There has been a flurry of debate in the military, industrial, and privacy sectors on “smartdust” and the concept of “souveillance” - but no one has yet realized this technology is poised to springboard into medicine and transform medical diagnostics.  Here I wanted to give you an overview of what this idea is and why you should keep your eye on it. 

First the general concept background:

“Smartdust” refers to micro devices (called motes) which are detection microchips each potentially the size of a speck of dust.  These grains of sand however can automatically self-network.  So far people have conceived of these low-power distributed sensing networks as having functions for climate control systems, entertainment devices and especially for big brother type surveillance systems.  

Wikipedia wrote “the smartdust concept was introduced by Kristofer S. J. Pister (University of California) in 2001 , though similar ideas existed in science fiction before then. A recent review discusses various techniques to take smartdust in sensor networks beyond millimeter dimensions to the micrometre level.  A typical application scenario is scattering a hundred of these sensors around a building or around a hospital to monitor temperature or humidity, track patient movements, or inform of disasters, such as earthquakes. In the military, they can perform as a remote sensor chip to track enemy movements, detect poisonous gas or radioactivity. The ease and low cost of such applications have raised privacy concerns.”  Beyond web 2.0 vast networks of these real time sensors are once possible technology leap of the yet inknown web 3.0.

General concept - What is Souveillance?:  is a term from Steve Mann that refers to “bottom up” surveillance using smart dust as opposed to “top down” big brother networks looking at us little people.  Here instead activities are recorded from the “perspective of a participant in the activity, typically by way of small portable or wearable recording devices that often stream continuous live video to the Internet.”  Remember the impact of the Rodney King video and of all the user generated video content on the web.  Now fast forward to a world where a large segment or even a majority of the populice had real time streaming video devices on all the time (no we are not going to discuss the porn angle on this).   This has also been called “inverse surveillance”.

Privacy advocates have been debating the merits or horrors of this type of sensor technology.   I serve on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Lifeboat Foundation which is dedicated to protecting us from future technological threats through advocacy research and education.  They have been having a heated debate on the “paradox of smart dust: we may not live without the greater security provided by smart dust, but many think they could not live with smart dust impinging on our privacy.’  

Medical Implications:  I have a vision that once this type of low power networked microsensor technology exists it will logically lead to medical sensor technology.  Potential uses I see include:

1. mass screening for infectious disease or bioterror agents.  Subjects walking into screening areas could be checked for signature molecules associated with infectious agents.  Just as we have metal detectors and now have molecular signature detectors (the litle wipe test for explosives at the airport) we will have such biological screening techology.
2. The next step will be similar screening for disease states.  Metabolomics is one such technology. Metabolomics is the study of the small-molecule metabolite byproducts left behind from cellular processes.  In simple terms it’s like examining poop.  The concept is that by measuring the collection of all the byproducts of the cells metabolism you can get a snapshot of the physiology of a cell or organism that translates to health.  One such sensor is being developed as a breath sensor for disease.  This could lead to Star Trek like medical sensors. 
3. Similarly, such technology will lead to individual genetic screening for disease risk using chips that interact with the tiny bits of DNA we shed every time we touch something. Companies commercializing this approach also already exist and have products. 
4. Taking a clue from smart dust we will then inject such sensors into our bodies where thy could circulate in the bloodstream or sit in the abdminal cavity silently sensing for disease, infectious agents, or the DNA or signature molecules of a cancer cell.  Alternative chips could exist that sit and slowly release drugs when such cell reappear once a patient is diagnosed.

I will be writing more about the details of these concepts and devices being developed in future posts now that I have introducted the concepts.  Let me know what you think! 

ars technica reports on the invention of a paper thin flexible biodegradable battery.

Researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and MIT have developed a new material that eliminates the need for a multilayer battery. They grew carbon nanotubes on a silicon substrate and impregnated the gaps between the tubes with cellulose—that’s right, plain old paper. The cellulose also covered the ends of the nanotubes, but once it had dried, the paper material could be peeled off of the silicon substrate, leaving one end of the carbon nanotubes exposed to form an electrode.

By putting two sheets of paper together with the cellulose side facing inwards (and a drop of electrolyte on the paper), a supercapacitor is formed. These supercapacitors retain the flexibility of normal paper, but they have a rating that is comparable to that of standard commercial hardware.
By putting a drop of electrolyte on a single sheet and then putting a metal foil consisting of lithium and aluminum on each side, a lithium ion battery is formed. Researchers indicate that small prototypes could already power small mechanical devices like fans. These batteries operate over a wide range of temperatures, with the research showing that they can operate between -78–150°.

Potential Medical Applications:  Its been reported that bodily fluids can act as the electrolyte. The capacitor would be put into a patient fully charged but dry, and when more power was needed, bodily fluids would be allowed into the device to allow it to discharge.

For your enjoyment today - a collection of forward thinking docinthemachine posts about robotics and bionic humans.  Take a minute today to push your mind a decade into the future.  Ponder with me roboic amoeba rovers inthe body, bionic retinal implants, and humanoid androids. 

Finish the day with a post on the singularity and mind transfer into a computer. 

What makes a human human?  While you may think you know, the distinction is blurring as a result of medical technology advances.

Dennis Hong, of Virginia Tech College of Engineering is designing a Whole Skin Locomotion (WSL) mechanism for robots to work on much the same principle as the pseudopod — or cytoplasmic “foot” — of the amoeba. With its elongated cylindrical shape and expanding and contracting actuating rings, the WSL can turn itself inside out in a single continuous motion, mimicking the motion of the cytoplasmic tube an amoeba generates for propulsion.

The inventor says:

“Our preliminary experiments show that a robot using the WSL mechanism can easily squeeze between obstacles or under a collapsed ceiling,” Hong said. The mechanism, which can use all of its contact surfaces for traction, can even squeeze through holes with diameters much smaller than its normal width.

“This unique mobility makes WSL the ideal locomotion method for search-and-rescue robots that need to travel over or under rubble,” said Hong, who hopes his research will help promote the concept of bio-inspiration in robot design. “The mechanism also has the potential for use in medical applications — such as robotic endoscopes, for example, where a robot must maneuver in tight spaces.”

Of course my mind sees yet another version of an impnatable robot for medical diagnosis and treatment in the evolving realm of what I call “Future Vision”: the coming radical transformation of medicine.

 I am honored and excited to have been invited to guest blog on the Lifeboat Foundation Blog.  My first post is on the new DARPA 2007 focus plan and its relation to medical technology. 

For those unfamiliar with them, their mission statements sums it up:

The Lifeboat Foundation is a nonprofit nongovernmental organization dedicated to encouraging scientific advancements while helping humanity survive existential risks and possible misuse of increasingly powerful technologies, including genetic engineering, nanotechnology, and robotics/AI, as we move towards a technological singularity.
 
Lifeboat Foundation is pursuing a variety of options, including helping to accelerate the development of technologies to defend humanity, including new methods to combat viruses (such as RNA interference and new vaccine methods), effective nanotechnological defensive strategies, and even self-sustaining space colonies in case the other defensive strategies fail.
 
We believe that, in some situations, it might be feasible to relinquish technological capacity in the public interest (for example, we are against the U.S. government posting the recipe for the 1918 flu virus on the internet). We have some of the best minds on the planet working on programs to enable our survival.

They have an impressive Scientific Advisory Board including a large helping of professors and Nobel Laureats (and me).  You can read more about them here.  

Here it is folks, docinthemachine’s first podcast to play on the site.  This piece is near and dear to my heart.  The Topic is “Future Vision” - and it’s about the coming radical transformation of surgery.  I review how endoscopy allowed us to move from invasive to minimaly invasive surgery.  What’s next?  The transformation to microinvasive surgery (miniaturized robotic rovers inside the body) and non-invasive surgery (3D reconstructed diagnostic imaging and therapeutics via powerful computers). 

This podcast was an interiew I did at the 35th annual AAGL conference in Las Vegas.  Coming soon I will post my keynote lecture on this topic with powerpoint and videos along with the entire plenary session on this topic featuring Dr. Chutkin (GI swallowable pill cams), Barish (radiology virtual imaging), and Andy Van Dam (yes the founder of sigggraph on virtual reality data manipulation). 

you can read more of my ideas about the future of surgery including alternative visualization (seeing what the eye cannot) here

I hope you enjoy these as much as I did making them!

As I previously reported, DARPA has announced its strategic plan for 2007.  In this part 2 of my analysis of what their future will bring us, I will summarize their major system achievements to date. No doubt there have beeen hundreds of amazing projects with countless devices that were produced.  Here are the top major areas where they propelled advancement and a roadmap for the major future target projects and my view of the potential medical offshoots of each.  If you are unfamiliar with how and why the military’s R&D projects leads to revolutionary medicine more than biomed industry read the details here first.

DARPA was launched in 1957 after the Russians beat us into space with Sputnik, and therefore all the initial projects were space related.  In fact, the creation of NASA alsmost saw the dismatling of DARPA. 

DARPA Lists the following as their major accomplishments.  After this list you’ll find their 2007 and future projects and my medical offshoot benefit predictions.

1) Stealth Technology for Aircraft:  DARPA began developing the technologies for stealthy aircraft in the early 1970s under the HAVE BLUE program, which led to prototype demonstrations in 1977 of the Air Force’s F-117 tactical fighter (of Desert Storm fame). After the DARPA HAVE BLUE Stealth Fighter program, DARPA launched the TACIT BLUE technology demonstration, contributing directly to the development of the B-2 bomber.

2) Unmanned Aerial Vehicles:  The Global Hawk and Predator unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been seeing considerable battlefield use in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom. DARPA started on the concept of a high altitude, long-range, unmanned system in the 1970s with the TEAL RAIN program. The Tier 2 Predator medium-altitude endurance UAV evolved directly from DARPA’s AMBER and Gnat 750-45 designs and was operationally deployed in the mid-1990s.

3) The Internet:  Sorry Al Gore, it was actually DARPA that invented the internet.  The most well known of all DARPA technologies began in the 1960s-1970s with the development of the ARPANet and its associated TCP/IP network protocol architecture. DARPA’s development of packet switching is the fundamental element of both public and private networks spanning the DoD, the Federal Government, U.S. industry, and the world.

MAJOR FUTURE ICONIC PLANS:  The Strategic plan for 2007 lays out the following major strategic plans of focus- along with my view of potential medical applications

• Chip-Scale Atomic Clock: miniaturizing an atomic clock to fit on a chip to provide very accurate time as required, for example, in assured network communications - technology could be used on various implantable diagnostic devices as well as for implantable next generation pacemakers and regulatory bioimplants

• Global War on Terrorism: technologies to identify and defeat terrorist activities such as the manufacture and deployment of improvised explosive devices- will lead to the development of new smart diagnostic chips and devices.  While initially these will screen for explosives and threat molecules, in the future these could identify tumor markers, metabolomic molecules, drug levels, and countless diagnostic and therapeutic molecules.