Artificial Muscles could Save Eyesight


Our ability to blink is one of our most natural working reflex muscles and many of us take it for granted until we suffer some kind of facial impairment; be it by injury, stroke and so on. However, doctors from the University of California in Davis believe that the answer may lie in their artificial muscle system; which could not only help all those who have lost the ability to blink but also other areas of the body in which muscles cease to work. Published in the latest edition of Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery this new technology could offer hope to thousands of people who believe they could potentially never move a certain part of their body again.   

Once left without the ability to blink, the eyesight can become significantly impaired due to the lack of natural lubrication that blinking brings with it. Not only can it produce many side-effects, e.g. ulcers, but can also lead to blindness. The system that is being developed by doctors at the UCD is pioneering itself in the artificial muscle area as previously there has been little attempt to create such systems. Their system involves the use of silicon polymers and electrode leads; the electrodes provide electricity which once passed through the polymers will initiate them into changing shape, causing the blinking action. Not only that, but the device is also connected to the normal working eye, so when the blinking motion is commenced at that side, it triggers off the electrodes at the other side, meaning that the blinking motions of both eyes are almost synchronized.

The research team have declared that the production of this system has been relatively easy, which has spurned their hope that the technology can be adapted to create other artificial muscle systems for other areas of the body. They are aware that creating such a system for the eye is vastly different from creating something for a much heavier part of the body, e.g. the arm. However, it is hoped that the technology can be developed to help move larger parts of the body but also to help control the bladder, the entire face and much more. 

19th January 2010

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