Low-power sensing for vestibular prostheses

Author

Bhatti, Pamela T. ; McClain, Maxine A.

Author_Institution

Sch. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Georgia Inst. of Technol., Atlanta, GA, USA

fYear

2011

fDate

Aug. 30 2011-Sept. 3 2011

Firstpage

3131

Lastpage

3134

Abstract

This paper describes a novel sensing approach for reducing power requirements of implantable vestibular prostheses. A passive, microfabricated polymeric inertial sensor for detecting angular head rotations based on the biomechanics of the human semicircular canal is described. Angular head motion is coded by deflection of a highly compliant capacitor plate placed in parallel with a rigid reference electrode. This capacitance change serves to detect instantaneous angular velocity along a given axis of rotation. Designed for integration with a microelectromechanical systems-based fully implantable vestibular prosthesis, this sensing method can provide substantial power savings when compared with contemporary gyroscopes.

Keywords

angular measurement; bioMEMS; biomedical electrodes; microsensors; prosthetics; rotation measurement; MEMS based fully implantable vestibular prosthesis; angular head motion; angular head rotation detection; capacitance change; compliant capacitor plate; human semicircular canal; implantable vestibular prostheses; instantaneous angular velocity; low power sensing; microelectromechanical systems; passive microfabricated polymeric inertial sensor; prosthesis power requirements; reference electrode; Acceleration; Electrodes; Fluids; Gyroscopes; Humans; Irrigation; Prosthetics; Biomimetics; Prosthesis Implantation; Vestibule, Labyrinth;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBC, 2011 Annual International Conference of the IEEE

Conference_Location

Boston, MA

ISSN

1557-170X

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-4121-1

Electronic_ISBN

1557-170X

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IEMBS.2011.6090854

Filename

6090854