Orange County Register

First came “The Six Million Dollar Man.”

Then “The Bionic Woman.”

Now get ready for Bionic Grandma.

Researchers at UC-Irvine, Johns Hopkins University, the University of Utah and elsewhere are working on implantable devices that can replace a person’s lost ability to see, hear or grasp.

Such bionic devices could have military applications, such as giving troops vastly improved vision, but for many researchers the more immediate application is to help people with disabilities.

“Bionic Grandma” is a prime example. That would be a good nickname for any elderly woman wearing the bionic BAT hat that biomedical engineering Prof. Mark Bachman and his colleagues are developing at UCI’s Samueli School of Engineering.

Click on the image for a better look at the BAT hat.

The Bionic and Assistive Technologies, or BAT, hat currently exists as a rough prototype – a UCI baseball cap equipped with an ultrasound proximity sensor and a vibrating disk in the headband.

VIDEO: Click here to watch my blindfolded attempt to navigate the corridors of UCI using the BAT hat.

The BAT hat is a simple example of XSense, or Extrasensory Engineering, a device that gives the user an extra sixth sense in addition to the normal five senses of seeing, smelling, hearing, tasting and touching.

At present, it’s being developed as a tool that elderly people could use to supplement failing eyesight, especially if they’re living on their own. The BAT hat would help them move from bedroom to bathroom to kitchen without bumping into walls. When the wearer gets close to a wall, it vibrates as a warning signal.

“It could help people stay in their own homes,” said Dr. Laura Mosqueda, director of the Program in Geriatrics at UCI. “It would provide them with both independence and safety.”

After all, the elderly deserve better technology, Bachman said.

“Sixteen-year-olds have the best technology in the world, but 66-year-olds have almost no technology,” he said.

YOUTHFUL INSPIRATION 1

Bachman’s son, Harrison, 12, was the person who first shifted the BAT program toward helping the elderly.

At first, the BAT team was seeking to create a device for warning a soldier or other user about people or objects approaching from the rear. For that reason, the proximity sensor was placed at the back of the cap.

But when Bachman took the BAT hat to his Irvine home to show it to his family, his son soon decided to put it on backwards and use it to explore the house with his eyes closed, Bachman said.

“At first it feels like blind man’s bluff, but within a half hour he was navigating without problems, moving his head back and forth to locate the walls,” Bachman said.

Before long, a BAT hat wearer stops thinking about the vibrations and instead merely feels the closeness of the walls, he said. That’s a process similar to what expert guitarists experience when they start feeling the music they’re making instead of thinking about the movement of their fingers on the guitar’s frets, Bachman said.

The next step for the BAT hat is an upgraded model with sensors in four directions, but it’s still too cumbersome to be practical. “No one wants to look like Frankenstein,” he said, so Bachman’s team is work on miniaturizing it.

He hopes a usable prototype will be ready this summer. Then, after sorting through patent issues and making sure UCI’s intellectual property is protected, he’ll be ready to think about how to turn the BAT hat into a low-cost marketable product, he said.

Beyond that, Bachman’s team is still interested in developing XSense devices that could be used in the military or by firefighters, who would gain improved vision in dark, dusty, smoky environments without having to carry a flashlight or wear cumbersome night-vision goggles.

“We could turn war fighters into batmen who could see in the dark,” Bachman said.

YOUTHFUL INSPIRATION 2

Bachman was in elementary school in 1974 when Lee Majors debuted as “The Six Million Dollar Man.” In that fictional tale, astronaut Steve Austin is rebuilt after a crash with bionic eye, legs and arm.

“That gave me a sense of excitement about what would be possible,” Bachman recalled.

Then came the spinoff “The Bionic Woman” in 1976, featuring Lindsay Wagner as rebuilt tennis pro Jamie Sommers with bionic ear, legs and arm.

“I was in love with her for years,” Bachman said.

Now that he’s in the midst of bionic research that could help create a Bionic Grandma, Bachman is happy that “The Bionic Woman” is back. Although its fall 2007 debut was interrupted by the writers’ strike, the series is currently available online via NBC.com.

“Now I have a new love, Michelle Ryan, the new ‘Bionic Woman,’ ” Bachman said. “Check her out.”

Related link:

 Bionic arm, better bionic ears - the search is on

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