from Hacker News

Wireless system can power devices inside the body

by tostitos1979 on 6/4/18, 6:36 PM with 41 comments

• by ffk on 6/4/18, 10:49 PM

  The main thing I got from the MIT article is this:

  "This system relies on an array of antennas that emit radio waves of slightly different frequencies. As the radio waves travel, they overlap and combine in different ways."

  This is known as constructive interference, pretty nifty to see it used in this context. The range has been increased from 10 cm to 1 meter since the paper I co-authored on this subject. Impressive!

  These kinds of applications have also been a long time coming. With IoT devices and NFC readers looming around the corner, I think it is likely that we will see some pretty innovative medical inventions. Likewise, as mentioned by NKosmatos, we need to take the security aspect very seriously. Some of these NFC devices are programmable, and should defend against attacks that could lead to events such as withholding life-saving medicine or misreporting biometrics.

  For reference, check out this paper I co-authored:

  Suitability of NFC for Medical Device Communication and Power Delivery (2007)

  https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/4454171/

  And if you're interested in an early paper about RFID-delivered viruses, check out this by Tanenbaum et al.:

  http://www.rfidvirus.org/papers/percom.06.pdf

• by fouc on 6/5/18, 3:32 AM

  Radio waves are used to power cochlear implants. There is a chip & receiver unit that is inserted under the skin on the head, with electrodes that go into the cochlea. Externally there is an antenna that is held on the head next to the skin, using a magnet to hold it in place. Radio waves are sent across the skin to power the chip and control the electrodes.

• by excalibur on 6/4/18, 7:35 PM

  Plenty of nefarious applications for this. The range alone blows away existing RFID designs, which will make it the preferred "chipping" technology for surveillance states everywhere.

• by trhway on 6/4/18, 9:53 PM

  >The implants are powered by radio frequency waves, which can safely pass through human tissues. In tests in animals

  why animals? couldn't the researchers just swallow that "prototype about the size of a grain of rice" themselves and/or get several paid volunteers?

• by ThomPete on 6/4/18, 11:37 PM

  One of the first "promises" of nanotechnology I ever read about was that you could create batteries so small that just calling your cellphone would charge them I wonder if that is fundamentally the same idea.

• by NKosmatos on 6/4/18, 10:09 PM

  Interesting and for sure there are numerous applications for such devices, but they didn’t mention anything about security and possible interferences. Sounds very promising but scary at the same time.

• by ghostbrainalpha on 6/4/18, 10:12 PM

  I want to power my earbuds without ever removing them. If they can do this I would be the first human tester.

  I'd also love to start my car, without having to remember where i left my keys.

• by smolder on 6/4/18, 9:41 PM

  Can it power tumors?

  More seriously, though, nanotech or relatively small implantables/injectables powered by radio or induction could do a lot for medicine... If anyone could afford it.

• by JumpCrisscross on 6/4/18, 7:17 PM

  How much energy could a device extract from blood sugar?

• by mclightning on 6/5/18, 11:19 AM

  How does the device come out when you need it to?

• by apocalypstyx on 6/4/18, 9:34 PM

  Texhnolyze here we come.