Inventors inspired by personal experiences
Two of the nominees at the recent European Inventor of the Year Awards were inspired by personal experiences. The winner of the SME Research category devoted himself to creating a more effective eye scanning machine after his young son went blind in one eye. Meanwhile one of the nominees in the non-European category, Van L Phillips, got involved in the prosthetics field after he lost a leg in a water-skiing accident. CORDIS News spoke to them about their inventions and how they revolutionised their respective fields. In 1992, the five year old son of Douglas Anderson went blind in one eye because a retinal detachment was not detected in time. Despite having no background in optics, Mr Anderson devoted himself to developing a way of examining the eye which would be both more effective and less uncomfortable for the patient. The result was the Optos scanning laser ophthalmoscope, a device which shines a beam composed of two lasers into the patient's eye and manipulates it through a 200 degree scan angle. Light reflected back from the retina is analysed and converted into a digital image. The scan takes just a fraction of a second and does not require pupil dilation. Currently the majority of eye exams are still carried out the old-fashioned way, but Mr Anderson and his colleagues have high hopes that one day their system will be used as standard in all eye clinics. His company is giving the machine to clinics and then charging per exam. Clinics are provided with extensive training and support to help them use the machine effectively. Douglas' son is among the patients to have benefited from his father's invention; as he prepared to celebrate his 21st birthday, he realised that the sight in his good eye was fading. Father and son rushed to the eye hospital, where Mr Anderson was able to operate the machine and diagnose the problem. Two operations later, his son's sight was saved and he can now see and even read easily. Meanwhile the device is shedding new light on our understanding of many eye diseases and the effectiveness of the drugs used to treat them. Van L Phillips was just 21 years old when he lost part of his lower leg in a water-skiing accident in 1976. To say he was disappointed by the prosthetic leg offered to him would be an understatement. 'They had just put a man on the moon and they handed me a foot that was worth 50 dollars!' he comments. 'I just knew there's something better.' With the old foot, travelling any faster than a slow walking pace was difficult, and he likens the experience to walking in skiing boots - 'they're heavy and cumbersome,' he explains. The inspiration for his innovative new design came when he read an article about the fastest moving animals on Earth. Animals like cheetahs have extremely long tendons and ligaments that attach the muscles to the skeleton. These act like giant elastic bands, storing energy when the tendon is stretched and releasing it when they return to their normal size, propelling the animal forward. Mr Phillips decided to try and create a C-shaped graphite prosthesis which used this energy storage concept. Early reactions in the prosthetics field were mixed - older practitioners were sceptical, but the younger generation was more receptive to the idea. With the help of some engineers, the first flex foot was produced in just two weeks. Mr Phillips put it on and ran down a hallway. 'It wasn't perfect by any means but there was that sense of spring there and the ability to actually run on it,' he said. Since the development of that first foot in 1981, the basic design has not changed much, although variations with different types of heel, shock absorbers and rotators have been developed. One of the flex foot's most famous users is the South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius, who was recently banned from competing in the normal Olympics on the grounds that his pair of prosthesis was so good that it gave him an unfair advantage over other athletes. Meanwhile Mr Phillips is working on a system to improve the fit of a prosthetic device onto the stump. 'If I as an amputee had a choice between a well functioning foot and a well fitted socket, I would always choose the socket, because it doesn't matter how good the leg is, you can't do anything if it hurts,' he explains. His system involves a series of bladders which inflate and deflate to ensure that the prosthesis socket fit the stump perfectly as it changes shape over the course of time. He is also busy running the Second Wind Foundation, which he set up to help those who have lost limbs to landmines. At the moment, two affordable landmine feet are being tested. So what advice would Mr Phillips give to other people who find themselves in a situation where the solutions offered to their problems are woefully inadequate? When he first lost his leg, many people told Mr Phillips that he simply had to accept his fate. He advises finding a balance between acceptance and striving to improve things. 'There's a balance between really accepting, and then from that place of peace, going on and actually allowing some creative urges to come through,' he explains. 'And you have to follow your own voice, because there will be a lot of people that will tell you it's not going to work.'
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