Dalhousie researcher Jeremy Brown is developing, in collaboration with ear surgeon Manohar Bance, an ultrasound device so small it can travel through the eardrum, through the middle ear and rest against the inner ear to provide images of the basilier membrane as at it vibrates, sending messages to the brain as it interprets sound.

The miniature device, a medical imaging technique that uses high frequency sound waves and their echoes, measures two millimeters in diameter. The probe, the size of a little bead, contains 150 elements--tiny transducers that vibrate when electric signals are applied.

Once planted deep within the ear through a minor surgical procedure, the probe can detect scarring from implants in the middle ear, or detect the ravages of diseases like Meniere's, an inner-ear disorder which causes episodes of vertigo.

The researchers are ready to take the next step and build on prototypes that have been tested on mice. Money received from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation's Leaders Opportunity Fund and matched by the Nova Scotia Research and Innovation Trust--$311,000 all told--will allow them to acquire equipment developed by the semi-conductor industry to build and further refine the miniature devices.

"This equipment is so unbelievably good, that we can just piggyback on it to do what we need it to do," says Dr. Brown.

More Voices