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生物机电技术将彻底解决身障问题

美国麻省理工学院Media Lab生物机电工程研究所主任贺尔(Hugh Herr)强调,结合生物与机电等先进技术可望实现人体修复与改善的未来愿景──目前身障者面临的种种问题持续存在都是因为现有技术落后所致,他预计在本世纪结束前,可望透过先进的生物机电技术彻底解决身障的问题。

在日前举行的《Design West》大会上,美国麻省理工学院(MIT) Media Lab生物机电工程研究所主任贺尔(Hugh Herr)强调,结合生物与机电等先进技术可望实现人体修复与改善的未来愿景──目前身障者面临的种种问题持续存在都是因为现有技术落后所致,他预计在本世纪结束前,可望透过先进的生物机电技术彻底解决身障的问题。 Hugh Herr本身就是一位双腿截肢者。他在《Design West》的专题演讲中强调,透过先进科技的能力,可让身体的伤残部位逐渐愈合与修复。Herr在生物机电领域长期进行深入的研究,其目标在于协助失去肢体的人们能够进行复健,同时也增强身体的功能。有鉴于日前波士顿发生爆炸事件后,已经造成至少14人被截肢,Herr的这一席谈话似乎也格外重要。 Herr强调,生物机电方面的研究工作并不只适用于身体外表的功能恢复,同时也能够应用在人脑的认知与情感能力上。Herr以自身为例说明相关研究的现况与未来愿景。 “我 现在就站在大量的钛、碳和硅上面”,他卷起了裤管露出了义肢。Herr在1982年的一次登山意外中因冻伤而失去了他的小腿。在那之后,他积极地展开生物机电方面的研究,同时也因应自己的需求开发了更合用的义肢。Herr表示,“最后,我还能攀登得更高,甚至超越了意外发生前的标准!”

《国际电子商情》Hugh Herr因冻伤失去了膝盖以下的双腿。
Hugh Herr因冻伤失去了膝盖以下的双腿。
cuResmc

本文授权编译自EE Times,版权所有,谢绝转载 第2页:光遗传学为人脑研究带来一线曙光 第3页:生物组织也是高度被看好的研究领域

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{pagination} Herr也看好其它一些具有前途的研究领域,并预期将会在本世纪对于人类生活情况带来重要影响。首先是光遗传学(optogenetics),未来将能够使用电磁刺激人脑的特定区域,为人脑研究带来一线曙光。 目前人们对于内含数千种不同细胞以及几十亿个细胞网络的人脑结构认识相当有限。而透过药物方式麻醉整个脑部影响认知与情感的作法又经常导致始料所未及的后果,他说。 由于能够使用转基因修复方式增加脑细胞的光敏感性,可让单一神经元被开启和关闭。这将有助于人们了解大脑如何运作,同时也是有效修复认知与情感状况的重要一步。 Herr表示,从1996年和2005年所做的研究可知,如同以磁场进行脑部深层刺激的这一类技术,能够经由改变脑部特定区域的活动,从而缓解个体想要自杀的感觉。 Herr 例举布朗大学神经科学系John Donahu与其研究团队的植入式皮质数组研究──以具有100个触点的硅芯片连接到大脑特定区域的神经元。“它可用光标控制,并提供非常好的2D控 制,”他播放一段视频,介绍一位遭受到攻击而严重伤及脊髓的病患,失去了颈部以下的移动功能,“神经植入展现了大脑具有极强的可塑性,”Herr表示,大 脑具有调适义肢的能力,并可积极地加以适应。 本文授权编译自EE Times,版权所有,谢绝转载 第3页:生物组织也是高度被看好的研究领域

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{pagination} 生物组织也是高度被看好的研究领域──因为肌肉、神经和皮肤细胞都能加以生长并 适当地附着于成型的材料与机械结构。Herr举例说,电子接口理论上应可安装在神经残端旁,以建置一种双向的外部外围神经接口。透过这种方式,神经命令可 传送至生物机电肢体与关节,而重要的反馈感觉也能被投射回神经系统中。 而机械化的义肢装置最好采用机电合一,或者是合成的生物系统,甚至结合二种方式。工程师将必须考虑哪一种材质最好?是皮肤还是聚合物?合金或合成骨? 组织工程学还可应用于食物生产,Herr说:“透过3D印制食物是一个非常有用的发展过程。” 透过生物机电技术,可望协助扩展患者截肢的部份,也有助于创造外骨骼。他说,“目前世界上大约有2千万个截肢患者,正等待更好的技术来解决他们的问题,还有就是鞋子──在当今的时代,我们的鞋子还会让人穿到脚起水泡,这真是太糟糕了!” 在Herr的论文中提到,针对生物机电领域的研究处处充满着惊人的材料──如形状记忆合金与电层压板,可自适应地改变其属性──它可能创造让穿戴者更舒适的仿生义肢。不过,首先一定要彻底了解讨论中的行为(如步行)如何运作及其控制动态。 Herr强调,“世界上并没有身障的人,只有技术落后的环境。预计在本世纪结束以前,我们将能透过新科技彻底解决身障者所面临的问题。” 本文授权编译自EE Times,版权所有,谢绝转载 编译:Susan Hong 参考英文原文:DESIGN West keynoter envisions biomechatronic future,by Peter Clarke

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{pagination} DESIGN West keynoter envisions biomechatronic future Peter Clarke SAN JOSE, Calif. – Hugh Herr is director of biomechatronics at the Media Lab at Massachussets Institute of Technology. He also happens to be a double lower-extremity amputee. During a keynote presentation Herr demonstrated for the audience at the DESIGN West exhibition the various ways in which technology has the power to heal and rehabilitate broken bodies. Herr conducts research in this area with a goal of rehabilitating individuals that have lost limbs but also to augment physical capabilities. Herr's talk was especially meaningful after the bombing in Boston that was responsible for 14 people losing limbs. Herr also revealed during his talk that such work does not only apply to physical capability but also to cognitive and emotional abilities. Herr is also a walking illustration of his vision and line of research. "I am standing on a lot of titanium, carbon and silicon," he said with pants rolled up and showing his prosthetic limbs. He lost his lower legs to frostbite in a climbing accident in 1982. Subsequently he was motivated to conduct research in biomechatronics and also developed his own prosthetic adaptions. "Eventually I was able to climb at higher standard than I had before the accident," said Herr. Hugh Herr lost both of his legs below the knee to frostbite. Herr went on to illustrate a number of areas of promising research that he expects will have an effect on the human condition in this century. The first topic was optogenetics where he discussed the ability to use electromagnetic stimulation of specifically selected regions of the brain. Seeing the light The brain is a very poorly understood structure with thousands of different cell types and billions of cells networked together. The pharmacological approaches to cognitive and emotional modification dope the whole brain and frequently produce unintended consequences he said. The ability to use transgenic modification to add light sensitivity to brain cells would then allow individual neurons to be switched on and off. Although far-fetched it would be significant aid to understanding how the brain works, a key step to producing well crafted repairs to cognitive and emotional conditions. What is known, Herr said, from work done in 1996 and 2005 is that such techniques as deep brain stimulation using magnetic fields can relieve suicidal feelings by altering activity in very specific regions of the brain. Herr referenced John Donahue of the Department of Neuroscience at Brown University (Providence, Rhode Island) and his group's work on implanted cortical arrays where slivers of silicon with 100 contacts are attached to neurons in particular region of the brain. "It is used for cursor control and provides very good 2-D control," he said over a video of a patient that had his spinal cord severed by an attacker with a knife and lost all ability to move below the neck. "Neural implants demonstrate the extreme plasticity of the brain," Herr said referring to the brain's ability to accommodate a prosthesis and adapt to it positively. Biological tissues are also highly promising to work with as muscle, nerve and skin cells can each be encouraged to grow and attach to appropriately fashioned materials and mechanical structures. Herr gave the example of electronic interface that could, in theory by sited next to a cut nerve stump to create a bidirectional peripheral nerve interface. In this way the nervous commands can be sent biomechatronic limbs and joints and important feedback sensations can be injected back into the nervous system. Machines could be mechatronic or they could be synthesized biological systems or hybrids of the two. Engineers will need to consider which is best skin or polymer, alloy or synthetic bone. Herr showed a video of a synthesized agglomeration of skin and muscle showed that was effectively a biological machine that swims in sea of its own food; glucose and oxygen. Herr even held out the prospect of tissue engineering that could produce food: "The 3-D printing of food in a very efficient process." And with much of this cross-fertilization definitions become blurred. Biomechatronics can help with the creation of limb extensions and it can also help with the creation of exoskeletons. And what is the difference between an exoskeleton and intelligent clothes. Herr showed examples of clothes that can adapt and move in response to commands or the environment. "There are about 20 million leg and arm amputees in the world -- and then there is the shoe. It's crazy that in this day and age our shoes can still give us blisters," he said. It was Herr's thesis that as the research world is full of amazing materials – such as shape memory alloys and electrolaminates that can adaptively change their properties – it is possible to create bionic prosthetics that better support the wearer. First must come a thorough understanding of the operation and control dynamics of the behavior in question such as walking. "People are not disabled. They are a built environment. In the twilight years of this century we will eliminate disability," Herr concluded.
责编:Quentin
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Peter Clarke
业内资深人士Peter Clarke负责EETimes欧洲的Analog网站。 由于对新兴技术和创业公司的特殊兴趣,他自1984年以来一直在撰写有关半导体行业的文章,并于1994年至2013年为EE Times美国版撰稿。
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