Processing the image takes about 4 minutes. The next engineering challenge is to eliminate the positioning table by electronically or mechanically steering the laser and sound generator. Ideally, the two energy sources would be mounted on a robotic arm, relaying spatial coordinates to the computer. Somewhere between the effect of a laser-based lancet that penetrates tissue and light beams that bounce inconsequentially off wound surfaces are the LaserTweezers and LaserScissors, both developed by Cell Robotics. The tweezers use a technique called optical trapping to catch and hold living cells and particles.
Optical trapping is accomplished by photons that go through, rather than bounce off, a target.
The photons are refracted slightly, imparting momentum to the surface that has bent their trajectory. The surface moves opposite the photons, like a backlash, pulling the cell toward the source of the laser light and effectively trapping it in the beam. The LaserScissors, essentially a highly focused and targeted laser beam, is then used to remove selected parts of the target. But recently, engineers at Cell Robotics have applied these advanced techniques to medicine. Weakening the egg improves the chance that a viable embryo will hatch.