Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Science

Bionic Implants Stimulate Muscle Contractions 87

Posted by CmdrTaco from the stuff-to-read dept.
joshv writes "Researchers at University of Southern California have developed implants about the size of a grain of rice which are injected directly into muscles to stimulate muscular contractions in stroke victims. The implants have no external connections or wires and are activated and presumedly powered by an external radio signal. "
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Bionic Implants Stimulate Muscle Contractions More

Bionic Implants Stimulate Muscle Contractions

Comments Filter:
  • Remember stories of people getting FM radio stations in their fillings and braces?

    This could be bad

  • "we have the technology, we can rebuild him"

    I wonder if these things could be implanted in normal people and used to flex your muscles while you sleep, make me a buff body while im dreaming of Sarah Michelle Gellar.

  • Cereal power (Score:5)

    by tinyduck ( 121399 ) on Wednesday December 08, 1999 @04:07PM (#1473947)
    If I got some of those things inserted into my muscles, I could remote control myself. Or even more fun, have someone else control me. Freaky.

    I could put a sticker on my forehead stating Powered by Rice Bubbles.

    Knock a few people off and become a genuine cereal killer.

    Oh dear... the mind wonders....

    *grin*

  • Re:Imagine the possibilities... (Score:4)

    by spectecjr ( 31235 ) on Wednesday December 08, 1999 @04:08PM (#1473948) Homepage
    Remember stories of people getting FM radio stations in their fillings and braces?

    This could be bad

    On the other hand, it could be the start of a break-dancing revival. I'm all for that.

    Simon
  • tune those babies to different frequencies, build a controller, get close enough to someone, then dance them like a puppet!

  • spock (Score:1)

    by Caled ( 26214 )
    This reminds me of an episode of star trek where Spock gets his brain stolen by alien space babes and Jim uses a remote controller device to move Spock around.

    Now maybe not having a brain won't be the disadvantage it once was.

  • How long until (Score:4)

    by mr ( 88570 ) on Wednesday December 08, 1999 @04:11PM (#1473953)
    This technology will be used by people for sex, vanity, and athletes in training? And these markets will make them money by the boatload.

    Athletes - using this device for that 'workout without a workout'.
    Vanity - look at how many buy steroids/the charles atlas muscle-training program. Now his dynamic resistance program will actually work..with the stimulation.
    And the link [folsomelectric.com] in case the biggest market interests you. Such machines are allready used for muscle excersize.

  • Awesome. (Score:4)

    by Kamikaze ( 3777 ) on Wednesday December 08, 1999 @04:14PM (#1473956)
    Ok, this could be really cool. But is this technology *only* good for muscle contractions? For example, my biology professor is working on figuring out how nerve cells extend themselves in fetuses (feti?) to connect with other neurons in the brain/spinal cord/etc. While I can't see this being overly practical for brain injuries, this little development could make it unnecessary to figure out a way to make neurons in the spinal cord regenerate after an injury.

    I know I'd rather have a few of these connected with each other and my spinal cord than wait around for a biochemical breakthrough :)

  • That would be nice, though there will surely be drawbacks. Bud, in "The Diamond Age" was always twitchy because of this sort of thing. But I've got a soft spot for Bud; he's also from north Florida.

  • brings a whole new meaning to... (Score:4)

    by confidential ( 23321 ) on Wednesday December 08, 1999 @04:15PM (#1473958)
    interactive music ;-) (i know its not the same kinda radio waves, but still)

    Just picture this in your mind... the nurse walks in to help you, and leans over you to grab something and acts as an antenna for the local radio station. This sets off the implants and jerks your arm up suddenly, punching the nurse in the tummy

    ok, ok, i know, it could never happen, but the first thing i think of when i see "controlled by radio waves" is something like that ^_^ besides, it would be awesome to get too close to your computer and have it's signals make you type faster, lol

  • Just imagine... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    What if the Drug company Phzer (makers of viagra) got ahold of stuff like this... hmmm......

  • This is straight out of the Diamond Age! (Score:3)

    by bocee ( 20173 ) on Wednesday December 08, 1999 @04:16PM (#1473960) Homepage
    Remember Bud, from the beginning of the Diamond Age (Neal Stephenson)? He had pretty much the same thing:


    "On a previous visit to the mod parlor, two years ago, he had paid to have a bunch of 'sites implanted in his muscles--little critters, too small to see or feel, that twitched Bud's muscle fibers electrically according to a program that was supposed to maximize bulk."


    It's good to see more and more of these things coming true!
  • hmm...this reminds me of something [cultdeadcow.com] I saw at cDc a while ago
  • And in the same way, we may soon be able to have a PCI card that will allow the broadcasting of music throughout your home. Sounds like fun to me.

    The day of human-like robots is coming soon.

  • Here's a pointer to the manufacturer... (Score:5)

    by sysadmindave ( 89055 ) on Wednesday December 08, 1999 @04:19PM (#1473963)
    I work for a company closely affiliated with the one who developed this device (about a 7 year process). Here's two URLS to the people involved, although information there is sparse. http://www.advancedbionics.com These people also market Cochlear implants that restore hearing to totally deaf patients. http://www.aemf.org This is the non-profit R&D foundation that has actually done most of the development. If anyone really wants to know more about these devices, please contact them... Dave Marsh Systems Engineer Medical Research Group, Inc.
  • remember the book "diamond age?" by neal stephenson? the punk kid had those bought implants which stimulated his muscles and made him stronger? there's no mention of that here but it must be a consideration...once available freely this could be perhaps the most effective path to better health one could ever imagine..obese people could use them to increase their metabolism and lose weight...others could just use them to get buff! what an idea! i love it...reminds me of the scenes in "The Matrix" as well where they rebuilt his atrophied muscles...

  • "Having determined the correct thresholds, doctors can then download a set of exercise programs into a portable controller for the patient to take home."

    Imagine having grandma hooked up to the net. Makes the whole Borg thing look sort of possible. You could get your webcam repointed effortlessly.

  • Upon reading the article, I'm considerably less excited than I was before. If a similar device were designed that *didn't* generate it's own signal, but merely transmitted a signal from one neuron to another, then paralysis would be much easier to deal with...

    but hey, as it is these could help people with irregular heartbeat and/or damaged cardiac muscle..

  • Interesting but... (Score:5)

    by VFVTHUNTER ( 66253 ) on Wednesday December 08, 1999 @04:29PM (#1473968) Homepage
    The article states that stroke victims are at risk of thrombosis, yet these devices are made out of glass capillaries, which is thrombogenic. Furthermore, while the current electrode-electrical therapies can be painful, I want you all to consider the size of a 12-gauge needle: 3.7mm in diameter. I would kindly prefer the electrodes, thank you sir. Furthermore, think of the hacking possibilities here: who wants to hack into the DoD and post silly messages when you can make the old lady next door get jiggy with it at your control...it'd be like having your own programmable puppet. Lastly, the critic mentioned in the article is correct: long-term studies are needed. These lil things can become lodged in joints, escape into the bloodstream, etc. They might be carcinogenic. Who knows? Its time for a randomized trial.

    That said, it IS a step in the right direction. Current science is 99% focused on the chemistry of neurology...theyre forgetting the electrical aspects of it. Not until doctors looked at the heart as an electrical organ did they really do anything that can be described as "cardiology," and the brain is every bit as electrical as the heart.

  • The 3133+ hax0rs will have fun with this one... (Score:4)

    by RaveX ( 30152 ) on Wednesday December 08, 1999 @04:43PM (#1473970)
    I can't wait for the latest 2600:

    "Why the Government is Bad"
    "How to Control Your Neighbors Using a Modified Transmitter"
    "Why Businesses are Bad"

    Plus, the heartwarming essay
    "Help, Help, I'm Being Oppressed!"

    Seriously, though, I wonder what happens when two people with the same technology stand next to one another. If the devices are powered by the radio waves and are this small, they aren't likely to have half a million codes like garage door openers and the like. Will I be able to raise your hand in class? Force the dumb kids to answer questions?
    ---sig---

  • Bionic Olympians? (Score:3)

    by Cef ( 28324 ) on Wednesday December 08, 1999 @04:46PM (#1473971)

    Just take this scenario, and mebbe the Olympics would be a real problem?

    What if....

    You plant these devices in an athlete, and use the devices to help the athlete attain supreme levels of fitness.

    Then you manage to make a device that can track their movements (using sensors in newer devices) and at the point just before they reach maximum muscle compression, it gives a little 'boost' to give better, fuller, and more uniform muscle compression.

    Then you put this athlete in the Olympics, and they blow the competition away. They get screened for steroids, but none are present.

    So, does this mean that the screening test for the Olympics should now include an X-Ray exam as well?

  • I can't wait to get me some of these...

    The only problem I see is that I'll have to perform my amazing feats of bionic strength in slow motion, while cheesy early synthesizer music plays in the background.

    paul 7e

  • Bruce Lee actually used to do that, but by hooking up electrodes to his pecs. If you've ever undergone electrotherapy (not the psych kind) for a muscular injury, you know what I'm talking about. It feels weird, to say the least.
    ---sig---
  • Anyone remember that lousy Star Wars novel which unfortunately became a CD and a video game? I don't remember the title, but I do recall that the main villain made himself buff by lying in a box while his nervous system was systematically stimulated to exercise his muscles. Perhaps a bit far-fetched, but...
    One of the issues of prolonged space flight, if memory serves, is loss of muscle tone. If cosmonauts (or astronauts) have to, say, remain strapped in for extended accelleration and suchforth, this technology would allow them to keep the muscles active. Wacky.
    Of course, one can't help but recall the German scientist in Dr. Strangelove...
    ===
    -Ravagin
  • I don't know how many people are familiar with current devices to do this, but they are all unseemly and often painful. This looks to be a more focused way of stimulating just the muscles you need.

    But on the radio note, think about the Dallas hospital that had all of their heart monitors go off line due to interference from an HDTV signal. That's the scary part...

    ~Jason
  • if you could somehow train your finger muscles to be faster or something.

    or maybe i'm wrong here. that might not quite be what it'd be used for. but definitely get someone else to control you.. to kinda.. circumvent things like (in the Matrix) when they could upload a program into their brain and instantly "learn" something (like, how to fly a helicopter); just get a pilot to control you temporarily. as long as they didn't decide to kill you...

    ouch.

    neat, though. I esp like idea of stimulating muscle tone. i'm too lazy to work out. ;-)
  • I don't care if I sound uptight, but this grit thing simply isn't funny. Particularly after the Nth time hearing different variations of it.

  • Re:Imagine the possibilities... (Score:3)

    by Haven ( 34895 ) on Wednesday December 08, 1999 @05:36PM (#1473978) Homepage Journal
    Imagine the possibilities...


    You are at Thanksgiving dinner your aunt Mildred is coming to kiss you... You pull out your Garage door opener and she tweaks out like a scottish breakdancer on PCP.

  • We can have a Granny X10 settings... That would be great!

  • Re:spock (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Now maybe not having a brain won't be the disadvantage it once was.

    Just what we need, more management candidates...
  • I understand where you're coming from, but plenty of people enjoy the grits comments, such as me. Much like the moderators don't like anything I ever post, you're just going to have to deal with it. You could always browse at >=1.
  • Actually the IOC is considering what to do about mechanical enhancements. One American runner appeared in the last Olympics with a partially artificial nea joint. It didn't seam to have any significant effect on performance except that the natural parts they replaced were so badly damaged that the Athlete couldn't walk.

    The question they are afraid to ask now is what happens when you take a perfectly healthy sprinter and use surgery to shut off the pain center in his brain then turn him loose in a middle distance event? What happens when you add micro motors and other mechanical advancements to legs? How exactly do you deal with a boxer who has a metal skeleton from the elbow down, including 10 LB steal fists ?

    The possibilities are endless and the IOC needs to legislate this early. It is possible to make sensible laws before the technology is known too. I.e. You can't clone a racehorse. This was law before cloning of mammals was feasible. The regulation doesn't even use the word clone. Rather it says that "Natural mating between a male and female of the species is the only way to produce a hoarse". That's why retired Geldings are sold to the police or shot and fed to big cats at the zoo.

    Perhaps, "You can't compete if you use any body parts that are not a natural human organ" ( It can be more restrictive if people do creative things with transplants. ). we could then have an event where the best compete regardless of surgery, steroids etc...

  • Nope (Score:3)

    by Anonymous Shepherd ( 17338 ) on Wednesday December 08, 1999 @06:10PM (#1473983) Homepage
    This is so not going to lead to better health.

    Perfect bodies with piss-poor cardiovascular systems? They could bench 250, but be out of breath by the end of their first rep! Not unless you somehow can also regulate and exercise the heart and lungs along with the 'muscle' in question.

    For obese people, this may have some effect; but if all it does is make them hungrier because their muscles are doing more work, and being hungrier makes them eat more, then nothing will hae changed.

    This seems ideal for people who want to improve their tone, their looks, and keep unused muscles at a constant fitness, rather than improve fittness, bulk, or strength.

    -AS
  • I was just thinking about how much it would suck to walk into the local department store and have some smartass tune in to Metallica from the local rock station just as you are walking past him. Gah, instant mosh pit in the aisle...

    Deosyne
  • I can remember an electroconvulsive muscle-building machine for sale in the back of Playboy back in the 80's. It had some electrodes that you strapped on whatever limb you wanted to exercise.
  • Who is working to port Linux to these things?
  • Even better... the first 'Webhuman' You can go to a web page and through a CGI script control a human with these things. Not just 'Watch him dance'... but 'Make him dance'
  • Here here for open source! Before the open source Natalie Portman I felt I was destined to date ignorant pretty girls who didn't understand what all the unix workstations in my apartment were for. Now thanks to open source Natalie Portman, a few lines of code here and there and she understand the wonders of a Decstation 5000/120 and why the NeXTCUBE is still the most sexy box ever made.

    THANK YOU OPEN SOURCE!
    ---
    Openstep/NeXTSTEP/Solaris/FreeBSD/Linux/ultrix/OSF /...
  • Silly...

    Everyone knows that the only way to learn to breakdance is to try and steal hubcaps off of moving cars.
    --
    "I was a fool to think I could dream as a normal man."
  • conpiracy {
    big brother could replace our rice with these and control our stomach muscles!! Ahh!! Uncle Sam is teaming up with Uncle Ben's!!
    }
  • I work for a company closely affiliated with the one who developed this device (about a 7 year process). Here's two URLS to the people involved, although information there is sparse. http://www.advancedbionics.com These people also market Cochlear implants that restore hearing to totally deaf patients. http://www.aemf.org This is the non-profit R&D foundation that has actually done most of the development. If anyone really wants to know more about these devices, please contact them... Dave Marsh Systems Engineer Medical Research Group, Inc.

    Interesting. Gerald Loeb was part of the team that developed the cochlear implant technology while he was at UCSF some 15-20 years ago. That technology led to patents that form the basis of the first generation cochlear implants used at advanced bionics. The muscle implants should be fairly easy. Muscle tissue is not so hard to implant, and much more difficult things are already being done in nervous system tissue.
  • Or Granny Mindstorms...

    • Perfect bodies with piss-poor cardiovascular systems? They could bench 250, but be out of breath by the end of their first rep! Not unless you somehow can also regulate and exercise the heart and lungs along with the 'muscle' in question.

    Um... the cardiovascular system gets a workout when the rate of oxygen consumption by the body goes up. Of course, you can't increase cardiovascular fitness without concentrating the muscular contractions into a small unit of time, i.e., an aerobic workout. However, you might be able to do it by building devices to pull oxygen out of the blood. You'd still have to get the person breathing hard to have cardiovascular improvement, but that's about it. BTW, why did you put 'muscle' in quotes?

    • For obese people, this may have some effect; but if all it does is make them hungrier because their muscles are doing more work, and being hungrier makes them eat more, then nothing will hae changed.

    Well, exercise, esp. aerobic exercise, leads to weight loss far more reliably than dieting does. I fail to see why artificially-induced exercise would fail to work where normal exercise would.

    • This seems ideal for people who want to improve their tone, their looks, and keep unused muscles at a constant fitness, rather than improve fittness, bulk, or strength.

    In general, I don't see why whether muscles are being stimulated by implants or neurons will make a difference in whether "fitness, bulk, or strength" is improved. This will thus be extraordinarily useful for those people who cannot stimulate their muscles with their neurons. The inference that this could also be used to improve the health of people who have no physiological impediment to exercise is unavoidable. Of course, most people would probably rather exercise than have 12-gauge needles stuck in numerous sites in their arms and legs.

  • Obligatory comments:

    - Imagine a Beowolf Cluster!
    - Do they run on Linux?
    - Why would you run them on Linux when BSD is obviously more secure?
    - Why rice? Why not grits?
    - Dude, I'm gonna put a bunch in my wanger! Maybe now I can score!

    Sigh...maybe we could use these to stop the uncontrolable urge of some to "first post"...

  • ? What happens when you add micro motors and other mechanical advancements to legs?
    On the other hand, the specially designed prosthetic limbs used in the Paralympics are one of the things that make it particularly interesting - I recommend that you give the 2000 Paralympics [olympics.org] a look when they're running.
  • Who needs the "orgasm pill" when we can implant rice-sized nanotechs! Yeah baby yeah!
  • it's a common practice in sports therapy. It allows to flex your quad when, say, you left the cartilage from your knees on the field. It feels kinda funky...
  • Now maybe not having a brain won't be the disadvantage it once was.
    Like the religions of the world don't already have enough followers...
  • These "Obligatory comments" coments are as bad as the actual obligatory comments. Can't we just block AC posts with the keywords of Beowolf, grit & "Dude".

    Actually... A batch of disallowed keywords for ACs sounds like a good idea. Or perhaps ACs aren't allowed to post for the first hour...

    (Just thinking out loud).

  • The article states that stroke victims are at risk of thrombosis, yet these devices are made out of glass capillaries, which is thrombogenic.

    I don't think they are made out of glass capillaries. Glass is not so biocompatible. I would be extremely surprised if the glass is not insulated with a polymer (like parylene) or is actually a plastic tube to begin with.


    Lastly, the critic mentioned in the article is correct: long-term studies are needed. These lil things can become lodged in joints, escape into the bloodstream, etc. They might be carcinogenic. Who knows? Its time for a randomized trial.


    The concept of these lil things escaping the muscle capsule is pretty out there. The more likely confound is encapsulation in the form of a foreign body reaction, and even that would not be so bad, and very undo-able (^_). The risks are pretty low, and the potential gain is quite high. I think they will gain approval without much trouble.

    That said, it IS a step in the right direction. Current science is 99% focused on the chemistry of neurology...theyre forgetting the electrical aspects of it. Not until doctors looked at the heart as an electrical organ did they really do anything that can be described as "cardiology," and the brain is every bit as electrical as the heart.

    So nitric oxide treatment, bypass surgery, and angioplasty are not really cardiology ??

    Really, cardiology, like other disciplines, works in a gradient descent method. Techniques that lead to improvements in short time frame get worked on the most. Electrically, as well as chemically. There are already numerous electrical techniques at work in brain pathologies - like stimulating electrodes for Parkinson's patients.


  • EDS will not be fixed by this rice...

    Remember, it 'contracts' muscles. I do not see this helping -anyone- score....
  • My grandfather had a stroke a few months ago, and he could not _stop_ moving. I don't think I see how this would be helpful. Additionally, he was mentally damaged, but he still had control of his limbs to tell them what to do, but they were also get false signals, which was the problem. Might this technology be more helpful in para/quadrapallegics?
  • I think it's pretty common for stroke victims to suffer from paralysis. Although it seems like many different things could go wrong when a part of the brain doesn't recieve oxygen for a significant length of time.
  • Cool... So if I go close to a radio transmitter, do I get stronger?

    I'm wondering how this actually works. The best thing would probably just be reacting to a very weak signal, and amplifying that. On the other hand, the patient would `forget' how to use their muscles properly, and just keep emitting weak signals. About the same thing as painkillers -- take too much, and your pain threshold gets even lower.

    /* Steinar */
  • You really have to admire this bloke's persistance - I think that he's posted a comment on every discussion on /. in the last few days.
  • I live around a mile from the national rehab center. I am on speaking terms with some of the members of Jamaica's Paralimic team.

    I wouldn't miss it for the world :)

  • "Of course, most people would probably rather exercise than have 12-gauge needles stuck in numerous sites in their arms and legs."

    I disagree. I'd easily go for the needle--it's much less painfull than exercise and a lot more productive.
  • Remember, it 'contracts' muscles. I do not see this helping -anyone- score....


    What if it could do kegel exercises for you for 3 hours each day?

  • Bruce Lee actually used to do that, but by hooking up electrodes to his pecs. If you've ever undergone electrotherapy (not the psych kind) for a muscular injury, you know what I'm talking about. It feels weird, to say the least


    This URL has links to some EMS (Electronic Muscle Stimulation) equipment you can buy fairly cheap. http://www.vitalityweb.com/backstore/ems.htm

    And in fact, I'm buying a couple of sets of these to help me get back into my Martial Arts training since I haven't been to class in over a year now. My girlfriend and a couple of my friends will be using them to help themselves lose some weight and add some muscle tone. I've also talked to a few people who have used them before, according to them if you leave them on for about 2 hours a day you can see results in 2 weeks, but if you leave them on for much longer than that at once you will hurt like hell the next day. One guy I know is up to using them in 4 sets of 2 hours with 2 hour breaks throughout the day. He says they are helping a lot for him... Hopefully I'll see nice results with them as well.

    Kintanon
  • I loved that episode.....that remote control had like two switches and a dial on it, but McCoy could Spock's body do whatever he wanted with it. :P

    I also liked it when he was putting Spock's brain back, and freaked out when he lost the knowledge of how to perform the operation halfway through... :)

    This looks like a lame .sig file...but it's not.

  • Interesting. I guess I had always thought that the cerebellum, not the cerebrum, was in charge of coordination and all of that good stuff. If it is, wouldn't a lack of cerebral tissue not really matter all that much? I agree with you that the spinal cord isn't just a bunch of neurons...IIRC reflexes essentially originate in the spinal cord. But I don't think the spinal cord is quite as advanced as you suggest. Am I wrong? Do you have any research you could show me?

  • Now this was different. I don't think it should be moderated as a troll. How about a -1; creative?

  • There was a story, I believe it was "The Guided Man" by L. Sprague DeCamp. It was about a company that would take remote control of people's bodies so that they could be controlled by 'experts' when they wanted to do certain things. The guy in the story wanted to win over a certain girl, but he was painfully shy... well, it was a pretty good story.
  • I think they'll just open a new "Open/Modified" class of athlete. Kind of like in drag racing or motocross.

    ; )

  • I'm glad somdbody said that - otherwise I was going to have to :-) Of course, with basically passive devices, it doesn't actually make sense, since you'd really have one computer system driving all of your implants as output devices.


    "Beowulf says 'bend your legs'"

  • now why the hell did that get moderated down?

Slashdot Top Deals

A morsel of genuine history is a thing so rare as to be always valuable. -- Thomas Jefferson

Close