New senses

OMG I feel like this cold is going to kill me. Ugh.

Anyhow, bitching aside, Reddit caught what I am assuming is actually an older article on Wired on the idea of adding new senses by harnessing plasticity. Let's set aside the idea that all our more primitive portions of neural gooeyness are not designed to just lump new senses on top of old ones, what would be considered a "new sense"?

Some eels can detect distortions in a self generated electromagnetic field around their bodies, but that's all I can really think of off hand. Generally, there is a very basic fallacy that all these articles miss: transducing one phenomena into another sense violates the idea of bringing into existence a new sense. In other words, like in this article, adding vibrotactile pads to indicate the distance above the ground (by vibration frequency) is not really "sensing" gravity. You're sensing vibrational frequency. If you lose the ability to detect haptic feedback, you lose your "gravity" sense. The same is not true of our other senses. But, to play Devil's advocate, at a base level everything is transformed into nerve impulses. And yet, to play the Devil's Devil's advocate (I swear that's the title of a heavy metal song), each of our senses as its own wiring that is oodles more complicated than "sensation A is detected by cell type A, and then that just goes to 'the brain'".

Anyhow, a similar self-mutilation type version was discussed earlier on DNI, and the article links to the writer's blog, which is decent, though not updated very often. Worthy of an RSS sub at least.

Do you feeeel the POWAH?

Researchers at MIT do. Many sites are reporting on a recent MIT press release on work involving wireless power via magnetically coupled resonators. WiTricity - that's kinda snappy - works, as of now, at up to 2 meters (for those of us the US, that's about 400 miles ;) ) and works on the principle of resonant frequency. The transmitter is coupled with a receiver with the same resonant frequency as that give off, some type of voodoo happens, and that translates into power on the receiver end. Read the article for more specifics, but it is worth noting that this method interacts with all material between the transmitter and receiver, but only weakly on matter with a different resonance frequency.

I bring this up because providing power to implanted BCI systems is a major task that really has yet to share in the advances made in other areas of technological development. Right now there are three methods: External power (e.g.-BrainGate), induction (e.g.-Neurotrophic Electrode), and battery recharged via induction or replacement (e.g.-Medtronics). So what does the future hold? Well, the current generation of power systems will be able to piggy back on the advances in battery technology for some time, but will in part depend on better biocompatibility of coating materials. More power = more heat = greater dispersion of said heat. The easiest way to do that is modularize systems and let the body's natural cooling mechanisms deal with dissipation. That being said, something like WiTricity would be one technique.

Another would be harnessing the heat produced by the body to power small scale implantable generators. It might sound far fetched, but at least one lab I interviewed with while scoping out grad schools is working on it. Another option to assist with any power scheme is to take a page from hybrid cars and use the resulting movements to partially power the device. It takes lots of power to lift an arm, so why not harness gravity while it is lowered?

Sixth Sense Gone

A while back, Wired reported on a few people that were getting magnets implanted under their fingertips. Apparently these people could sense live wires, ringing cells phones, and other electrical phenomenon due to transient magnetic fields emitted from the active devices. Well, it looks like implanting random items in your body without medical knowledge isn't a good idea. This lady had one which fractured and fragmented, causing infection. Nothing a little coating of selastic wouldn't help prevent - I was astonished that they didn't coat them with some material acceptable for implant to begin with - but it looks like the experiment is over for this person. Here's a link to her LiveJournal entry.