Researchers in very different areas have tried in recent years to use electronics to interface with living beings. At a Japanese lab, researchers looked at the behavioral response of insects to electric stimulation. A German group used the antennae of an insect to build a hybrid biosensor. This allows examining signal propagation, nervous interaction, learning and adaptation among larger groups of neurons. On a larger scale, implants on human patients try to restore lost body function by artificially stimulating muscles with dysfunctional motor nerves or by stimulating sensory neurons in order to bypass damaged receptor cells and pass on information to the brain.
Cochlear implants are a prime example of a successful electronic interface to the brain.
Several groups in the USA and in Germany are working now on a retinal implant designed to bypass a dysfunctional retinal pigment layer by directly stimulating the ganglion layer of the retina. As these new and more powerful electronic interfaces to the nervous system are becoming available we will gain a better understanding of the complex neural networks. He worked on Lorentz force magnetic microactuators during his Master's degree and on the behavioral response of insects to electric stimulation during his Ph.D. thesis. Since 1998 he has been a senior researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in the Institute of Microsystems, responsible for the creation of the bio-interface group. The goal of this group is to build micro-devices to interface with biological systems.