Category Archives: Biomedical electronics

The EyeWriter – A Truly Remarkable and Touching Invention!

Posted on October 25, 2009 | Leave a comment

Sometimes, we should be glad to be born as a healthy person. Even though we might be infected by cold or fever occasionally, but we’ll soon recover from it very soon.

Honestly, there are many unfortunate people outside there, who trying their best to live their life, even they’ve already diagnosed as a half handicapped or totally disabled.

Tony Quan would be the main character of our today’s story. Why? It’s because he was diagnosed with ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), which is a form of motor neuron disease that caused by the degeneration of motor neurons in the central nervous system! Due to the torturing of this unmerciful master, Tony almost completely physically paralyzed except for his eyes.

EyeWriter

In order to let Tony expresses thoughts inside his mind, his friends have been developed a cool device called, “EyeWriter”. The most amazing part about the EyeWriter is allowing Tony to draw with his eyes.

Honestly, the whole project is based on the very basic components, such as:

  • Cheap sunglasses,

  • A micro CCD camera,

  • IR LEDs,

  • Miscellaneous electrical hardware and electrical components,

  • Custom software written in openFrameworks,

  • Capture card,

  • Projector,

  • Wireless broadband USB stick, and

  • Laptop!

It’s truly a low-cost eye-tracking device, which is enabling the patients with ALS to write or draw using their eyes! Frankly, it’s one of the coolest devices that we’ve ever seen in the past few years… [http://fffff.at/eyewriter/]

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Biomedical electronics

Tagged , , ,

USB Ultrasound Imaging Became Possible with Smartphone!

Posted on June 14, 2009 | Leave a comment

In the past, it’s impossible to combine the medical and technology fields together. However, thanks to the advent technology, most of the impossible mission becoming possible, especially in this bizarre 21st century!

The concept, “Cell Phone as a Platform for Healthcare” had been worked out since few decades ago. However, due to the lack of technology, it has been postponed for a very long time.

Today, a group of talented computer engineers from the Washington University in St. Louis are invented the minimalist approach to medical care and computing. They’d successfully combined the USB-based ultrasound probe technology with a smartphone, which is enabling a compact, mobile computational platform and a medical imaging device that is only the size of a palm!

The fantastic duo, William D. Richard, PhD. WUSTL associate professor of computer science and engineering and David Zar, Richard’s colleague have made commercial USB ultrasound probes that compatible with Microsoft Windows mobile-based smartphones.

For enabling the commercial USB ultrasound probes work with smartphones, the duo had to figure out the way to optimize every aspect of probe design and operation. They need to overcome those consequences that might happen, from power consumption and data transfer rate to image formation algorithms.

The image of Zar's carotic Artery appears on the smartphone

With the new USB ultrasound probes, it’s possible to build smartphone compatible USB ultrasound probes, especially for imaging/scanning the kidney, liver, bladder, eyes, prostate, uterine, vascular, veins and arteries! Continue reading →

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Biomedical electronics, Biomedical Engineering

Tagged , , , ,

Human Power Generators

Posted on March 19, 2009 | Leave a comment

The developments in the field of science and technology has cashed heavily over the existing sources of power. This has slowly depleted the non-renewable sources of power such as power from burning of fossil fuels like petrol and diesel. Also researchers and scientists have scoped that if existing consumption of fossil fuels exist, this may degrade fossil fuel source and leave the survival of future generation under spot of bother. This in turn has churned the minds of scientists and professionals in field of science to strategize new ways of developing power. This made scientists to postulate the significance of renewable sources. Researches were carried out all over the world to mobilize the thoughts of using renewable sources in daily life to substitute the existing sources of power. This laid to development of human power generators that help to produce power by establishing contacts between work done by a human being and simple manifestation of awe-inspiring thoughts to transform as generators. This has provoked several manufacturers to materialize the human power technology into simple gadgets so as to make people enjoy the fruits of advancements in science and technology.

knee_brace

Physiological features

There are certain physiological features that establish suitable use of scientific advancements. Human power generators have certainly complacent internal configuration with highly durable casing. The highly normalized crank constitutes power generation network. The assistance in rotation is provided by chain drive capable of providing suitable tension among the rotary parts. Permanent magnets make magnetic field combatant to the changing position of armature. The development of well-cushioned pedals facilitates fatigue proofing to the user. Several manufacturers globally established on quality grounds price this astounding generator nominally beneficial for common man to utilize science at its best. The various features of human power generators astonish people so as to make them totally impressed by its working.

Working of human power generators

The energy developed by work done by a human is utilized to give the required drive to set the generators to deliver the intended output. The human power generators consist of several ranges of power output. Mostly 12-volt output is obtained from human power generators. The human power generators employ pedals used for driving the armature. As the armature is placed inside a permanent magnet the magnetic flux tends to be cut periodically. This develops power to facilitate easy working of scientific gadgets. The power output obtained through human power generators is generally direct current. This can be efficiently transformed into alternating current by serving direct current as input to inverter. The inverter carries intricate circuits specially modified to get continuous output regulated eminently by diodes used as regulators. These regulators are useful in eliminating the pulsed output obtained. Thus alternating current eventually obtained can be directly fed to appliances facilitating proper working of gadgets. Also the output can be analyzed by means of special feed back elements so as to backtrack any sort of malfunctioning of circuit inside the inverter. Also proper earth is given in order to safeguard the gadget from external attack.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Biomedical electronics

Tagged ,

ECG Can Be Your Life Savor at Home

Posted on June 7, 2008 | Leave a comment

ECG – also known as Electrocardiograms, is a recorder that measure and tracking the electrical impulses of heart activity over time.

Why we need an ECG in our home? The reasons are simple as:

  • It’s for your own safety – you can keep tracking and alert by your current heart activity at home, especially for those that diagnosed cardiovascular diseases.
  • It’s a fun and interesting project.

With right guides and support, building a home ECG is simple as ABC, and you should glad you’re found this site.

Here is the making process for this ECG:

  1. Firstly, you need to mount the surface into any kind of tin can you want, this for reducing the interference.
  2. After it, Shield the audio cable for the electrode leads and make sure the braiding is earthed to the tin.
  3. Connect the three blue wires of the leads to the RCA plugs. Continue reading →

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Biomedical electronics, DIY

Tagged , , , , , ,

Biosignal Properties

Posted on February 22, 2008 | Leave a comment

The term Biosignal refers to all the signals that are being generated in the human body or any other living organism or more specifically it is used to represent all those signals from living organisms that are monitored to obtain certain useful information. Primarily, the term refers to signals that are electrical in nature but, some non-electric signals are monitored as well.

Typically, the changes in potential difference across a certain tissue in the body are measured in case of bio-electric signals. Let us have a look at few of the properties of biosignals generated by the human body that are analysed to obtain information:

  • In case of Electroencephalography, the activity of the human brain is monitored. Usually, at a synapse (junctions between the cells of the nervous system), flow of ions takes place. This results in the formation of various signals that are used by the body to transfer information. The voltage variations that are caused by these signals are recorded and thus, the activity of the brain is measured.

Continue reading →

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Biomedical electronics

Tagged , , , , ,

Modelling different types of Biomedical Devices

Posted on February 19, 2008 | Leave a comment

Biomedical devices are those electrical devices that are used in medicine to carry out various tests on the human body. A lot of research has been performed in this field and as a result, these devices have become indispensable as far as medicine is concerned.

Let us have a look at some of the tasks that are performed by making use of these devices:

  • For diagnosis of various diseases or abnormalities.
  • In prevention of these diseases, their cure, mitigation etc.
  • In many cases, some parts of the human body malfunction and are no longer able to perform their respective tasks. In such cases, these devices may be used as a replacement for those body parts. For example, a pace maker is used for a person who has a weak heart.

Based on the type of function that they perform and on other characteristics, these devices have been classified into the following three types:

  • The devices in the first class relatively cause less amount of harm to the user and have been designed using simple techniques. These devices include ordinary items such as surgical gloves, tongue depressors, other hand held instruments used in surgery etc.
  • The devices that belong to the second class have certain specialised applications and controls. It may be required to maintain certain standards in these devices during their manufacture as they can potentially harm the user if they are not used correctly. These devices include surgical drapes, wheel chairs with electric power, X-ray machines etc.

Continue reading →

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Biomedical electronics

Tagged , , ,

Contact lenses with circuits for superhuman vision

Posted on January 21, 2008 | 2 Comments

Can you imagine having screen directly on your eye like movie characters from the Terminator or Bionic Woman? Maybe not for having virtual crosshairs or zoom in on far-off scenes, but for more practical use like having virtual displays for visual aids to help vision-impaired people, holographic driving control panels and even as a way to surf the Web on the go.

contact_lens_with_circuit.jpg

The device to make this happen may be familiar. Engineers at the University of Washington have for the first time used manufacturing techniques at microscopic scales to combine a flexible, biologically safe contact lens with an imprinted electronic circuit and lights.

There are many possible uses for virtual displays. Drivers or pilots could see a vehicle’s speed projected onto the windshield. Video-game companies could use the contact lenses to completely immerse players in a virtual world without restricting their range of motion. And for communications, people on the go could surf the Internet on a midair virtual display screen that only they would be able to see.

The prototype device contains an electric circuit as well as red light-emitting diodes for a display, though it does not yet light up. The lenses were tested on rabbits for up to 20 minutes and the animals showed no adverse effects. Continue reading →

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Biomedical electronics

Tagged ,

Intestinal robots are artificial electromechanical systems – robots – that were designed for exploring the inner cavities and organs of the body, particularly the intestines and other parts of the digestive tract.  Built to replace or provide an alternative to … Continue reading →

→ Leave a comment

Posted on November 27, 2007

Embedded devices – particularly digital ones – that are specially designed to assist individuals with disabilities are often seen as the next step in that particular field of technology.  Such embedded devices generally have several advantages over the previous wave … Continue reading →

→ 2 Comments

Posted on November 20, 2007

Embedded medical and space systems make use of miniaturized computers that are designed and programmed to do only one or a very limited number of functions. Their minute size and very low energy demands allow them to be used in … Continue reading →

→ Leave a comment

Posted on November 15, 2007

New on WinAVR Tutorial
AVR-GCC LCD library – mixed pin support,
Read »

Temperature sensor with time and date display on graphical LCD,
Read »

 New on WinARM Tutorial
What are differences between WinARM and WinAVR,
Read »

LPC2000 watchdog timer,
Read »