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Original Publication Date
2024
Document Type
Presentation
Abstract
Research is focused on designing an artificial neurological feedback loop from the brain to the body. His research is focused on using 3D printing to develop a wearable system that integrates pressure sensing from the peripheral nervous system with feedback mechanisms to the brain.
Transcription
Next, we have Philip Glass. He's setting 3D printing of biomedical devices. He's in the College of Humanities and Sciences, and his advisor is Dr. Daeha Joung. Okay. So in a healthy body, the central nervous system, the brain, is in constant communication with the peripheral nervous system, the hands, arms, and legs. The brain is sending signals to the legs to take a step forward or arms to touch something. In this constant feedback loop, the peripheral nervous system is sending signals back to the brain saying that the surface is hot to the touch, or we're off balance we need to regain balance. This feedback loop is really crucial and constant, and pervasive, and every physical thing we do with our body all day is dominated by that physical loop. So if you're a patient with Parkinson's disease, which is a degenerative nervous system disease, or you have a prosthetic and literally don't have a nervous system, that feedback loop is severed. We talked to experts at MCV and Parkinson's disease and prosthetics experts at the Department of Veterans Affairs, and we really wanted to design an artificial neurological feedback loop from the brain to body. So we wanted to create some kind of wearable system that connected pressure sensing in the peripheral nervous system to some kind of feedback back to the brain. Using 3D printing, we can scan a patient's body part and create wearable devices specifically tailored to the contour of their skin. Using that kind of technology, we developed this 3D printing pressure sensor technology in a previous article, and we wanted to link that back to the brain somehow. So with this pressure sensors, we connected them directly to these 3D printed actuators. We developed a new class of actuators, which are these 3D printed rubber vibrators. 3D printed vibrators we created are small, they're flexible with the body, and they deliver strong vibration at the same intensity of the vibrators in your cell phone. This system we developed connects pressure sensing in the peripheral nervous system, touching something to vibration at a healthy region of skin somewhere. In these functional devices, we created one device that is a prosthetic socket balance sensor. So if you have a prosthetic leg, it detects if you're off balance or at risk of falling or breaking your prosthetic socket, sends a signal to vibrate a healthy region of skin, and send that trigger to your brain. The second class of devices we made is a 3D printed rubber insole for patients with Parkinson's. Inside this insole we embedded pressure sensors. So as a Parkinson's patient takes a step, you see a heat map of the pressure inside of their insole. That sends a trigger to vibrate the peripheral nervous system, which send some kind of message from the peripheral nervous system back to the brain and stimulate the peripheral nervous system so that they're at risk of falling over from freeze of gate, that message gets sent directly back to the brain. We're really excited about this technology. We have a provisional patent. We have a paper under review and are really excited in a future work to work with actual Parkinson's patients at MCV. Thank you so much.
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People's Choice winner of the 10th Annual VCU 3MT® Competition, held on October 4, 2024.