Neural Dust - Nanites Designed to Enter the Human Body are Working in a UCLA Lab
How soon before they're powered by a blockchain? 😉 - A
The complete findings have been published in the upcoming Neuron Journal. Sensors at this time have already been shrunken to a size of 1 millimeter cube, which is about the size of a large grain of sand. These hold a piezoelectric crystal that converts ultrasound vibrations from outside of the body into electricity that powers a tiny, on board transistor that is in direct contact with a nerve or muscle fiber. When there is a spike in voltage within the fiber, this alters the circuit and the vibration of the crystal, which then changes the echo detected by the ultrasound receiver. The same device will typically generate the same vibrations. This slight change is known as the backscatter which allows researchers to determine the exact voltage.
During their experiment, UC Berkeley’s team powered up passive sensors every 100 microseconds with six 540-nanosecond ultrasound pulses that gave off continual and real time readouts. The first generation motes were coated with surgical grade epoxy but they are currently working on building motes from biocompatible thin films that may potentially last inside the body without any signs of degradation for at least a decade.