Innovation: Robotic faces… for humans

An artificial polymer muscle implanted beneath the skin could help people regain control of facial features, such as eyelids, affected by paralysis (Image: WIPO)

The design of prosthetic limbs has taken huge strides in recent years – sometimes literally. Modern prosthetics incorporate "mechatronic" elements borrowed from robotics to ensure that they are almost fully functional replacements for missing body parts, sometimes even controlled directly by the wearers' brains.

using artificial polymer muscles to reanimate the facial features of people suffering from severe paralysis.

having tested it successfully on cadavers.

example

regain control over partially or fully paralysed eyelids

will struggle with social interaction and can have low self-esteem, but there are health implications too

If a patient tries to close their eyes, the effort triggers electrical activity in the muscles that would normally close the eyelids. The polymer muscle detects this activity and contracts, pulling on its cords to fully close the eyelids.

could monitor the activity of the healthy eye and synchronise the actions

clipped from: www.newscientist.com

The artificial muscles could also be used to reanimate paralysed limbs, by installing them alongside a persons own atrophied muscles (Image: WIPO)