May 27 2008, 1:33 pm PT | Posted in: FUE + Hair Transplantation + Other
From the article:
A robot that can pluck and move individual hair follicles on a person’s head makes hair transplants look more natural than those performed by humans, a US company claims.
The robot can also perform the procedure twice as fast as human clinicians, with less pain and scarring for the patient, says Restoration Robotics of Mountain View, California.
Read the full text at NewScientist.com - Surgical robot gives hair transplants a natural look
I am well aware of Restoration Robotics. They approached me a year or so ago to obtain rights to use our U.S. Patent to perform such surgery. Dr. Pak was the engineer back in 1998 when he helped me design the first prototype. I am eager to finally see this project get on its way.
I must disclose that if they succeed, I have a financial interest in their success from the license grant.
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Dr. Rassman:
how is it going with Restoration robotics?
I heard about this company at the JP Morgan conference two years ago
Paul
I found out about this in a Robotics Book crediting Restoration Robotics, Inc. “Robotics and Automation Handbook” Thomas R. Kurfess.
The unit seems very promising. I would imagine the system uses a vision system with two micro cameras. The procedure is still very new Follicular Transplantation that is. Since every human head is different it would require a set of surface to below surface scans to determine optimal skin penetration depths at respectivly changing areas of the surface. The robotic tool would also have to measure and pick the various follicle sizes in order to select the appropriate follicle size / area.
All this to define an exactly natural look that would in deed last for a very long time. Can all the necessary parameters be integrated into a restoration system? Will it then be considered to the patient so they may pick and choose the various if not all the settings? How will this be marketed because it falls into cosmetic surgery thus the rules would be significantly different if the surgeon and technicians role would be secondary?