Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

so im doing a physics project on how electronic stimulators work. i started researching last night, but i cant find much. any/all websites with info would be much appreciated...also, i found that they use biphasic and mono-phasic waveforms, but i cant find a simply definition on either. help? any info is welcome. also, if there are any relations to physics or you simply have any info on this device would be much appreciated! please list any/all sources used if possible. thank you all!!!

HI,

I am not quite sure what you are asking. Are you referring to electronic muscle stimulators? If so, here are some sites:

http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/consumer/ems.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic ... timulation

Be extremely cautious about statements made by commercial sites attempting to sell stimulators (see the FDA site above):

http://www.toneamatic.com/faq.htm

I suspect you will get the best information on this subject by searching the patent literature and reading the background of the invention sections of the patents. Here are typical patents relevant to your topic:

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Pars ... PN/5070862

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Pars ... S=TTL/TENS

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Pars ... S=TTL/TENS

I think you may want to experiment with the Quick Search feature of the patent office website to locate other relevant patents .

Good luck, and have fun with the project!

Best regards,

Barrett Tomlinson

thank you so much for all the websites. they helped a ton and led me to other places where i could get the information i needed. im still a little confused on a few things...but im sure i cant work them out. thank you thank you thank you!
just a few more things that i would appreciate help with...i need to know what biphasic and monophasic waves are, but i cant seem to find anything on them that makes any sense. I mean, theres good info out there, but making sense of it is like readin chinese to the french in russia with a spanish interpreter! if i could get help finding a good down-to-earth deffinition, i would be much appreciative. thank you again!

Hi,

It sounds like from your response your interest was in defibrillators not eletronic muscle stimulators. Sorry to be slow catching on. Glad you found what you are looking for. As to monophasic vs. biphasic, after a Google search I see what you mean. You need a Rosetta stone to make sense of the answers. The most intelligible site I found was:

http://forums.firehouse.com/showthread.php?t=73880

In a monophasic shock, the current goes one direction, from one electrode to the other. In biphasic shock, the shock consists of two periods of time -during the first phase electric current is sent from electrode A to Electrode B. During the second phase electrode polarities are reversed, so the electric current goes from electrode B to electrode A. I hope that is a little clearer than what you have seen.

As far as I have found this terminology applies mostly to heart defibulators, devices which shock the heart to restart it beating when it has stopped due to a heart attack or other problem. This state is where the heart just sort of quivers, but does not beat. A strong electrical shock can sometimes jolt the heart back into a normal pumping action.

You may interested in this article on defillibration:

http://www.reference.com/browse/Defillibration&

This page shows a current vs. time graph of a biphasic waveform (about halfway down the page, scrolling).

http://www.zoll.com/product_resource.aspx?id=728

I hope this helps!

Best Regards,

Barrett Tomlinson

Hello! There are a couple of articles in IEEE Spectrum that you might also be interested in:
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/search/frees ... ata&pos=10 and
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/search/frees ... data&pos=0

The first one is about Tasers, and provides some interesting information on this subject. The second one is about the invention of the portable defibrillator. HTH!

Keith