| 摘要 |
A system and method for monitoring a constituent or a condition in a medium. Living muscle cells (10, 30) are immersed in the medium. The muscle cells are sensitive to the constituent or condition and respond to exposure thereto by physical movement. An optical measuring device (12, 31, 50) measures the physical movement of the muscle cells and correlates this to a level of or a change in the level of the constituent or condition in the medium. The medium may be human tissue, with the muscle cells subcutaneously implanted therein. A reflector (16) may be mounted to the cells to reflect a light beam, the reflection angle varying with the movement of the cells. Alternatively, a photodetector (34, 74) may detect the amount of transmitted light. Electrodes (93) may be used for stimulating the movement of the muscle cells, which may be enclosed within a partly transparent capsule (40, 70). |
