Japanese Researcher Uses MEMS Technology to Create Ultra Tiny Finger-Like Device. Miniature Arm is Next.

Imagine something 7mm long, 0.8mm wide and o.1 mm thick that is shaped like a tiny finger and can move like one too, driven by air fed to balloons that expand and contact.A Japanese researcher has created such a device and linked it to the movements of a special glove worn by a surgeon.

Next step, a professor of Ritsumeikan University in Japan wants to develop a whole miniature arm that can be placed into the tip of an endoscope and used as a surgical tool.

Beyond that is to incorporate various sensors into this miniature mechanical finger to give the surgeon feedback about the elasticity, hardness and warmth of things.

All this is part of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS).

The tiny finger is a high-performance device that incorporates both a large-scale integrated circuit and a drive mechanism.

The research group has been testing an endoscope with a MEMS appendage for cancer surgery.

The future – “an entire body built using MEMS – a scaled down robot that moves like a human that can mirror the movements of the doctor is within the range of the possible.MEMS will prove useful not only in medicine, but also to resolve energy and environmental problems.

Using MEMS to discover enzymes that work more efficiently to catalyze chemical reactions and MEMS to the synthesize them.

Another target of MEMS is enzymes that can decompose soil pollutants.

The big goal – “to partner with a machinery maker to develop a system based around MEMS for the mass-production of synthetic enzymes. “

And to think, all that can be lifted with a tiny finger.