New Scientist has a new article online exploring some academic efforts to leverage motion-sensing technologies to assist in restoring balance in individuals who’ve lost their own ability to do so due to disease or injury to their inner ears.

Charles Della-Santina, an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine is developing three-axis gyroscopic devices which have already been successfully tested on chinchillas. The end game will be accelerometer-based, and will need some advances in batteries and packaging to be truly implantable, but the concept has already been proven, at least in animals.

A bit far from our usual TV, gaming, CE fare, but very interesting (and no doubt a potential godsend for those suffering from balance problems).

Read the article here.