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Mohsen Shahinpoor, 277-3966 Michael Padilla, 277-1816

March 25, 2002

UNM PROFESSOR CREATES ARTIFICIAL EYE MUSCLE

University of New Mexico Regents’ Professor Mohsen Shahinpoor and a team of researchers are working on an artificial eye muscle that corrects all refractive errors of the human eye by remotely controlled action of artificial muscles implanted around the sclera of the eye.

If research to develop the technology is successful, these ophthalmological artificial muscles could be available within three to five years.

Shahinpoor said the research has received positive feedback from the medical community.

“This is a safe and effective way to improve vision,” Shahinpoor said. “The technology is a great benefit to older people who have lost the ability to change focus from close objects to distant objects.”

The artificial muscle used in the eye to correct refractive errors is called the “smart eye band,” which could be implanted using the same buckle surgery technique used to repair detached retinas. The artificial eye muscle can correct myopia, presbyopia, hyperopia and astigmatism. It corrects myopia or nearsightedness by expanding the eyeball in the middle to shorten the eye length and decreasing the corneal curvature. It corrects farsightedness, hyperopia and presbyopia (reading glass syndrome) by squeezing the eyeball causing it to elongate and increasing the corneal curvature. This pushes the retina macula or fovia backwards and brings close-up objects back into focus.

Instead of wearing reading glasses or bifocals, a person fitted with the artificial eye muscle could flick a switch behind their ear —similar to a device the size of a hearing aid. The switch would generate a magnetic field to activate the artificial muscle. When the person is done reading the switch could be turned off and the sight would be changed to focus on far-away objects.

The artificial muscle is made from a biocompatible polymer surrounded by a coil of gold wire.

The technique works for short sight, or myopia, because it expands the eyeball to bring the retina forward from its natural position by shortening the eye length and decreasing the corneal curvature. Myopia is currently corrected by laser surgery (lasik or PRK), which works by reshaping the cornea by ablation to change the way that light is focused. The advantage of the smart eye band is that it is a reversible surgery compared to lasik.

Shahinpoor’s smart eye band research was featured in the March 21 issue of the New Scientist magazine and he recently presented his findings at an optical technology conference in San Diego, Calif.

He has been involved with the field of Intelligent Robotic Systems for the past 22 years and the field of smart/intelligent materials, structures and systems for the past 15 years and has made significant advances in the area of electrically controllable artificial muscles.

Shahinpoor is a Regents’ Professor in the School of Engineering Mechanical Engineering and the School of Medicine’s Department of Neurological Surgery. He is the director of the world’s first Artificial Muscles Research Institute (AMRI) and former director of Intelligent Materials, Structures and Systems Laboratory.

He graduated from the Abadan Institute of Technology in Abadan, Iran with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering and from the University of Delaware, with master’s and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical and aerospace engineering.

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