MEA Project - call for collaborators
Hello, I'm AmmonRa, some of you might have seen me around the forum.
I want to undertake a rather ambitious project.
To recreate Warwick's neural interface.
Below I'll go into more detail, but the TL;DR version is:
I am a programmer, I will be funding this project with $10k USD of my own money.
I need an electrical engineer to design/build the circuitry.
I need someone with medical knowledge to advise about system design/implementation.
Do you have the skills needed and are interested in collaborating with me on this project?
Read below for more details about what I'm planning, and let me know your skills!
Outline for MEA project
Budget: $10k
This is to cover all parts needed but not the cost of implanting the device.
Major costs include the MEA itself (probably the Utah Array from Blackrock Microsystems, possibly available for $4k) and bio-proofing the device (possibly paying Steve Haworth to do it).
Other more minor costs will be things like ICs and PCBs. If there is money left over after the device is completed, it could be put towards the cost of having a prototype implanted, but this is not a concern when designing the system.
The general plan for this system is to keep it as simple and single purpose as possible. Remember "your body is not a handbag". To that end, there will be no battery, and no LEDs. This helps to keep the system simple and power requirements low. After all, the major issue with Cicada was the battery.
My current plan is to have the system made of 3 main components: The MEA, a low power microcontroller, and a data/power transceiver.
The MEA is the simple part. Not because MEAs are simple, but because we can simply buy it off the shelf, already tested and ready to go. Currently I'm thinking of using the Utah Array because it has a proven track record for this application and because we should be able to buy it without too much trouble. One downside with the Utah Array is that it only has 96 pins, which limits the amount of information we can transceive with it.
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If I were to "nominate" people towards this project, I'd suggest Thomas EGI. He's got the EE angle covered and would likely know others. Of course, the rest of the SFM guys simply because I've seen them at work and they get a lot done fast. Rich Lee and Amal Graafstra both have connects in the biomedical field.
I'm ok with delaying things/doing ground work for 3 months until you are available.
Bonus difficulty for tapping directly into a whole bundle of important neurons, electrical failure could cause major damages.
Long story short, i won't take that challenge. I'm feeling ok with tickling a few neurons in my skin. But stimulating a whole nerve bundle with a 96 pin electrode array... that's something for people who have a couple of years of experience with MEAs and circuits driving them.
A 10k budget would be very nice for something like a device with 16 electrodes. With 8 doing stimulation, and a separate 8 for input from like a muscle surface or so. And that would include a battery, highest grade electrode materials, coatings and there'd still be a lot of money left at the end.
While you may not feel qualified, your knowledge in the field would make you perfect as a collaborator. I for example am in no way qualified to perform an implant of this complexity but in terms of finding out who/how would be appropriate I have somewhat of an advantage. If your first reaction was, "hey, this is easy to do" I'd be far less trusting.
Part of the problem is that Warwick's design that actually got implemented was meant for a transdermal interface, which I doubt is suitable for what we want. It's possible that we could scale that design down, though.
@Ian I have linked a couple of the papers in my second post to this thread. Warwark used a "20 way multiplexer", but that was outside the body, so size was not an issue. Does anyway have ideas about how to solve this? could we get one custom built or would that be too expensive?
If you could put together what you have from Warwick, that would be helpful.
@glims it would be great if we could get a schematic of Warwick's system.
also, talking about the size of the system, the connecting plugs listed on the Blackrock site seem very large.
TL;DR: Circuit size could be kept within somewhat reasonable limits, given we limit the number of active inputs/outputs at a time.
By the way, even Warwick's device could only read or write to 25 electrodes at a time, so even with 12 at a time, we're not that far behind him. Actually, being to accomplish that with a completely implanted device is pretty impressive to me, though we also have access to the technology of a decade later than he did. Not to mention Texas Instruments.
To get a program small enough, you will probably need to write it yourself.
In order for it to be a virus it will need to be able to replicate itself, I suggest you look into quines http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quine_(computing).