"BIONICS"
SHOW 401
Episode
Open
Nerves of Steel
The Body Magnified
Heart of Metal
Smart Glasses
Mind Over Machine
EPISODE
OPEN
ALAN ALDA (ON CAMERA) Hi, I'm Alan Alda, about to launch what promises
to be a challenging new adventure as host of Scientific American
Frontiers. This is just one of the strange machines we'll
be meeting in a show that's all about making humans, in a
way, superhuman.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) We'll also meet some super humans, like Eric
- a machine helps him walk again... We'll see machines that
sustain a failing heart, and restore damaged sight... And
we'll meet the people who can control machines - just by thinking.
ALAN ALDA (ON CAMERA) I'm Alan Alda, join me for the season premiere
of Scientific American Frontiers.
back
to top
NERVES
OF STEEL
ALAN ALDA (ON CAMERA) That's Dan Kemp on the table in there: Army
veteran, quadriplegic and as I think you'll see, a remarkable
person. Dan is one of the people we'll be meeting in our first
story, which is about something that scientists have been
trying to do for at least two hundred years - to control and
manipulate the human body, using electricity. Of course, the
dream has always been to somehow heal the paralyzed, to make
the lame walk. Well, this is one of the very few places in
the world where we can begin to glimpse the reality behind
that dream.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) Today, Dan Kemp lives with his family in
a suburb of Detroit, Michigan. Six years ago, he was in a
jeep rollover accident - and this is the result. Dan's spinal
cord was permanently injured, leaving him with no control
over his legs and only limited strength in his upper body.
The doctors said he'd never work, never have children, never
be mobile - but he's steadily been proving them wrong. With
a partner, he's developed a successful lawn-mowing and snow
plowing business; his daughter's now five...
ICE
CREAM MAN Seventy five, sweetie.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) ... and he's working on the mobility, with
support from his wife and biggest fan, Brenda.
DAN
KEMP We got married after the accident, so that can tell you
a lot about her moral character. She bought the whole package,
not just the outside wrapping. The first thing that I'd like
to do when I finally do stand, would be to stand up, look
my wife in the eyes, and give her a big hug.
DR.
MARSOLAIS What I'm trying to get is his gluteus maximus muscle.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) For his next goal, Dan's going to need the
help of Dr. Byron Marsolais.
ALAN ALDA (ON CAMERA) Now, what you're inserting into the muscle,
that's not the electrode itself?
DR.
MARSOLAIS No, no, this is just a little probe.
ALAN ALDA Right
DR.
MARSOLAIS A very tiny probe.
ALAN ALDA And the reason you're doing this is to see if you can
get the muscle to react, to give its greatest response?
DR.
MARSOLAIS Exactly, and I want just the right muscle, that's
the muscle we want, it goes right down here into the femur.
ALAN ALDA Yeah
DR.
MARSOLAIS Which is the big leg bone, and you see how it's
beginning to jump there, it's beginning to do what we want.
I think I can do better, and in order to do better I have
to get it right beside the nerve.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) There's nothing wrong with Dan's muscles
- it's the nerve-brain connection that's the problem. That's
why he feels no pain during the procedure. Normally fifty
muscles are involved in leg movement. In Dan's case, sixteen
will be controlled by eight implanted electrodes. If ail goes
well he'll get back limited use of his legs.
DAN
KEMP If you don't use it, you lose it and you know, it stands
to reason the more I can use, the healthier I'll stay, and
longer I'll stay healthy.
ALAN ALDA (ON CAMERA) Now, I think Dr, Marsolais looks like he's
found the spot here.
DR.
MARSOLAIS That looks pretty good. Yeah. We're getting a pretty,
good, tight...
ALAN ALDA Yeah, I can see it.
DR.
MARSOLAIS See how that jerks things together?
ALAN ALDA That looks about an inch and a half from where you were
first searching for it.
DR.
MARSOLAIS Yes, that's right, we're, although we're angled
a bit down, we started about here, and now we're about here,
but, so we were a good inch away.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) Now the permanent electrode, with a wire
as thin as a hair attached, can be implanted. The electrode's
not much bigger than a pin, and it's at the tip of this tube,
which will be removed once the electrode has been placed right
at the point of maximum muscle stimulation.
DR.
MARSOLAIS Measure. Now we bring this down to exactly the position
that we were before.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) This is an experimental program - so a question
occurred to me...
ALAN ALDA (ON CAMERA) How do you feel when you're going through
this? Do you feet a little bit like a guinea pig?
DAN
KEMP Yeah, I do, but it's well worth it. You know, and down
the road, people will be able to look back, and say if it
wasn't for people like me, that they wouldn't have gotten
as far as the, I've gotten in the new procedures. So it goes
down the line.
ALAN ALDA Yeah
DAN
KEMP Everybody helps everybody else, whether they realize
it or not.
DR.
MARSOLAIS These patients want to see the paralysis licked.
There is no question about that. And they want to see it not
only for themselves, they want to see it for everybody else.
And they're willing to give their time and their bodies toward
that goal. Because it is a big sacrifice, but it's the only
way that this war can be won.
DAN
KEMP Okay.
KENDRA Now Dad?
DAN
KEMP O.K. Hit the "G" button.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) Back home, Dan and Kendra begin his daily
routine, using a computerized box to control the impulses
which stimulate his leg muscles.
DAN
KEMP O.K., you ready?
KENDRA
Go!
DAN
KEMP Go! Here they go.
KENDRA
Here they go.
DAN
KEMP Thank you very much.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) An essential part of the system being developed
by Dr. Marsolais and his team is exercise - and that's what's
happening here. Right now the control box is automatically
working Dan's quad muscle group, at the front of the thigh.
It's good they've been able to turn it into a game, because
Dan has to do this for a minimum of an hour every day. Once
a week, Dan returns to the Cleveland VA Hospital, where the
research is based, for a session with the team's physical
therapist, Paul Miller. Within a year, the control box will
transmit its signals directly through the skin. So these external
connectors - difficult to maintain and keep clean - won't
be necessary. The joystick controller is designed to be used
by patients with very limited strength. Here Paul selects
an exercise program, then records the muscle power and endurance.
Five months ago, Dan could do this for just seconds at a time
- now he can keep going for an hour or more. He's about to
the point where he can attempt a real task, like standing
up.
PAUL
MILLER When you're stimulating a muscle or contracting a muscle
that hasn't been used in five, ten years, it's like starting
ail over again, like a little baby. So, we have to build the
strength so that they have enough strength to do a functional
task.
DAN
KEMP Sitting around after six years of not doing anything
and seeing your legs start moving, and feeling the fatigue
after a while, it gets you back into a normal pattern of life.
It's a great feeling, it really is.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) We'll come back to Dan in a minute. First,
meet Eric Bellamy. A motorcycle accident five years ago left
him paralyzed from the waist down. He's one of six people
currently using the largest implant system, with over 50 electrodes
now in place. Eric's a kind of pioneer.
ERIC
BELLAMY You can't count life out until you go out there and
try it. And swimming is something to try, all sports is something
to try, anything that gels you in better shape physically
and mentally. Life's still out there.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) Life is still out there - but the problem
is getting at it. Access has improved in recent years, but
for Eric a small increase in mobility would make all the difference.
ERIC
BELLAMY I see being in a chair always, but I see being able
to go up steps, and knock on the front door, and say, hey,
you know, I'm down here. Instead of running around the house,
and screaming you know telling the guy, hey I'm here, I'm
here. I see, even convenience stores, one step you know. So
being able to get up and go through this narrow door to get
into the bathroom. Just for them answers. If they can come
up with that right there, just, your life's in a chair, but
being able to overcome difficulties would be a tremendous
step. And that's what we're working on right now.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) On the outside, Eric's system looks like
Dan's. But on the inside it's much more complicated - both
within the control box, which right now is programmed to handle
41 of the fifty implanted electrodes, and within Eric's body,
where a network of wires runs under the skin from above the
waist to below the knees. Why so complicated? Because Eric's
system is designed for walking. The first thing to do: Eric
selects "stand" and "walk" from the controller's menu of programs.
Then he'll hit the "go" button.
PAUL
MILLER Okay. Go ahead and stand up.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) The controller goes into its pre-programmed
walking cycle, putting out about a hundred muscle commands
for every pair of steps. Remember, Eric has no natural lower
body control at all. This is completely synthetic movement.
But he is using his upper body strength to balance - and as
with all these research patients, his muscles have to work
immensely hard.
PAUL
MILLER They’re using tremendous amounts of muscle mass. Their
quadriceps are on 100%, their gluteus muscles are on 100%,
their hamstring muscles are on 100%, their back muscles, everything
is just blasted.
ERIC
BELLAMY Whenever they do something, they’re using 100% of
all their strength. Whether it's one step, two steps, they’re
using everything they got. Like when you stand, everything
goes right into it. 100% barn! Total exertion, you know. Everything
it has.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) Now for the other key function - stairs.
Today will be the first time Eric has faced a commonly found
design. Eric can maneuver past the lips on the steps only
by using his tremendous upper body strength. It’s an example
of the biggest challenge facing the research team - the control
system has to be able to adapt to a changing world. The aim
is to add sensors to the feet and legs which can feed information
back to the control box. Then part of the enormous burden
of concentration and effort, which so far falls on the user,
can be transferred to the computer control.
BUS
DRIVER You guys ready to go?
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) Eric has a personal challenge: to reach these
seats unaided. Today, he's going to try, for this simple goal
- for the first time. Success will bring the world at large
a few crucial steps closer - to Eric and the others who'll
eventually benefit from this research. Things don't look good.
For some reason, Eric's left knee is not locking up. Eric
and Rudi Kovetic, who programs the computer controllers, run
through the muscle stimulation sequence.
ERIC
BELLAMY Up left?
RUDI
KOVETIC Looks like he's got enough power in that left leg,
but it doesn't seem to bring him up.
ERIC
BELLAMY Could be fatigue.
RUDI
KOVETIC Yeah, but it looks like you have a lot of strength
in that left leg.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) They deride to try again. This time it works.
They don't know why, but artificially stimulated muscles often
seem to change in strength. Now, it's back to the "walk" program.
PAUL
MILLER You have to pivot bad< a little bit more.
ERIC
BELLAMY I said I'm going to sit down Rudi.
PAUL
MILLER Good job Eric.
ERIC
BELLAMY Onward!
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) We're back with Dan Kemp, and today's the
day he'll face his personal challenge - to stand.., and to
hug his wife.
PAUL
MILLER You ready?
DAN
KEMP I'm ready
PAUL
MILLER O.K. One...Two...Three... All right! Howls it feet
Dan?
DAN
KEMP Oh, it feels vertical
RUDI
KOVETIC You getting dizzy?
DAN
KEMP C'mere. No I'm fine.
WIFE
Are you sure?
DAN
KEMP Yeah.
WIFE
You're fine?
DAN
KEMP C'mere. Gimme a hug. It's great.
WIFE
Long time since I've seen you that tall.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) The simpler systems - like Dan's - will be
the first to become widely available - fruits of this extraordinary
research.
DAN
That's the best feeling I've had in a long time.
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to top
THE
BODY MAGNIFIED
ALAN ALDA Machines that magnify the powers of the human body, make
it faster, stronger, more agile, have been favorites of science
fiction for years, and that's where they've stayed, in fiction.
But recently they've been showing up in the most unlikely
places.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) This is the Springwalker, out for a bound
through a Los Angeles suburb - a long way from one of its
sources of inspiration. The 1988 20th Century Fox movie Aliens
starred both Sigourney Weaver and a power suit battling -
and eventually beating - the Alien. The film sums up decades
of pop culture images of human amplifiers - even though this
suit was made of plastic and worked with the help of a strongman
just out of the camera's view.
ALAN ALDA Well I can see why you call it the springwalker, but
how did you get ....
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) I recently visited John Dick and Bruce Crapuchettes,
whose Springwalker was inspired by Aliens-like fantasies.
JOHN
DICK I realized that I had lost faith in my childhood dreams
of the idea of amplified man. I'd been following the research
in the field, and it just wasn't happening.
ALAN ALDA What were your childhood dreams, what do you mean by
that?
JOHN
DICK I remember some books, a book I was reading as a child,
it was a picture book, and it had this kid getting inside
this large machine which made him powerful and strong, and
able to vanquish over his childish enemies. And that was always
a very powerful idea with me, and I think its a powerful idea
in a lot of people. I thought of trying to do spring shoes,
a kind of powerful spring shoe, but then you say how could
I possibly leap tail buildings with a single bound. And the
idea then came of spring shoes with levers...
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) The Springwalker is the latest in over a
century of mostly unsuccessful inventions employing springs
to fun faster.
JOHN
DICK Bruce could you bounce just a little bit so we can see
a little bit of that action. Thank you that's good. 5o as
the legs compress, they pull on the cables, pull down the
spring, and then throws him back in the air for another step.
ALAN ALDA When we walk, the gait that we use, what do you think,
about 20% or less goes into moving forward?
JOHN
DICK Oh it would be 5% or less.
ALAN ALDA Into moving forward
JOHN
DICK Yeah
ALAN ALDA 95% of our energy...
JOHN
DICK 95%
ALAN ALDA goes into moving up and down
JOHN
DICK That's correct.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) The Springwalker is designed to capture most
of this wasted energy, store it in the bungee-cord spring,
then release it to push the Springwalker forward as it lopes
along.
JOHN
DICK Well Alan I think its time for you to have a go on the
springwalker, are you game?
ALAN ALDA Oh, this has been my dream ever since I heard about this.
Either a dream or a nightmare, I'm not sure which. You have
to strap me in I guess.
JOHN
DICK Yes, we'll have to strap you in
ALAN ALDA Would you mind unbuttoning yourself?
BRUCE
CRAPUCHETTES Okay.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) Now, the inventors know only too well that
their current model isn't exactly practical. Just getting
onto it - or is it into it? - is a challenge in itself.
ALAN ALDA Ah, but I found a new way for my ankle to bend. I've
always relied on the courtesy of strangers.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) And that was the easy part
ALAN ALDA I think for a second I'm going to need Bruce's hand here.
Where are you? Oh, O.K. Its funny as soon as you put this
on, you go blind and you can't hear.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) John and Bruce liken this prototype to the
first bicycles ever built - slow, cumbersome.., and dangerous.
BRUCE
CRAPUCHETTES Turn sharper towards me here.
ALAN ALDA Turning is not that easy, I tend to, I tend to start
hopping when I Urn. From now on it's just sort of a normal
walk, just drag it along, is that it?
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) I began to get the hang of it after a while.
John and Bruce's plans include a lightweight version for jogging,
and a powered machine that could carry heavy loads at up to
25 miles per hour into rough terrain. But John Dick, its chief
designer, has a terrible secret...
ALAN ALDA Can I, mind if I hold onto you for a second?
JOHN
DICK No, no go ahead.
ALAN ALDA Have you ever been on this?
JOHN
DICK Well, I actually haven't been on as much as you have,
I've stood at the wall, and pressed and felt the leg.
ALAN ALDA Why didn't you get on it?
JOHN
DICK Well, my feeling is the physical insecurities that I
feel on the thing get all mixed up with my actual insecurities
about the viability of the whole venture, and so instead I'd
rather have Bruce do it, who is a professional psychologist
and a very secure person.
ALAN ALDA In other words it frightens you.
JOHN
DICK Oh yes, I'm a frightened person anyway.
ALAN ALDA Because I wanted to give you a membership card to the
club.
ALAN ALDA What makes the Springwalker so much fun, is how simple
it is. No wires, no motors, no computers. Without wires, motors,
and computers, this would just be 400 pounds of metal. But
with them ....
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) This massive arm, built by students at the
University of California, Berkeley, is powered by a huge compressor
hidden behind the curtain. Even on my first try, I could move
it as easily as if it weighed 10 or 20 pounds. My own arm
movements are picked up by sensors in the ring around my forearm,
then translated via a computer into movements of the mechanical
arm. A simple gripper opens and doses the hand. The arm is
just one limb of a complete Aliens-like power suit the Berkeley
team hopes to build that will enable people to pick up and
move around heavy objects including the family sofa.
H.
KAZAROONI We will not have a gigantic machine, we will not
have any big, humongous machine. We want a light working machine
for civilians, and that's our focus.
ALAN ALDA The reason for making it small is what? In order to,
if you want to go into a house and pick up a couch to carry
it upstairs, you have to be able to get up the stairs with
the machine.
H.
KAZAROONI That's right, not only do you have to get through
the door, right, you have to get into the elevator. We are
working on this problem
ALAN ALDA Do you have like a little program, a little voice box
that says, where do you want it lady?
H.
KAZAROONI No we don't have that, but we will actually.
ALAN ALDA The person has to come up with that on his own.
H.
KAZAROONI That's the whole thing, the human intelligence is
with the machine.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) The students are designing the whole suit
piece by piece. Tanya Snyder designed the legs which - because
the suit will be heavy and hard for its wearers to balance
- need to be able to balance themselves.
H.
KAZAROONI These are here for safety...
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) The day I visited the lab, a test leg was
balancing on its own for the first time.
H.
KAZAROONI It's pretty stable and it recovers itself pretty
nicely.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) The leg balances by bending at the knee,
a computer constantly sensing its position and adjusting the
angle of the thigh.
ALAN ALDA And this is balancing just on a, on a pivot, there's
no artificial foot there or anything, there's no platform
for it.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) I was pretty impressed - but the team was
ecstatic.
ALAN ALDA When did you finally solve it, when did you finally get
it to balance?
ZACH
Satur..., Sunday, three days ago.
ALAN ALDA So a couple of days ago.
ZACH
Yeah
TANYA
Yeah
ALAN ALDA Were you here? You had designed the leg, right?
TANYA
That's right. Yeah. I've actually been on vacation, and when
I left, it was just like Zach said, it was just bouncing all
over the place. And I almost, I wondered if there was any
hope for it. But, I just got back today, and I saw it, and
I just couldn't believe it, its so peaceful, and ifs really
working, and I'm really happy about it.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) But like all good engineers, they couldn't
resist that extra push...
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to top
HEART
OF METAL
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) It's July 23rd, 1993. The players in this
volleyball game are doctors, nurses, and patients at Fairfax
Hospital in Fairfax, Virginia. Seven months earlier, one of
these patients was desperately sick, with a rapidly failing
heart. He'd been waiting for a transplant for over 6 months
- but no matching donor could be found. For Mike Dorsey, time
was running out.
MIKE
DORSEY I was very sick. I'd walk from here to you, and I'd
been out of breath for that time. I couldn't do nothing. It
gets a little frustrating when your wife comes and takes things
from you, you know, and you can't carry them, you know, she
would take them and carry them in for me. I wanted to do it,
but just wasn't able to do it.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) The sound Mike now lives with is his new
heart breathing - an electric pump planted deep in his chest.
It was almost 12 years ago that the artificial heart first
hit the world's headlines. But Barney Clarke's brave struggle
to live, and his death after 4 months, cooled the early enthusiasm
for his artificial heart - the Jarvick 7. After a few more
unsuccessful implants, the device was abandoned. But research
on mechanical hearts continued. The most promising were pumps
that wouldn't replace the heart, but boost it. One of them
is called the Heartmate. The designers of the Heartmate took
a novel approach to a major problem of the Jarrick 7 - blood
clots that form inside, and that can kill when they break
off and travel to the lungs or brain. The Heartmate's interior
is roughened so that a thin layer of blood clots over its
entire surface, and sticks there firmly. Mike Dorsey's problem
- one he shares with thousands of others each year - is a
weakening of his heart muscle so that the main pumping chamber
- the left ventricle - can no longer pump blood around his
body. Installing the Heartmate begins with cutting a hole
in the left ventricle and sewing in a short tube. Then the
electric pump itself is implanted in the upper abdomen. Blood
flows from the heart, through the pump, then back to the patient's
aorta. On February 21st, 1993, Mike Dorsey's heart was near
total failure. His doctors estimated he had just hours to
live. Only weeks before, the Heartmate had been approved by
the Food and Drug Administration for use at Fairfax Hospital
in just these circumstances - to keep a dying patient alive
until a donor heart could be found. The operation began with
sewing into Mike's left ventricle the tube that will connect
with the pump. Then the Heartmate itself is slid into place.
The connection is made between the pump and the heart it will
assist. Finally, the pump's outflow tube is plumbed into Mike's
aorta. The pump is switched on. to keep pumping. And at this
point, no-one knows for how long it will need
LEFRAK
Right now this device is approved by the Federal Drug Administration
as a bridging device, that is as a temporary bridge to help
a otherwise dying patient to make it to heart transplantation.
We're hoping that its long term role will be much greater
than that, and that actually serve as a substitute for heart
transplantation.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) Powered by batteries and controlled by a
small computer at Mike's waist, the Heartmate clearly has
the potential to be an alternative to heart transplantation.
Seven months after the operation, it's still working fine
- and Mike is still waiting for a transplant. The hospital
exercise room has become only too familiar.
MIKE
DORSEY It's not really me, I'd rather be moving where I have
a destination to go to, instead of standing in one spot, looking
at the same old scenery. This is the battery charger here,
in order to be more mobile, take two batteries, these, just
connect the power source from here.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) That's the alarm that goes off if ever there's
a problem.
MIKE
DORSEY There's only one way they fit in. You just drop them
into the pouch like this, fold the flap down. Now I'm ready
for travelling.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) Mike's travelling so far has been confined
to the hospital - where he's become a familiar figure.
NURSE
Hello Michael.
MIKE
DORSEY Transplant Center
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) To pass the time and make himself useful,
Mike helps out in the transplant center. He is now an invaluable
source of knowledge, advice and reassurance for other heart
patients - especially those who might also need transplants.
MIKE
DORSEY I've been here since January 27th.
MAN
Six months, seven months, already.
MIKE
DORSEY Yeah
MAN
Have you been out yet, been outside the hospital?
MIKE
DORSEY Haven't left the grounds
MAN Oh
MIKE
DORSEY I've threatened to, but I haven't left yet. The staff,
the nurses and everything have been great, but it's almost
like being in prison. I mean you gotta ask permission to do
this and do that. You know. I can't just go outside my room,
outside and get a breath of fresh air, without asking first,
and stuff like that. It's the little things you miss in life.
LEFRAK
He was desperately ill, and dying when we put the device in.
The unit has allowed him to recover, so that he feels well,
perfectly well now, completely different then when he entered
the hospital. And of course, he feels that he shouldn't be
in the hospital.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) But the care and maintenance of the systems
that keep Mike alive mean leaving the hospital, even for a
short trip - is a very big deal. A lot of things can go wrong.
MIKE
DORSEY This tube down here is for the vent line so the, allows
the pump to breath, in and out. It circles around, up here,
and this little sock on here filters it. And you can feel
the air coming in and out.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) The pump sucks air in and out with every
beat. And if the air tube gets blocked the pump will slow
and eventually stop.
MIKE
DORSEY So one night I had rolled over on this side, and it
had got kicked over like that, and I'm looking at the screen
up here, and the numbers start dropping down, and I'm wondering
what's going on, and all of a sudden the alarm went off. And
you know as soon as I sat up the alarm stopped.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) But the air tube can also be a lifeline -
one that may give Mike at least a brief break from the hospital.
This hand pump can be connected to Mike's air tube, and will
keep the Heartmate pumping blood even if its power supply
or computer control fails - which is what happened unexpectedly
during a routine check.
DOCTOR
How are you feeling Mike?
MIKE
DORSEY O.K.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) During the 5 or 6 minutes it took to figure
out the problem - a loose connection Mike's artificial heart
was kept beating with the hand pump.
MIKE
DORSEY Oh, just another day here to me, I guess
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) As long as the hand pump goes everywhere
he goes, Mike's given at least partial freedom, able to stroll
the hospital grounds. One day, his experience with the Heartmate
may help lead to permanent artificial hearts - but for Mike
it's intended only as a bridge to a new human heart. And that
means his waiting for a donor continues.
MIKE
DORSEY You gotta look at it both ways, unfortunately somebody's
gotta pass away in order for you to have a donor. You know,
and, I'm not gonna wish that on anyone, but at the same time
I would like to be transplanted and released too.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) In late July, Mike got his first real taste
of freedom - a short trip out of the hospital with his wife
and family - and plenty of medical back-up. Just 3 weeks later,
Mike's Heartmate was relieved of its duties. On Friday, the
13th of August, Mike Dorsey finally got the new human heart
he'd been waiting for. Two weeks later, he went home.
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SMART
GLASSES
LEONARD
PERRA This the kind you wanted?
LEONARD
PERRA Yeah, those are fine.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) We're in Valparaiso, Indiana and this is
Leonard and Leonard Perra. Leonard is legally blind. That
doesn't mean he can't see at all, but his sight is seriously
degraded. This video effect gives a rough idea of what he
sees. The sharp central vision is missing, leaving only the
less distinct peripheral vision. Leonard has seen the world
this way for ten years.
LEONARD
PERRA One of the greatest disappointments with my lack of
vision is not being able to see my grandson. And, I can't
even see my children anymore, but I've seen them. I hadn't
seen my grandson who's seven years old, and I haven't been
able to see him with this lack of vision. I don't know what
he really looks like.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) Like many victims of macular degeneration,
as it's called, Leonard uses a series of simple devices to
help him cope. For long distance, a small telescope magnifies
signs enough for the letters to be legible just using his
peripheral vision. He has to scan along the letters to read
the word. For close up, he has to choose a magnifying glass.
The result is similar. Simple low vision aids like these have
been around for years - but just around the comer there are
big changes.
JOAN
STELMACK We call it ELVIS...
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) This is a prototype system that will use
advanced computer and video technology to help people like
Leonard.
JOAN
STELMACK ...and it has a number of attributes, but the first
one we're going to evaluate is just the magnification that
it can provide at distance.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) Joan Stelmack is an optometrist at the Hynes
VA Hospital, near Chicago. Leonard is trying the helmet for
the first time. The system uses a TV camera to view the world,
then processes the scene electronically. In the simplest mode,
Leonard sees images that are like conventional magnification
aids - only wider. It's convenient - and it works.
LEONARD
PERRA R-R-D-F-U-V-U-R-Z-V-H. I can see, I can see! And, it's
just wonderful.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) The system was designed in Baltimore by the
VA and the Wilmer Eye Institute's Bob Massoff. The ultimate
goal is to tackle even the most difficult problems for low
vision patients, like reduced contrast.
BOB
MASSOFF To give you an idea of what the patients might experience,
we've reduced the contrast of my image, and it, amazing as
it is, it's at least this bad, sometimes worse for many of
these patients. They complain of not being able to recognize
family members, their own spouses, and children. But these
same patients will tell you they can recognize caricatures.
For example, we can all see right here, this caricature of
Bill Clinton comes through just fine. And that's because the
details that define the face are heavy contrast. They're dark
lines that outline the important features that make the face
recognizable.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) So Bob is developing a computer program that
can start with a TV picture of a face, then derive a high-contrast,
cartoon version. This is just the kind of processing that
can be built right into the helmet's electronics. And it will
happen in real time, too. The user could scan around the table,
say, and instantly recognize everybody there. While the high
contrast mode should be incorporated into the helmet within
a year, Bob's now working on a much more complex form of image
processing. There's one form of damaged central vision where
the brain responds like this... The sides of the hole get
pulled together. The resulting distortion scans across the
scene as the person's eyes move. Obviously the image can become
incomprehensible. Bob Massoff's response is ingenious. His
computer takes the part of the scene that would have been
obscured by the damaged center, and distributes it around
the outside. The result is distorted. But then the brain constructs
its own distorted view of that.
BOB
MASSOFF Those distortions will cancel each other out, and
the patient should see a completely seamless image with no
missing information, and no distortions.
LAB
TECHNICIAN Okay. Want to look up?
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) To make this work in practice, Bob has become
his own experimental subject. He's being fitted with a special
contact lens with tiny wires attached to it. The metal cage
is generating a magnetic field, which causes very small electric
currents to be produced in the wires as the lens moves - enough
to keep track of Bob's eye motion. Now what the computer system
can do is precisely line up its distorted version of the scene
Bob is viewing with the direction he's looking.
BOB
MASSOFF Because it's following my eye movements, where ever
I go to look on the screen, there's the blob, and you can't
get away from it. It's almost like a floater or a speck that
just stays where ever your eye is looking.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) The next step will be to adapt all this experimental
equipment so it's small and reliable enough to work as part
of the helmet system. So is this really going to help people,
or is Bob Massoff just a well-meaning, high-tech dreamer?
This is seven year old Joel - the grandson Leonard Perra has
never really seen. Time for a field test.
JOAN
STELMACK We're hooking you up to the device.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) You can tell it's a prototype, because our
camera crew had to provide a homemade lens shade to cut out
glare from the sun. Now this is a very interesting test, because
at present the helmet gives a view only marginally better
then Leonard's conventional aids.
LEONARD
PERRA Doesn't this thing look crazy, Joel?
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) Crazy or not, it does seem to work. It's
easier to use. He doesn't have to think about it, or line
it up - he can get on with what really matters.
LEONARD
PERRA Real good. I can see what he looks like.
JOAN
STELMACK Well, what does he look like?
LEONARD
PERRA He's beautiful! Joel come here. You haven't lost you're
eyesight, and you don't know what it is to lose it and then
not see things, then all of a sudden to see them again. And
now I can see, I know what my kids look like, and my grandson,
and my wife. And it's been a long time since I saw them. All
I've ever seen was shapes and not faces, no features, and
now I can see their features again.
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MIND
OVER MACHINE
ALAN ALDA (ON CAMERA) I'd like you to meet a new friend of mine.
This is Kara. And we've just been having a very entertaining
conversation, even though Kara's cerebral palsy prevents her
from having control over most of her muscles, including the
muscles involved in speaking. But Kara can talk just fine,
thanks to a very simple device, and to her mother
PAM.
You amaze me how you can talk like this, how long did it take
you to learn it?
PAM
T - W - O, two, M-O-N, two months.
ALAN ALDA Two months, that's all, that's amazing. The communication
is really rapid, how do you do this, how are you doing it?
PAM
I - L - O - O - K, I look, A - T, at, I look at, A - L - E,
at a letter, A - N - D, and, K, and S - O, and someone, S
- A - Y - S, someone says, I - T, someone says it.
ALAN ALDA Could I take your mom's place, and, if you didn't go
to fast, I'd be able to follow what you were saying?
PAM
Y - E, Yes
ALAN ALDA Let me try it. Okay. Can I just switch with you. Okay.
Now if I hold it right in the middle here, should I be able
to do it? Okay. I'll ask you a question. Ah, let's see, now
I have stage fright. You just did a play that's why you have
no stage fright, did you help write that play? Wait a minute,
Y - E - S, I guessed that yes was the answer.
ALAN ALDA But at least that gave me a chance to know what you were
saying. What was the play about? S - E - W, no X, sex, no,
sex, wait. Well that's the letter I saw, I'm sorry. Alright
S-E is right, right. I got S-E-V-E, S-E-V-E-N, 'S-E-V.
PAM
Seven
ALAN ALDA Seven, Oh, seven, N, N, I can't spell seven, that's my
problem, S E V E N, seven, seven .....
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) With very little practice, anyone who spells
as well as Kara can have a lively conversation - even with
this very low tech device. And because Kara has some control
of her right foot, she can also operate a computer.
WOMEN
Ok the black rectangles will light up, and direct your cursor
over to those black rectangles ....
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) Kara and her mother are working with the
staff at the Center for Applied Special Technology near Boston,
on equipment and software specially adapted for the disabled.
ALAN ALDA (ON CAMERA) Kara is one of many people whose mind occupies
a body that limits their ability to express themselves, or
control their environment. Technology, especially computer
technology, is now beginning to provide them with a way to
interact with their world, through devices that can pick up
even tiny muscle movements. But what if Kara's mind could
be plugged into the computer? What if her brain could directly
control a machine?
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) That was the dream of this man, Andrew Junker,
who for more than a decade has been working on ways to tap
into the electrical activity of the brain and use it to control
a machine.
ANDREW
JUNKER I pick up the electrical signals from the head, connect
them to a bio-amplifier, which amplifies the signal 20,000
times, it sends it to this blue box which is a radio transmitter,
the transmitter sends a signal to the receiver which is connected
to the computer.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) The machine Andrew likes to control best
is his sailboat - about to take a turn around the harbor of
St. Thomas - with neither Andrew nor his wife Patricia having
to lift a finger. The computer is linked to a motor driven
helm - and the computer is getting its instructions from three
electrodes inside Andrew's headband. The electrodes are picking
up a sampling of the ongoing electrical activity of Andrew's
head. He's taught himself to increase or decrease one particular
component of this activity - and has his steering mechanism
linked up so that an increase turns the boat to the left...
ANDREW
JUNKER I'm turning left now
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) While a decrease turns the boat to the right.
ANDREW
JUNKER Now I'll turn right. That last experience felt fantastic,
cause I felt in a groove, right here I felt like I was in
this slot and as long as I held that slot I could delicately
suppress or intensify the signal and the boat responded. It's
a fantastic feeling.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) Now - I know what you're thinking ... a man
sailing a boat in the Caribbean with his brainwaves is a little
hard to take seriously - let alone quite believe. But in fact
Andrew Junker's work is taken very seriously indeed - by,
of all things, the United States Air Force. Flying a modern
fighter plane like the F-16 is a very complicated business
- and the pilot has only two hands and two feet to do it.
As more and more high tech systems are added, the pilot's
in danger of simply having more controls to operate than ways
to operate them. Which is where Andrew Junker enters the picture.
Ten years ago, as an Air Force researcher, he set up a laboratory
to study brain machine communication here at Wright-Patterson
Air Force Base in Ohio. Today the lab's star subject is Captain
Dave Toomey, and the research is directed by Grant McMillan.
GRANT
McMILLAN Everything you look at out in the world produces
a measurable response in your brain. In this case, it's the
response of Dave's brain to that light in the cabin, that's
flickering 13 times a second.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) The flickering produces in the back of Dave's
brain what's called an evoked potential - an electrical signal
that can be picked up by electrodes on his scalp. Here's the
signal. Keep your eye on the white dot in the middle. Dave's
task is to try to change the intensity of the peak marked
by the dot - either increasing it ... and holding it there..,
or decreasing it, and keeping it suppressed.
DAVE
It feels as if you’re doing something on a psychic level.
It feels like those things you've seen on TV, with the Russians
bending spoons and moving balls on tables. It feels like that,
it feels like its purely psychic. But in fact ifs hard science,
its pure science. It's just using something that the brain
does naturally with some very high tech equipment in order
to make the link possible - but the human brain to machine
link.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) The machine Dave's trying to control with
the link is a simple flight simulator. When Dave suppresses
the signal and keeps it low, the simulator rolls to the left.
And when he increases the signal and keeps it high, he rolls
to the right.
GRANT
McMILLAN We don't really know in any detail at all how people
do this, how they actually exercise this kind of brain actuated
control. And what we usually do when people ask us that question,
is try to give them an analogy - how does a baby learn how
to walk? You can't tell a baby you know well you do this,
you do this. They develop that new control.
DAVE
It's simply a matter of desiring this thing to go to the right
or desiring it to go to the left and then my brain automatically
produces the signals necessary in order to make it happen
for me.
GRANT
McMILLAN Hello Ed, welcome to our lab.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) Today it's rookie brainwave pilot Ed Fix's
turn to try out the system. The idea of using evoked potentials
picked up by electrodes on the back of the head was Andrew
Junker's - before he decided sailing boats would be more fun
- and before he switched to using electrodes on his forehead
picking up different electrical signals. But the basic idea
is the same - to bring under deliberate control a signal from
the head, and use it to command a machine. After a few hours
practice, ED can increase the signal and roll to the right..,
but he can't suppress the signal long enough to tilt back
to the left - to the point where he's about to do a barrel
roil!
ED
FIX It's a little frustrating, because I could see that control
was possible, but I didn't really have good control. It was
fairly erratic. I could get it momentarily, and once in a
while I could hold it to where I needed it, but then I would
kind of lose it. It's kinda like growing a whole new arm,
and I'm trying to learn how to use it now.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) But a few more hours practice on the machine
and Ed is beginning to get the hang of things.
GRANT
You had a number of really great runs there.
ED
FIX I feel like I've got a little more control, but like I
said, I'm not, I don't know what I'm doing exactly, its just
sometimes it just seems to start falling into place.
GRANT
Yeah
ED
FIX I feel like its coming, its getting to the point where
I might actually be able to do this.
ALAN ALDA (NARRATION) Today, the man who invented the technology,
Andrew Junker, can - when he's in the groove - steer his boat
with his brain. Tomorrow, fighter pilots might be hurling
their planes around at twice the speed of sound by thought
alone. But meanwhile...
ALAN ALDA (ON CAMERA) As fun and as useful as it would be to steer
boats and planes with no hands, this is the vehicle that would
really be transformed, if it could be run by brainwaves. Imagine
how much fun Kara would have with this wheelchair if it would
respond to her mind. Until then, see you next time on Scientific
American Frontiers.
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