Miracle! My Hand is Moving!

Paralyzed muscles can be reanimated by electrical stimulation in order to prevent disuse atrophy and restore functional movement. Led by Dr. Gerald Loeb, researchers at the Alfred Mann Institute have developed a new class of implantable medical devices, BION^® (for BIOnic Neurons), that can provide precise and inexpensive interfaces between electronic controllers and muscles. See more information on BION.

I was invited to photograph this tiny little device and its inventor Dr. Loeb. I tried to provide a little different angle and make the device look less cold and medical. The challenge in photographing this device was that a lot of details are packed inside a very tiny glass tube. Those details had to be brought out while creating the cool multi-reflection for the glass tube.

In the background is the coil that’s used to transmit the stimulation signal to BION.

Dr. Loeb standing in front of an X-ray image that shows the BION in a patient’s arm and holding the insertion tool that is used to insert the BION (the semitransparent device at the tip of the needle) into a patient’s body to demonstrate the functionality and the size of the device.

Will be happy to hear your thoughts on this product photo, and the photo-story "told" by Dr. Loeb.