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Bionics – a word formed from biology and electronics – has become a quickly expanding research field, exploring ways and materials to bridge the interface between electronics and biology Basically, there are three levels of biocommunications where electronics and biology could interface: molecular, cellular and skeletal. For any implanted bionic material it is the initial interactions at the biomolecular level that will determine longer term performance. While bionics is often associated with skeletal level enhancements, electronic communication with living cells is of interest with a view to improving the results of tissue engineering or the performance of implants such as...

January 22, 2008 It’s not often in this era of rampant technological innovation that a fundamentally new concept surfaces – with almost no limitations to what can be achieved with the myriad new technologies coming to market over the last few years, fundamentally new ideas of this magnitude are becoming increasingly rare, much less technologies with groundbreaking societal implications. Such a technology emerged this week when it was announced that engineers at the University of Washington have used microscopic scale manufacturing techniques to combine a flexible contact lens with an imprinted electronic circuit and lights. Though in its infancy, the...

If you've ever wanted to be the Bionic Woman or a Terminator, new research may at least let you see with their eyes. Scientists have taken the first step toward creating digital contact lenses that can zoom in on distant objects and display useful facts. For the first time, engineers have installed an electronic circuit and lights on a regular contact lens. The prototype they created does not actually light up or display information. But it proves that it is possible to build an electronic lens that is safe to wear and doesn't obstruct vision. "Looking through a completed lens,...

Baby's x-ray showing the inserted metal implants (photo: Bill Osment) A cat who was fitted with metal plates in all four legs after surviving two 21ft falls has been dubbed "bionic".Six-year-old Baby fractured her back legs after falling from a window in her south London home in September. The domestic short-haired cat had a metal plate and screws inserted at the Blue Cross animal hospital in Victoria. To the surprise of vets, an X-ray showed she had two implants in her front legs, inserted after a similar plunge when she was a kitten. Extremely lucky Vets said Baby was...

For patients who have lost a limb, prosthetic devices frequently come as mixed blessing. Aesthetically, they may provide a valuable boost to self-esteem and confidence. But heavy, uncomfortable and difficult to use, most will seldom provide a level of sensitivity sufficient to render them anything other than an additional encumbrance. For a group of researchers at Hebrew University [of Israel], though, one novel approach to the measurement of brain activity has suggested how one day a metal-and-plastic limb might operate just as effectively as its flesh-and-blood prototype - and, in the process, teach us more about how the brain interacts...

Gays and the Bionic Woman? Love her! Gays and Isaiah Washington? Not so much. What's a thoroughly postmodern gay to do when one of the iconic heroines of '70s television is relaunched on a network that eagerly embraces an actor who gets dumped from his hit show on another network after proving himself all too comfortable with a certain homophobic slur? Okay, fine, maybe you don't get the Bionic Woman idolization. Maybe you've never been on the receiving end of the "f" slur. (What are you, one of those nine out of 10 people who "scientific research" suggests isn't gay?)...

WASHINGTON, July 18, 2007 – A new prosthesis under development will give servicemember amputees more flexibility and help them better perform their military jobs if they choose to stay on active duty. Army Spc. Charles Parker looks on as Sven Zarling, from Otto Bock International, demonstrates the capabilities of a prototype of a prosthesis designed to give above-the-knee amputee servicemembers mobility they need to remain on active duty if they choose. The prosthesis uses a microprocessor to control the knee’s hydraulic functions and can anticipate the wearer’s actions and make changes in real time. Photo by Fred W. Baker...

A bionic eye implant that could help restore the sight of millions of blind people could be available to patients within two years. US researchers have been given the go-ahead to implant the prototype device in 50 to 75 patients. The Argus II system uses a spectacle-mounted camera to feed visual information to electrodes in the eye. Patients who tested less-advanced versions of the retinal implant were able to see light, shapes and movement. "What we are trying to do is take real-time images from a camera and convert them into tiny electrical pulses that would jump-start the otherwise blind...

A bionic eye implant that could help restore the sight of millions of blind people could be available to patients within two years. US researchers have been given the go-ahead to implant the prototype device in 50 to 75 patients. The Argus II system uses a spectacle-mounted camera to feed visual information to electrodes in the eye. Patients who tested less-advanced versions of the retinal implant were able to see light, shapes and movement. "What we are trying to do is take real-time images from a camera and convert them into tiny electrical pulses that would jump-start the otherwise...

A prosthetic arm that moves and feels like the real thing is now a step closer thanks to a new surgical technique which allows the owner to intuitively control her limb and regain her sense of touch. Surgeons working on a female amputee in Chicago, US, have re-routed the ends of the motor nerves – which once controlled her arm’s movement – into the muscles in her chest and side. And the ends of the sensory nerves, which fed signals responding to heat and touch from her now-amputated arm to her brain, have been transferred to the skin on her...

A silicon chip that faithfully mimics the neural circuitry of a real retina could lead to better bionic eyes for those with vision loss, researchers claim. About 700,000 people in the developed world are diagnosed with age-related macular degeneration each year, and 1.5 million people worldwide suffer from a disease called retinitis pigmentosa. In both of these diseases, retinal cells, which convert light into nerve impulses at the back of the eye, gradually die. Most artificial retinas connect an external camera to an implant behind the eye via a computer (see 'Bionic' eye may help reverse blindness). The new silicon...

She's being called the world's first "bionic woman." Claudia Mitchell, who lost her left arm in a motorcycle accident, can move her replacement robotic arm just by thinking. "I can flex my elbow and open and close my hand with the mere thought of doing it," she said. ...

WASHINGTON - In the 1970s TV show "The Six Million Dollar Man," the strapping young astronaut got a bionic eye. A U.S. company had hoped that next year that might be your grandmother. Not so fast, a federal advisory panel said Friday. ADVERTISEMENT A tiny telescope designed to be implanted in the eyes of some elderly patients should not receive Food and Drug Administration approval, the panel recommended on a 10-3 vote. The FDA's ophthalmic devices panel recommended against the pea-sized bionic device for safety reasons, spokeswoman Heidi Valetkevitch said. The first-of-its-kind device is called the Implantable Miniature Telescope. The...

7/7 victims are bionic surgery pioneersBy Sam Lister, Health Correspondent   A TEAM of British scientists has overcome one of the great challenges of modern medicine by developing technology that allows skin to bind with metal without causing infection, improving the prospect of bionic limbs.      Early clinical trials on a group of patients who have lost limbs, fingers and thumbs, including two people injured in the July 7 bombings a year ago, are described as very promising. Doctors hope to involve more survivors of the London bombs, as well as military personnel and other volunteers who have...

University of Utah researchers will receive up to $10.3 million to help develop a new prosthetic arm that would work, feel and look like a real arm. The Utah work is a key part of a U.S. Department of Defense contract worth up to $55 million to develop the new device for soldiers and potentially others whose arms were amputated. "Imagine an artificial arm that moves naturally in response to your thoughts, that allows you to feel both the outside world and your own movements, and that is as strong and graceful as an intact, biological limb," says bioengineer Greg...

Paralysed patients are being taught to use their hands and arms again by an electric ‘gauntlet’. It stimulates the muscles to make the hands and arms work again and also helps the brain to relearn how to move them unaided. An area of the brain unaffected by the stroke then takes over from the damaged area to control movement. Each year, millions of men and women around the world suffer from a stroke, which results in either death or severe disability. Many stroke patients have hand paralysis, which prevents them from doing many every day activities, from opening a door...

A 46-year-old woman has been fitted with the world's first "bionic" device that is capable of producing coordinated fine hand and arm movement. The woman has suffered two strokes that have affected her control over her left arm. On 13 May neuro-rehabilitation experts at the University of Southampton in the UK inserted five implants into the limb, each measuring 1.7 centimetres by 2.4 millimetres. These receive power and stimulation commands from a radio-frequency coil fitted to her arm and connected to a control unit. The implants are selectively placed to stimulate key nerves controlling both deep and superficial muscles, allowing...

A ROBOT suit has been developed that could help older people or those with disabilities to walk or lift heavy objects. Dubbed HAL, or hybrid assistive limb, the latest versions of the suit will be unveiled this June at the 2005 World Expo in Aichi, Japan, which opened last month. A commercial product is slated for release by the end of the year. HAL is the result of 10 years' work by Yoshiyuki Sankai of the University of Tsukuba in Japan, and integrates mechanics, electronics, bionics and robotics in a new field known as cybernics. The most fully developed prototype,...

Stanford physicists and eye doctors have teamed up to design a "bionic eye," of sorts.On Feb. 22 in the Journal of Neural Engineering, Daniel Palanker, Alexander Vankov and Phil Huie from the Department of Ophthalmology and the Hansen Experimental Physics Laboratory and Stephen Baccus from the Department of Neurobiology published a design of an optoelectronic retinal prosthesis system that can stimulate the retina with resolution corresponding to a visual acuity of 20/80—sharp enough to orient yourself toward objects, recognize faces, read large fonts, watch TV and, perhaps most important, lead an independent life. The researchers hope their device may someday...