Muscle Measurement with Magnetic Implants

MIT researchers have validated a strategy for measuring muscle motion through the use of implanted magnetic beads. These magnetic beads are also biocompatible, necessary for applying this technology toward improved control over prostheses and exoskeletons.

“These recent results demonstrate that this tool can be used outside the lab to track muscle movement during natural activity, and they also suggest that the magnetic implants are stable and biocompatible and that they don’t cause discomfort,” says MIT research scientist, Cameron Taylor  .

Transcript

00:00:00 nearly all human and animal movement is driven by muscles muscles give us strength Speed and Agility Technologies for measuring muscle motion such as Sonoma micrometry and floral micrometry have significantly Advanced our understanding of how animals and humans move but researchers and Engineers need a way to monitor muscle movement outside the lab in natural environments

00:00:27 to meet this need scientists at MIT recently introduced a strategy for wirelessly tracking muscle lengths with a technology they call magnetom micrometry this tool tracks small magnetic beads in real time using an array of magnetic field sensors identical to the compass sensors in a smartphone the technology works by tracking the

00:00:56 distance between a pair of these magnetic beads implanted into muscle with the array of magnetic field sensors outside the body in collaboration with Brown University the researchers checked the accuracy of magnetom micrometry in untethered running turkeys using a pair of X-ray cameras that let them precisely monitor the relative bead positions with this

00:01:21 setup they showed that magnetom micrometry was able to track muscle tissue lengths with sub-millimeter accuracy they then used magnetomicrometry to track muscle tissue lengths while the turkeys were walking up and down ramps and jumping onto and off of boxes activities where it previously hadn't been possible to monitor muscle

00:01:41 movements the research team plans to extend the new muscle tracking system to its use across scales from small animals such as frogs up to the largest organisms to enable new scientific Explorations and an improved understanding of muscle function and movement additionally they plan to insert the magnets into human muscle tissue

00:02:07 and use magnetomicrometry to control prostheses and exoskeletons to assist persons with movement challenges the implants which are passive permanent magnets coated in gold and perylene following rigorous medical standards will be inserted clinically by train surgeons [Music] and have already been tested for

00:02:30 biocompatibility and found to not cause inflammation irritation cell damage or allergic reactions in addition to enabling scientific exploration magnetomicrometry will provide persons with limb conditions and improved control over assisted devices for the mitigation of their movement challenges