BioTac History
Invention
Gerald Loeb and Roland Johansson first developed the concept for the BioTac while attending the DARPA Revolutionizing Prosthetics kick-off meeting in 2006. Both Gerald Loeb, whom has spent much of his career developing neural prosthetics, and Rolland Johansson, whom had spent much of his career studying human touch, recognized that the proposed solutions for tactile sensing in advanced prosthetic limbs were in fact doomed and needed a more practical solution. Over a drink, they sketched out the initial invention design of the BioTac on a cocktail napkin that included a compliant skin over a liquid pulp and rigid core with electrodes. The design was witnessed and signed by a fellow patron and was used in the first provisional patent filings. The first patent covering the BioTac technology (Biomimetic Tactile Sensor, US Patent 7,658,119) was filed March 27, 2007.
Development
The prototype was developed under the supervision of Gerald Loeb at USC in the Medical Device and Development Facility and under the continued advisement of Rolland Johansson. While many students have worked on the project, SynTouch co-founder Nicholas Wettels, and then a doctoral student at USC, was the first to lead much of the early development of the impedance sensing modality of the BioTac, publishing the first journal article on the technology with Veronica Santos, Rolland Johansson and Gerald Loeb entitled: Biomimetic Tactile Sensor Array. In 2007 Jeremy Fishel joined the team, working primarily to develop the fluidic-based vibration sensing modality of the BioTac which was first published in a 2008 conference proceeding entitled: A Robust Micro-Vibration Sensor for Biomimetic fingertips. Both Nicholas Wettels and Jeremy Fishel under the supervision of Gerald Loeb and Raymond Peck led the development of the BioTac through much of its maturity at USC to integrate the three modalities of force, vibration and thermal sensing in the BioTac into a molded assembly with replaceable skin. The technology is covered in three additional USC-owned patents (Biomimetic Tactile Sensor for Control of Grip, US Patent 7,878,975, Measurement of Sliding Friction-Induced Vibrations for Biomimetic Tactile Sensing, US Patent 8,181,540, and Enhancements to Improve the Function of a Biomimetic Tactile Sensor).
Founding of SynTouch, LLC
As grant-writing to continue the development of the biomimetic tactile sensor at USC became increasingly challenging a reviewer at NIH recommended that the technology was well suited for Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) funding. However, such an endeavor first required a small business. Collaborators Gerald Loeb, Nicholas Wettels, Jeremy Fishel, and Matthew Borzage decided to co-found SynTouch LLC in 2008 in conjunction with their first SBIR submission to NIH entitled: Biomimetic Tactile Sensor for Prosthetics. Over the course of the submission of the first Phase I SBIR, Gary Lin joined the team to lead the development of the BioTac and integrated electronics, while Raymond Peck provided advisement on the mechanical construction of the product that would become known as the BioTac. SynTouch obtained exclusive licensing and sublicensing rights to the technology its members had developed while at USC when the first grant was awarded.