering, materials science, neuroscience, vision science, psychophysics, wireless integrated-circuit design, surgical, preclinical and clinical practice.</p>
<p>It is this multi-disciplinary approach that sets us apart from our international competitors. Such an integrated approach is the soundest way to deliver the best possible outcomes for our future patients.</p>
<h2>How will the bionic eye work?</h2>
<p>Current bionic vision technology is based on a camera that captures images, processes them and sends data to a retinal implant. This implant contains a number of electrodes that stimulate the remaining cells of the retina to elicit the perception of vision.</p>
<p>We are simultaneously developing two devices: the “<a href="http://bionicvision.org.au/eye/prototypes/wide_view" title="BVA wide-view prototype">wide-view</a>” and the “<a href="http://bionicvision.org.au/eye/prototypes/high_acuity" title="BVA high-acuity prototype">high-acuity</a>” retinal implants. There are a number of technical differences between them, but essentially, both devices aim to restore some sense of vision by electrically stimulating cells in the retina based on information captured by an external camera.</p>
<p>The “wide-view” device contains 98 stimulating electrodes and aims to aid patients with navigation and independence. The “high-acuity” device contains roughly 1000 electrodes and aims to restore some functional central vision, enabling patients to recognise details so they can see faces and possibly read large print.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/122/original/How_it_works_diagram_1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/122/original/How_it_works_diagram_1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/122/original/How_it_works_diagram_1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/122/original/How_it_works_diagram_1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/122/original/How_it_works_diagram_1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/122/original/How_it_works_diagram_1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=612&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/122/original/How_it_works_diagram_1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=612&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/122/original/How_it_works_diagram_1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=612&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">How the bionic eye works.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Who is it for?</h2>
<p>The predominant cause of inherited blindness is a group of conditions called <a href="http://bionicvision.org.au/eye/vision_impairment/rp" title="About Retinitis pigmentosa">retinitis pigmentosa</a>, which is characterised by the progressive loss of vision, and affects 1.5 million people worldwide.</p>
<p>In Australia, <a href="http://bionicvision.org.au/eye/vision_impairment/macular_degeneration" title="About age-related macular degeneration">age-related macular degeneration</a> (AMD), which most frequently affects people over 65, is responsible for almost half of all cases of legal blindness.</p>
<p>The technology we are developing will primarily be of benefit to people with these conditions. Our first patients will be those who are experiencing blindness but, with time and further research, it is possible that this technology will also be suitable for people with low vision.</p>
<p>What the technology won’t do is help those who have been blind since birth: for patients to benefit from these devices, they need to have been able to see in the past so their brain knows what to do with the information it receives from a bionic eye.</p>
<h2>Why is this happening in Australia?</h2>
<p>Australia has a rich history in the area of medical bionic devices, from the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_pacemaker" title="About the pacemaker - Wikipedia">pacemaker</a> to the cochlear implant, now known popularly as the “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochlear_implant" title="About the bionic ear - wikipedia">bionic ear</a>”. Our consortium, Bionic Vision Australia, is fortunate to benefit from this experience and the understanding of what it takes to bring a successful medical device to the market.</p>
<h2>Who are we competing with?</h2>
<p>Internationally, there are around 30 groups working on this technology, including the Retina Implant AR in Germany (based at the University of Tubingen) and the Boston Retinal Implant group in the USA.</p>
<p>Another group from the USA, Second Sight, recently announced it had received regulatory approval in Europe to proceed with marketing its device, the Argus II. While this is of course a great achievement, it does not imply that this device will be the only technology on the market in the future.</p>
<p>At Bionic Vision Australia we are working on delivering a device that is safe, effective and can stay safely implanted over the lifetime of the patient.</p>
<p>It’s worth pointing out that the context in which we worked on the bionic ear development was one of significant international competition. One company, 3M, was marketing its device before Australian researchers had even begun patient tests, and yet <a href="http://www.cochlear.com/au" title="Cochlear Ltd website">Cochlear Ltd</a> is now the global leader in bionic hearing technology and has made a profound impact on the lives of more than 200,000 cochlear implant recipients around the world.</p>
<h2>What stage is the Australian technology at?</h2>
<p>Our researchers are working through an extensive program of safety and efficacy tests for our devices.</p>
<p>The results of these studies then feed into the device development and stimulation strategy teams to ensure that we deliver implants that provide the best possible functional benefits for our future patients.</p>
<p>The clinical team is working with patients who have retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration to understand more about the retina, and again, feed these findings back into the device development process.</p>
<p>Finally, our surgical team is developing techniques for implantation and support the work of the preclinical team.</p>
<h2>Where to from here?</h2>
<p>Our first set of patient tests for the “wide-view” device will be completed by the end of 2013. If these are successful we will begin the commercialisation process so we can deliver a device to market as soon as possible.</p>
<p>The results will also inform and speed up the development of the “high-acuity” device, which will hopefully give us the potential to leap-frog international competitors.</p>
<h2>And finally</h2>
<p>It’s probably too early to say just how much vision we will be able to restore, but with the fullness of time and continued dedication and effort, who knows what will be possible in years to come?</p>
<p>If you are interested in <a href="http://bionicvision.org.au/get_involved/test_participant" title="participating in patient tests with Bionic Vision Australia">participating in patient tests with Bionic Vision in Australia</a>, please <a href="http://bionicvision.org.au/about/contact" title="contact the BVA clinical team">contact the clinical team</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/236/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bionic Vision Australia is funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC) through its Special Research Initiative (SRI) in Bionic Vision Science and Technology.</span></em></p>What is the bionic eye? Often when we talk about the bionic eye, people get the idea of some sort of artificial eye implanted to replace visual function. In reality, the “eye” comprises a series of components…Anthony Burkitt, Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Chair of Bio-Signals and Bio-Systems, Melbourne School of Engineering, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.