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Gallery: The Bionic Human Circa 2011

Posted 8.18.11 at 3:10 pm 4 Comments

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Tongue: Sweet Taster

Kenneth Suslick

We're all for eating healthy, but if I was shopping around for a new artificial tongue (let's try not to imagine the kind of mishap that would result in that kind of situation), I'd want to make sure I could tell the difference between American and Mexican coke. Chemists at the University of Illinois have come up with an artificial tongue that they are aiming at the food industry, but which I would very much like in my mouth, in the event that my tongue is no longer residing there.

This artificial tongue is actually surprisingly simple: it measures sweetness in all its wonderful and varied forms by measuring pH changes when that sweetness hits some boric acid. In 80 different trials, it correctly identified 14 different types of sweetener with 100% accuracy, which is almost certainly better than my dumb flesh-tongue can manage. It's a major step up, at least for sweet foods, from traditional artificial tongues, which usually have difficulty sensing the difference between artificial and natural sweeteners.

Current status: The "tongue" was demonstrated last summer, and will eventually end up in factories, tasting all kinds of sweet foods you and I can only dream of.

Runner-up: This electronic tongue can tell the difference between different Cava wines. If they make one for Malbec, we'll talk.

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Read the article: State of the Bionic Art: The Best Replacements for My Flimsy Human Parts

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4 Comments

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Onihikage

08/23/11 at 5:16 pm

The picture in slide 13 isn't an iron lung, it appears to be either the lung-on-a-chip, or the actual bionic lung discussed in the information area.

The artificial heart that doesn't beat sounds great to me. I've been cursed with the ability to hear my own heartbeat ALL THE TIME, at least in my right ear. It's very distracting. If my heart ever starts to fail, I'd seriously consider this as an option.

That is, if Washington would ever begin to consider the welfare of the poor and unfortunate over the prosperity of the rich. Otherwise very few could afford such a thing.

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Dublin992233

08/23/11 at 6:11 pm

Has anyone studied to see if the other complementary limb provides information that can be used by the lost limb? For instance walking. If my left foot finds I'm walking on sand - and I know I'm walking on sand "I can say that I am" can the combined sets of information be used by the prosthetic? Obviously yes, just wondering if that's been rolled into the mix. Same goes with the height of stairs. If you wore a special sock or sensor on the other foot or maybe a special watch...maybe it could help transmit information such as distance to object, temperature, texture, give...anything. Just a thought. Fascinating advancements. Just fascinating - thank you all for your progress.

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TrulyVisionary

08/24/11 at 2:23 am

The seeker of knowledge who seeks to reach beyond the stars to go where no mans gone before to see things no man has seen and bring these experiences back for the whole world to hear and see.

I would cut my hands and heart and lungs in a heart beat lol
for that stuff the lack of where and tear on the body from old or not fully functioning body parts would mean my life span would increase 2 fold given no anomalies popup like cancer or aid's but yeah i would do it and the DARPA hand i love that thing it's so futuristic i want one now and the lung and heart combo would be a life saver to of the most needed organs virtually age proof

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djmc993150

09/02/11 at 11:20 am

With respect to the bionic lung. This sounds somewhat dangerous. Part of the lungs' function is also fighting airborne diseases. A synthetic blood/air interface that doesnt appear to allow any interaction with the immune system seems to allow unfettered access to the blood for any airborn disease.

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