Patent ID: 9656097
Date: 2017-05-23
CPC Classifications: A61B,A61N

Claim:
1. A method for stimulating a nerve location in the spinal cord comprising the steps of: directing an incident light beam toward the spinal cord; detecting the reflected light beam from the spinal cord with an optical detector; determining a first photocurrent level from the optical detector in response to the reflected light beam; determining a first current amplitude for a first electrode current from the first photocurrent level based on a calibration table stored in a memory; directing the first electrode current to a set of electrodes based on the first photocurrent level; wherein a first electric field is produced with a field strength proportional to the first electrode current to stimulate the nerve; determining a second photocurrent level from the optical detector; determining a second current amplitude for a second electrode current from the second photocurrent level based on the calibration table; directing the second electrode current to the set of electrodes based on the second photocurrent level; wherein a second electric field is produced with a field strength proportional to the second electrode current to stimulate the nerve; providing a controller; providing the memory and a processor for the controller; storing the calibration table in the memory; storing a set of historical current amplitudes; and, time-averaging the set of historical current amplitudes to determine the second current amplitude.