Dallas, TX--Lightning-fast connections between robotic limbs and the human brain may be within reach for injured soldiers and other amputees with the establishment of the $5.6 million dollar DARPA-funded Neurophotonics Research Center led by Southern Methodist University (SMU) engineers. The Center, focused on nerve stimulation and neurophotonics, will develop two-way fiber-optic communication between prosthetic limbs and peripheral nerves that is key to operating realistic robotic arms, legs, and hands that not only move like the real thing, but also “feel” sensations like pressure and heat.
Successful completion of the fiber optic link will allow for sending signals seamlessly back and forth between the brain and artificial limbs, allowing amputees revolutionary freedom of movement and agility. Partners in the Neurophotonics Research Center also envision man-to-machine applications that extend far beyond prosthetics, leading to medical breakthroughs like brain implants for the control of tremors, neuro-modulators for chronic pain management, and implants for patients with spinal cord injuries.
DARPA is funding the $5.6 million center with industry partners as part of its Centers in Integrated Photonics Engineering Research (CIPhER) project, which aims to dramatically improve the lives of the large numbers of military amputees returning from war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Currently available prosthetic devices commonly rely on cables to connect them to other parts of the body for operation--for example, requiring an amputee to clench a healthy muscle in the chest to manipulate a prosthetic hand. The movement is typically deliberate, cumbersome, and far from lifelike. The goal of the Neurophotonics Research Center is to develop a link compatible with living tissue that will connect powerful computer technologies to the human nervous system through hundreds or even thousands of sensors embedded in a single fiber. Unlike experimental electronic nerve interfaces made of metal, fiber-optic technology would not be rejected or destroyed by the body’s immune system.
The Center brings together researchers from SMU, Vanderbilt University, Case Western Reserve University, the University of Texas at Dallas, and the University of North Texas. The Neurophotonics Research Center’s industrial partners include Lockheed Martin (Aculight), Plexon, Texas Instruments, National Instruments, and Magnetic Resonance Research Accessories.
The research builds on partner universities’ recent advances in light stimulation of individual nerve cells and new, extraordinarily sensitive optical sensors being developed at SMU. Volkan Otugen, SMU site director for the Center and Lyle School mechanical engineering chair, has pioneered research on tiny spherical devices that sense the smallest of signals utilizing the whispering gallery modes concept.
SOURCE: Southern Methodist University; www.smu.edu/News/2010/research-artificial-limbs-08sept2010.aspx
Posted by:Gail Overton
Subscribe now to Laser Focus World magazine; It’s free!