One lucky man in France has the honor of being the first human to have a self-regulating artificial heart beating in his chest. Inventor/cardiac surgeon Alain Carpentier invented the Carmat, an artificial heart that is far different than those that have been in use for decades. Standard artificial hearts beat at a constant rate no matter what its user is doing. That means that even if a patient is doing strenuous physical activity, the heart won’t beat faster and the person will become fatigued very quickly.

The Carmat, on the other hand, contains miniature embedded sensors that will recognize the need for increased blood flow and, using a proprietary algorithm, increase the rate of its pumping. The first Carmat model is a little larger and a lot heavier than a human heart – it weighs around two pounds and is too large for 14 percent of men and 80 percent of women. A smaller model is in the works, one that will hopefully be able to benefit even more patients.

The heart is powered by an external lithium-ion battery pack that the patient wears. A fuel cell may be incorporated in future versions of the heart. As for the 75-year-old French man who is now equipped with the bionic heart, he is awake and communicating and doing well. The Carmat heart has a life expectancy of around five years, while traditional artificial hearts can be expected to last for approximately four years.

(via: Reuters)

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A British robotics company has come up with the coolest way to showcase artificial body parts. A recent Smithsonian Channel special called “The Incredible Bionic Man” featured a walking, talking machine composed of some of the most advanced human prostheses.

Created by Shadow Robot, Co., the almost-$1 million bionic man sports some of the most high-tech prostheses in the world. Its hands are called i-LIMBs, made by Touch Bionics, whose product’s full wrist rotation and finger movement capabilities are some of the most modern in the world. The ankles and feet of the robot were made by BiOM of Bedford, Mass, and holding the metal guy in place was an exoskeleton dubbed ‘Rex,’ after REX, the New Zealand bionics company that created it.

But this bionic man was more than just a skeleton. It came equipped with a myriad of artificial organs – brain, lungs, pancreas, spleen, kidney and heart (complete with working circulatory system) were all present. The heart was the product of SynCardia Systems in Tucson, Ariz., and has been used in more than 100 heart transplants. And to top it off, quite literally, is the brain’s sophisticated chatbot program, an impressive feature that allows the robot to hold a conversation.

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