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| Applied Chaos | |
The Georgia Tech Applied Chaos Laboratory has made some
significant strides toward harnessing the scientific phenomena of
chaos to improve medical devices and computing in the past
several years.
In the medical realm,
research published in Nature in March
1998 revealed the chaotic patterns of an often-fatal condition
called ventricular fibrillation. The findings put scientists a
step closer to developing a new defibrillator or improving
existing ones. Dr. William Ditto, head of the Applied Chaos
Laboratory, was among the international team of researchers that
conducted the study.
In the study, a remarkable series of high-resolution movies
clearly showed how ventricular fibrillation disrupts the
electrical signals that normally govern the heart. The movies
reveal a series of unusual spiral waves that originate with
"rotors" near the surface of the heart.
Because the spiral waves
seem chaotic in their behavior, researchers hope they can apply
newly discovered chaos control techniques to restore normal
heartbeat. Instead of the massive jolt of electricity that
current defibrillators provide, the chaos control technique might
bring the heart back into normal rhythm using carefully applied
electrical signals of much less energy.
In 1995, Ditto and colleagues Steven Schiff of the Children's
National Medical Center and Mark Spano of the Naval Surface
Warfare Center reported early success at altering chaotic patterns
of brain activity similar to those associated with certain types
of epileptic seizures. That work may provide a new
option for severe cases of epilepsy now remedied only with brain surgery.
More recently, in September 1998, Ditto and collaborator
Sudeshna Sinha of the Institute of Mathematical Sciences in
Madras, India, reported in Physical Review Letters a
revolutionary new computing technique that uses a network of
chaotic elements to "evolve" its answers. The technique could
provide an alternative to the digital computing systems widely
used today. This "dynamics-based computation" may be well suited
for optical computing using ultra-fast chaotic lasers and
computing with silicon/neural tissue hybrid circuitry.
Courtesy of Dr. William Ditto
Applications of the scientific phenomena of chaos include
future development of better ways of controlling ventricular
fibrillation in the human heart.
Bioengineering professor Dr.
William Ditto examined high-resolution movies (shown here) of a
heart in v-fib. They revealed a series of spiral waves that
originate with "rotors" near the surface of the heart.
For more information, contact Dr. William Ditto,
School of
Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA 30332-0535.
(Telephone: 404-894-5216)
(E-mail:
wditto@acl.gatech.edu)
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