QHMI2 – New Technol­ogy for Captur­ing Human Body Signals

The goal of the project is to research a novel technol­ogy based on quantum sensors that can be used as a practi­cal, every­day inter­face between humans and machines. Human–machine inter­faces have become an integral part of our daily lives, both in private settings, the workplace, and in medicine. Quantum sensor technol­ogy holds the poten­tial to detect and utilize very weak magnetic fields gener­ated by electri­cal cellu­lar activ­ity in the body.

The goal of the QSens cluster is the sustain­able strength­en­ing of the scien­tific, economic, and societal position through unique technolo­gies and exper­tise. QHMI is the human–machine research consor­tium within the cluster. Using a brain–computer demon­stra­tor and a muscle–prosthesis demon­stra­tor, the consor­tium will showcase the first-ever minia­tur­iza­tion of the novel sensor system.

Minia­tur­iza­tion of a Novel Diamond-Based Quantum Sensor

Within the QHMI consor­tium, this innov­a­tive sensor technol­ogy is being analyzed and demon­strated for human-related appli­ca­tions for the first time. Two config­u­ra­tions are distin­guished: one for detect­ing nerve activ­ity in the brain and one for measur­ing muscle activ­ity in the arm. The newly researched and devel­oped highly sensi­tive sensors are diamond-based.

The Goal: To control prosthe­ses without physi­cal contact by measur­ing the magnetic fields gener­ated by muscles.

This magnetic field technol­ogy now enables the use of these highly sensi­tive measure­ment techniques under every­day condi­tions, elimi­nat­ing the need for a shielded labora­tory environ­ment. The consid­er­able exper­tise and economic poten­tial for life sciences and consumer products are shaped by the research capabil­i­ties of the Univer­sity of Stuttgart, the Hahn Schickard Society, and the Fraun­hofer Society, working closely with technol­ogy compa­nies Bosch, Q.ANT, and Ottobock, as well as the Charité Univer­sity Hospi­tal. This exper­tise is embed­ded region­ally in cross-sectional activ­i­ties within the QSens consortium.

OUR TEAM

Univer­sity of Stuttgart

Prof. Dr. Jens Anders 

Direc­tor of the Insti­tute of Smart Sensors
Spokesman for QSens 

Fraun­hofer IPA

Dr. Med. Urs Schneider

Scien­tific Direc­tor for Biopro­duc­tio and Biomed­ical Engineering

Fraun­hofer IPA

Dr. LEonardo Gizzi

Head of Research for Applied Biome­chan­ics and Biosig­nals Sensing

Univer­sity of Stuttgart

Prof. Dr. Jörg Wrachtrup

Head of Department
(3rd Physic Institute)

Q.ANT GmbH

Dr. rer. nat. Michael Förtsch 

Chief Execu­tive Officer (CEO)

Ottobock

Dr.-Ing. Jose González

Head of Research Hub Germany

Hertie Insti­tute

Nadja Knoke

Bache­lor Student & Accident Patient

Univer­sity of Tübingen

Prof. Dr. Markus Siegel

Direc­tor, Dept. of Neural Dynam­ics & MEG
Hertie Insti­tute for Clini­cal Brain Research (HIH)