Invented an artificial vestibular apparatus

John Hopkins (Johns Hopkins University) and his colleague at the university, Charles Santina Cause (Charles C. Della Santina) created an electronic prosthesis vestibular apparatus. It is designed for people suffering from violation of a sense of balance.
The device is the size of a matchbook secured to the head. It consists of a control circuit, battery, and motion sensors, the parallel channels of the inner ear. The inner ear patient implanted eight electrodes. According to him on the vestibular nerve endings signal, which creates a chip. Thus, a three-dimensional sensation of head movement.

Processor in the use of a unique program that was developed Santina and his team. The principle of operation is quite simple - the device creates a millisecond pulses, which are very similar to the real thing, which must come from the inner ear.

As a consequence, the device is fully simulates the vestibular apparatus, thereby replacing damaged.
As noted by the authors of the project, this is not the first development in this area. However, all previous work with only one channel and one plane of perception of space. The uniqueness of the new device is that it completely replaces the three-dimensional perception of the world and creates an artificial sense of balance, while reacting to the rotation in all three planes in any direction.

At the moment the device has not been tested on humans. Experimental animals are chinchillas, who with the help of huge doses of gentamicin have been damaged cells of the inner ear, which destroys the spatial orientation and the vestibular apparatus. Signs of such violations in this case were: staggering gait, trembling movement, trembling eye movements. The experiments showed that chinchillas have lost the ability to stabilize the eye. After implantation of the device, the animals regained some lost reflexes.
Authors of the project have set themselves ambitious goals. Before prescribing the device for people he wants to significantly reduce its size to make it easier and sealed so that you can install it under the skin, rather than mounted on the head.
Another direction of work on the device, this reduction of interference, which have an impact on neighboring nerves, as well as the creation of stimulating pulses, which are most similar to natural ones.

This invention is still under development, but it can help hundreds and thousands of people affected by a violation of the vestibular apparatus, which is due to the impact of viruses, chemotherapy, the use of large doses of antibiotics, stroke or other head injury. Also, patients are prescribed high doses of gentamicin due to illness, may no longer be afraid of losing orientation in space.