Otto H. Schmitt – Bridging Nature and Engineering"...I am confident that a major new quantitative life-based science is emerging which directly, rather than indirectly, seeks its algorithmic mathematical foundations, its discoveries and its analogical applications by emulation of life principles accessible to us via perceptive consciousness insight, rather than by second or third generation laundering through conventional physics, chemistry or other physical sciences that often lead us to conflicting and confusing images of thought." Otto H. Schmitt (1913-1998) was one of the founders of Biomedical Engineering, a scientist who made a large contribution to the newly emerging fields of Biomedical Engineering and Biophysics and was a great inventor, too. In 1939 he became a faculty member at the University of Minnesota where he had been a teacher in Physics and Zoology at the beginning of his career. By the time he retired in 1983, he was a professor of Bioengineering, Biophysics and Electrical Engineering. Many of the electronic circuits that are widely used in data acquisition systems and digital systems including computers are a result of his research and development: cathode (or emitter) follower, differential amplifier, chopper stabilized amplifier, the differentiator and integrator circuits etc. Perhaps the most famous among them is a particular digital circuit named the "Schmitt trigger". In a publication in 1938 [1] he described it: "A bistable positive feedback circuit, realizable with vacuum tubes or even fluidic components, but now usually solid-state electronics, which features a selected or adjustable hysteresis band separating initiation of "on" and "off" or "1" and "0" states." He dedicated a lot of his research to exploring the relation between the potential distribution at the body surface and the cardiac current sources, which resulted in a method called "stereo-vector-electro-cardiology". At that time most of the data presentation was planar. The computer rotatable three-dimensional stereoscopic cathode ray presentation he developed was an early attempt at introducing three dimensional medical imaging. He also developed instrumentation for magnetocardiography. Schmitt formulated the concept of "biomimetics" or the "mimicry of nature" which is based on studying natural processes and Biology and transferring the principles into methods and devices that are usable for mankind. The famous Schmitt trigger was a result of his investigations of the squid nerves. Already on 4 January 1936, the Saint Louis Globe-Dispatch reported that the "Nerve Study Machine Developed at W. U. by Dr. Otto Schmitt-Holds Possibility of Extending Knowledge of Nervous Systems". Schmitt's scientific efforts were widely diversified and often multidisciplinary. Though he used to investigate anti-submarine warfare before and during World War II, after the War he dedicated his research to humanitarian matters, primarily to research of new diagnostic methods and the development of medical devices [3, 4]. He was also very excited with the ideas of advanced health concepts and health care systems supported by technology in order to adjust care individually to the patient and bring it into the patients’ home [5, 6, 7]. He was encouraging the introduction of the "Whole Life Personally Portable Medical Record" [8] and using the new technology for quality of life characterization and improvement. Otto Schmitt was inaugurated into the Minnesota Inventors Hall of Fame and was a member of the National Academy of Engineering. In Chicago in 2000, the General Assembly of the IFMBE established the new Award named after Otto Schmitt. The first awardee was Prof. Herman P. Schwan, who collaborated with Otto Schmitt for a number of years. Biomimetic Principles
Biomimetically Derived Principles
[1] Otto H. Schmitt, Journal of Scientific Instruments, vol. 15, January 1938, p. 25 Figure Caption: Original Nerve Axon Simulator - First Schmitt Trigger, Washington University in Missouri
|