Patent ID: 8060208

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: an electrode to deliver an electrical waveform to a targeted nerve region; a waveform generator to generate the electrical waveform, where the electrical waveform has two phases, and where the continued periodic delivery of the two phases of the electrical waveform selectively and temporarily depolarizes the nerve membrane in the targeted nerve region to a state where the targeted nerve region cannot conduct an action potential; a control logic to control the waveform generator to selectively generate the electrical waveform and to selectively provide the electrical waveform to the targeted nerve region through the electrode; and an amplitude modulation logic to selectively control the amplitude of the electrical waveform to selectively prevent the transmission of action potentials in nerve fibers of different sizes, where the amplitude modulation logic is configured to progressively increase the amplitude of the electrical waveform to block progressively smaller nerves.