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A Piezoelectric Pacemaker That Is Powered By Your Heartbeat
MrSeb writes "Engineers at the University of Michigan have created a pacemaker that is powered by the beating of your heart — no batteries required. The technology behind this new infinite-duration pacemaker is piezoelectricity. Piezoelectricity is is literally 'pressure electricity,' and it relates to certain materials that generate tiny amounts of electricity when deformed by an external force — which, in the case of the perpetual pacemaker, the vibrations in your chest as your heart pumps blood around your body. Piezoelectric devices generate very small amounts of power — on the order of tens of milliwatts — but it turns out that pacemakers require very little power. In testing, the researchers' energy harvester generated 10 times the required the power to keep a pacemaker firing. Currently, pacemakers are battery powered — and the battery generally need to be replaced every few years, which requires surgery. According M. Amin Karami, the lead researcher, 'Many of the patients are children who live with pacemakers for many years,' he said. 'You can imagine how many operations they are spared if this new technology is implemented.' This piezoelectric energy harvester is about half the size of a conventional battery, too, which is presumably a good thing."
No, the device does not violate conservation of energy.
Anyways, nice technology. I hope this really works; so much awesome technology seems to go out as a puff of vaporware.
I read TFA and all I got was this lousy cookie
The beating of our hearts is the only sa-ound
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
That's the first thing I thought of. I'd assume it follows the same basic concept.
Just to be clear the replacement surgery on a pacemaker is almost always done on an outpatient basis with local anesthetic.
Madre de Dios! Es El Pollo Diablo! -- Captain Blondebeard
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It's probably not a "defibrillator" type of heart-restarter in case the heart starts fibrillating: defibrillators require too much power in order to be able to "jump start" the heart. (At least I think that's the kind Cheney got). If it's just an automaticity regulator, than a piezo-electric harvester with a good-internal-rechargeable battery / capacitor system might be good for a long time. Don't kids need a redo-surgery as their bodies grow, though?
So when my heart skips a beat, it will actually skip quite a few? Sounds great, screw testing. Wire me up!
As long as your heart keeps beating... your heart will keep beating?
Back in 1989 when I was doing my masters one of my classmates had this as her project. No hardware, just some conceptual studies, literature survey and a project report.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
My 93-year-old grandpa can hardly remember his name and address, let's not put him in charge of the pacemaker.
That and he doesn't have a cell phone you insensitive clod!
right?
I don't know if straight pacemakers are all that common. My late wife had a pacemaker that was also a defribulater that gives quite a jolt if the heart tries to stop beating. Even thirty minutes after death that thing was still firing away in her chest.
It's like using the vibrations of passing four locomotive coal trains to charge the battery that drives the signal lights, and it's a very busy track with a lot of passing large trains but without much signalling going on.
Just signals to control traffic, no HUGE battery reserve to run a locomotive starter motor.
So in other words, a pacemaker and not a crashcart defibrilator, and having the constraint that no battery is allowed at all is not reasonable. It could be seen as deliberately adding a constraint for no reason other than making something fail, but you are not doing that are you? That would be childish and pointless.
Nah, I guess they wouldn't want to operate on you; they'd rather be the OEM that makes you in the first place: humans 2.0, or since it's apple, iHumans 2.0, now with improved resolution and Retina (TM by apple don't use it it's our phrase) vision capable Retinas in each eye!
Sounds kinda optimistic to me.
Heartbeat powered pacemaker is as useful as a solar powered flashlight.
In other words, very useful. The typical flashlight will have a charge time of about 6 hours while providing 8 hours of light. They can penetrate up to 50 meters in the dark, and can be visible up to 2 kilometres. The cell life of the solar energy cells can be as long as 20 years! Exactly what you need in an emergency. Similarly, a heartbeat powered pacemaker can trigger heartbeats (note: trigger, not power. The beat itself is still chemically powered, like all other muscles) for a lifetime.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
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Please see the first item in my indented and dashed list above written 5 hrs ago which reads:
-- how much less power you need to apply directly to the heart as opposed to stimulating with an externally defibrillator applied to the chest wall,
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externally-applied defibrillator to the chest wall, is what I meant to say, I switched applied and defibrillator around, but the meaning is the same. The power comparison I was asking about was power needed to provide pacing/pacemaker signal vs. the power required to generate an adequate defibrillating signal for a long enough period of time.
Thanks for the feedback. I hope I am clarifying what I said in the original statement. If you know any numbers or pointers/refs for
(1) the power requirements of a defibrillatory signal for an implanted cardioversion system vs
(2) the power output requirements for the standard pacing signal at SA node or at multiple sites, I would love to know. Thanks!
Will this allow for enough power to encrypt the wireless connection these things have?
Well, I might have a way, but it only works on a semi spherical planet in a vacuum.
Point 2: Not inventing it isn't the solution. Allow for well documented euthanasia (signed contract from deceased if applicable with conditions, for example "When I am diagnosed with dementia, pull the plug.")
I agree with you in principle, but the method is wrong.
*Remembers a story about a man who realized he was demented each afternoon and stopped eating because he wanted to die. Each morning he had forgotten it again and took a large breakfast, large enough to sustain him for a day. He was not legally capable of making a decision so he could not choose euthanasia. His son didn't have enough contact with his father to see the problem.*
Well, I might have a way, but it only works on a semi spherical planet in a vacuum.
We're not talking about external defibrillators. Try to keep up. You still need a lot of juice.
We're not talking about external defibrillators. Try to keep up
Actually, that's what he was pointing out..
which is totally what she said
Sounds to me like another cog in the wheels of the zombie apocalypse.
If your point is that you don't understand how an implantable cardioverter/defibrillator works any better than the AC, mission accomplished, OK? It takes a lot of juice to defibrillate a heart. Piezo-driven current won't do it unless the device from which your piezos capture electricity is the speaker bank at a rock concert.
No, my point was that your reply made it sounds like you misread his message. But yes he was also wrong in thinking that this could power a defibrillator, even internally.
which is totally what she said