Visual prosthetics (sonar eyes)
Professor Todd Austin and Assistant Professor Silvio Savarese at the U-M College of Engineering, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) have been developing a visual prosthetic for visually impaired persons. The promising and revolutionary process called "Visual Sonification" is a mobile computer vision platform that converts a stereo camera into real-time imagery. The vision abstractions are then transmitted to the blind user using a 3D sound system.
Customized-scaffold approach to bone and tissue repair
By integrating computationally designed biodegradable materials with various biocompatible coatings and growth factors, Scott Hollister a professor of biomedical engineering and mechanical engineering at U-M's College of Engineering, and Associate Professor of Surgery in the U-M Medical School, has developed a customized-scaffolding for bone and tissue repair. Hollister's lab has been able to create scaffolds for a variety of potential applications, such as craniomaxillofacial reconstruction, spine fusion, disc repair, orthopedic trauma, and joint reconstruction. This technology has been licensed to Tissue Regeneration Systems, Inc, a University of Michigan spin-off company of which Hollister is a co-founder.
Cochlear implant
A team led by Kensall D. Wise, founding director of the NSF Engineering Research Center for Wireless Integrated Microsystems (WIMS), created a ribbon-like cochlear implant that uses thin-film electrode sites to directly stimulate the auditory nerve. Conventional implants have between 16 and 22 stimulating sites along its length. By contrast, the U-M implant could host up to 128 stimulating sites. Wise said, "More sites should result in greater tonal range and better frequency perception, and the implant's flexibility will minimize any damage to existing hearing."
Total artificial lungs
This creation by U-M mechanical Engineer Dong Hyuck Kam, is intended to serve as a bridge to lung transplant. The design is a biocompatible shell containing hollow fibers. The fibrous branching network is designed to serve as gas exchangers for use in artificial lungs and simulates physiological flow by mimicking the tree-like vascular structure of natural lung. Gas flows through the fibers and, driven by the heart, blood flows around them. Kam's pioneering research examines the effects the flow of oxygen transport and flow within the device.
BioBolt
The BioBolt is a tiny device developed by principal investigator Euisik Yoon, a professor in the department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. It can be subdermally implanted into the skull where an array of microelectrodes is seated on the brain with embedded microcircuits to monitor neural activities. The device acts a locus, gathering information from the patterns of neurons firing. The signal is filtered, converted to digital information and wirelessly transmitted through the skin to a computer at extremely low power. It may eventually be used to bring paralyzed limbs back to life by retrieving the connection between the brain and the limbs.
Bipedal Locomotion
Research on bipedal (upright terrestrial) robotic locomotion has many Human 2.0 applications. Professor Jessy Grizzle a professor in the department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) is studying the design of lower-limb rehabilitation robotics for patients who have suffered partial spinal lesions or strokes. MABEL, a robot in a University of Michigan lab can run like a human—a feat that represents the height of agility and efficiency for a two-legged machine. "It's stunning," said Grizzle. "I have never seen a machine doing a motion like this."
Direct brain control
Researchers at four U.S. universities, including Brent Gillespie, associate professor of mechanical engineering at U-M, are embarking on a four-year project to design a prosthetic arm that amputees may directly control with their brains. It will allow them to feel what they touch. The team plans to incorporate technology that feeds tactile information from prosthetic fingertips and grasping-force information to the brain via a robotic exoskeleton and touchpads that vibrate, stretch, and squeeze the skin at the site where the prosthesis is attached. In experiments, subjects wear a non-invasive cap that utilizes EEG (encephalography) to produce control signals.
