Category Archives: Articles

Brain Impant can restore memories

article 2321081 19AC1584000005DC 540 634x539 e1368470975488 Brain implants may restore human memory in the near future

Hippocampus, the part of the brain with a major role in forming long-term memories

A memory device may be implanted in a small number of human volunteers within two years and the device might become available to anyone within five to ten years. A maverick neuroscientist, Theodore Berger, believes he has deciphered the code by which the brain forms long-term memories.

Theodore Berger, a biomedical engineer and neuroscientist at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, envisions a day in the not too distant future when a patient with severe memory loss can get help from an electronic implant.

Migraines can be Prevented with an Antibody

For many who suffer from chronic migraines, nothing can reliably prevent or dull the debilitating headaches that may strike as often as every other day.

A biopharmaceutical company in Bothell, Washington, may have a solution. It hopes that a monthly injection of an antibody that blocks a well-known migraine-triggering protein will prevent these headaches.

The company, called Alder Biopharmaceuticals, is testing the efficacy of the drug in a clinical study of 160 patients, each of whom has between four and 14 migraines per month; Alder expects the results of the study to be in this fall.

Artificial Retina: The New Vision

Artificial retinas give the blind only the barest sense of what’s visible, but researchers are working hard to improve that.

Elias Konstantopoulos gets spotty glimpses of the world each day for about four hours, or for however long he leaves his Argus II retina prosthesis turned on. The 74-year-old Maryland resident lost his sight from a progressive retinal disease over 30 years ago, but is able to perceive some things when he turns on the bionic vision system.

Mind Walker- EEG Based BCI which helps in walking

MINDWALKER exoskeleton project e1363175813873 Mindwalker exoskeleton uses EEG cap to help disabled people walk again

Although no medical cure currently exists for spinal cord injury, paralyzed patients in the future could be able to walk again thanks to robotic exoskeleton technology, being developed all around the world. A team of Belgian researchers is working on a mind-controlled variant called Mindwalker, a system that converts electroencephalography (EEG) signals from the brain, or electromyography (EMG) signals from shoulder muscles, into electronic commands to control the exoskeleton.

 

The Mindwalker project (also known as: Mind-controlled orthosis and VR-training environment for walk empowering) is a three-year initiative supported by 2.75 million euros in funding from the European Commission. The ultimate goal of the project is to help paralyzed people who spend their lives in a wheelchair get back them on feet by bypassing the spinal cord entirely and routing brain signals to the robotic exoskeleton.

Biomedical engineering models that can save lives- The Hindu

Biomedical Article in The Hindu

Designs extremely practical and find use in day-to-day life of people

It is said that necessity is the mother of invention, and the biomedical engineering students of Gayatri Vidya Parishad College of Engineering for Women have shown how true the idiom is. The students as part of their final-year project have developed twelve prototypes that can aid in healthcare. The students have developed the concept from scratch with the help of the faculty and have created working models of their innovative ideas. All the designs are extremely practical and find use in day-to-day life of people not only undergoing medical treatment but in diagnosis and the lives of the disabled as well.

SmartPhone Based Braille for Visually Impaired People

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Here s another example of technological excellence for a social cause- a smartphone for visual impaired persons and that too invented by an Indian.

It is no more just taking calls and answering them but whole lot of functions including the one that enable the blinds to read and send the texts based on Braille system developed long time back. But its digital version is something that can revolutionize this pattern.

The device developed by Sumit Dagar whose company located in IIM Ahmedabad campus has a touch screen which can elevate and depress the contents allowing such persons to read and send texts.