Information and Communication Theoretical Understanding and Treatment of Spinal Cord Injuries: State-of-The-Art and Research Challenges.

Among the various key networks in the human body, the nervous system occupies central importance. The debilitating effects of spinal cord injuries (SCI) impact a significant number of people throughout the world, and to date, there is no satisfactory method to treat them. In this paper, we review the major treatment techniques for SCI that include promising solutions based on information and communication technology (ICT) and identify the key characteristics of such systems. We then introduce two novel ICT-based treatment approaches for SCI. The first proposal is based on neural interface systems (NIS) with enhanced feedback, where the external machines are interfaced with the brain and the spinal cord such that the brain signals are directly routed to the limbs for movement. The second proposal relates to the design of self-organizing artificial neurons (ANs) that can be used to replace the injured or dead biological neurons. Apart from SCI treatment, the proposed methods may also be utilized as enabling technologies for neural interface applications by acting as bio-cyber interfaces between the nervous system and machines. Furthermore, under the framework of Internet of Bio-Nano Things (IoBNT), experience gained from SCI treatment techniques can be transferred to nano communication research.

Energy-driven computing.

For decades, the design of untethered devices has been focused on delivering a fixed quality of service with minimum power consumption, to enable battery-powered devices with reasonably long deployment lifetime. However, to realize the promised tens of billions of connected devices in the Internet of Things, computers must operate autonomously and harvest ambient energy to avoid the cost and maintenance requirements imposed by mains- or battery-powered operation. But harvested power typically fluctuates, often unpredictably, and with large temporal and spatial variability. Energy-driven computers are designed to treat energy-availability as a first-class citizen, in order to gracefully adapt to the dynamics of energy harvesting. They may sleep through periods of no energy, endure periods of scarce energy, and capitalize on periods of ample energy. In this paper, we describe the promise and limitations of energy-driven computing, with an emphasis on intermittent operation. This article is part of the theme issue 'Harmonizing energy-autonomous computing and intelligence'.