A battery-free pacemaker works like a clock

And in the literal and figurative sense of the word. First, such a device works very precisely, like a clock mechanism, to maintain a given heart rate. And secondly, for such work, this device uses the principle embodied in the usual clockwork.

In fact, the idea of ​​creating a pacemaker without an external power source of its author, a scientist with the surname Zurbuchen, prompted the usual mechanism of a watch wrist factory.
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The prototype was created in a matter of weeks , and after checking the operation of the prototype, it turned out that the idea was quite realistic. And the idea is to use heart muscle contractions to charge the device’s battery. This process consists of three steps:

1. Contractions of the heart muscle set in motion the mechanism of the pacemaker, causing its elements to rotate; Rotation causes the spring of the mechanism to contract. Compression occurs to a certain limit, after which the spring begins to unwind, forcing a small generator of electricity to work.

2. The generated electricity accumulates in the battery;

3. Accumulated electricity is used to maintain the pacemaker system, which leads to the correction of the heart muscle contraction rate.

According to the developer, this device has already been successfully tested on animals (pigs), but for use in clinical conditions the pacemaker needs to be improved. Now the prototype, as seen in the announcement photos, consists of several parts. The main task of the developers is to combine all of this by placing them into a single small-sized case. And of course, it is necessary to ensure maximum reliable operation of the entire system.

If the team of scientists (the project is developed by experts from the University of Bern) succeeds, then pacemaker carriers will no longer need to regularly change the power sources in their vital devices.