current projects in development

Blink Prosthesis

The goal of this program is to create an implantable blink prosthesis to restore functional eye blink in patients with unilateral facial nerve paralysis. The system will electrically stimulate the paretic eyelid when EMG electrodes detect normal blink from the contralateral eye to produce a synchronous blink. The implant will consist of a thin, ceramic package placed subcutaneously above the hairline with an EMG electrode pair for detecting contralateral blink and a thin-film stimulating array implanted on the paretic orbicularis oculi muscle (OOM). This blink prosthesis will improve to both the cosmesis and functional use of the paralyzed eyelid by preventing painful ocular ulceration and profound facial disfiguration.

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Wireless Subdural Electrode Grid

In this program, we will develop a fully implantable, wireless, subdural electrode grid for short-term cortical EEG monitoring (less than 30 days). This device will be based upon novel manufacturing processes that will allow synthesis of wireless implants with integrated electronics at low cost to maintain prices that are competitive with existing wired grids. The availability of this fully implanted subdural grid will substantially reduce hospitalization costs and infection rates associated with cortical EEG monitoring procedures.

Field EEG Monitor

The goal of this program is to produce a small disposable EEG recording device for quickly detecting non-convulsive seizures in an unconscious patient. This product is being developed for the Army as a field deployable device to detect status epilepticus in casualties that may have been exposed to nerve agents. The device can be quickly applied to patients using below-the-hairline adhesive electrodes, and it can record multichannel brainwave data for several hours as the patient is stabilized and moved to a treatment facility.

DARPA Revolutionizing Prosthetics 2009

We are currently building a neural interface development platform as part of our work with the University of Utah and the DARPA Revolutionizing Prosthetics 2009 program. The RP2009 system will be a highly programmable, belt-worn signal processor that can record and stimulate with a variety of surface and implanted electrode types, and interface these electrodes to prosthetic arms and other devices in the RP2009 program. The system is intended to serve as a development base for future miniaturized systems that will eventually be contained entirely within the limb.