title: Low-power sensing for vestibular prostheses.
abstract: This paper describes a novel sensing approach for reducing power requirements of implantable vestibular prostheses. A passive, microfabricated polymeric inertial sensor for detecting angular head rotations based on the biomechanics of the human semicircular canal is described. Angular head motion is coded by deflection of a highly compliant capacitor plate placed in parallel with a rigid reference electrode. This capacitance change serves to detect instantaneous angular velocity along a given axis of rotation. Designed for integration with a microelectromechanical systems-based fully implantable vestibular prosthesis, this sensing method can provide substantial power savings when compared with contemporary gyroscopes.
authors.affiliation: School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332-0250, USA. pamela.bhatti@ece.gatech.edu
authors.forename: Pamela T
authors.initials: PT
authors.lastname: Bhatti
authors.forename: Maxine A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: McClain
mesh_terms: D032701:Biomimetics; D019919:Prosthesis Implantation; D014722:Vestibule, Labyrinth