Junking the Joystick

Medical researchers have discovered that the best way to operate microscale devices is through intuitive controls. According to researchers, a joystick can be very disruptive, instead, if it feels like you're holding on to the handle of an instrument and it's just following your hand; it's completely intuitive. A system developed by Johns Hopkins University translates hand movements into motions that are smooth and precise enough to inject minuscule arteries. The steady hands system is still a laboratory curiosity, to be sure. However, it has shown great promise in the experiments Taylor and his colleagues have performed to date. A microdevice that the team has built has displayed five-micrometer precision. A microscale device could make this near-impossible task routine by injecting blood thinner directly into the affected vessel. One issue that would have to be worked out, however, is immobilizing the patient: even motion calibrated to mere micrometers could do damage if the patient's eyeball moves.