The senses of human hearing and sight are often taken for granted by many individuals until they are lost or adversely affected. Millions of individuals suffer from partial or total hearing loss and millions of others have impaired vision. The technologies associated with augmenting these two human senses range from simple hearing aids to complex cochlear implants, and from (now commonplace) intraocular lenses to complex artificial corneas. The areas of human hearing and human sight will be described in detail with the associated array of technologies also described.

The replacement or augmentation of failing human organs with artificial devices and systems has been an important element in health care for several decades. Such devices as kidney dialysis to augment failing kidneys, artificial heart valves to replace failing human valves, cardiac pacemakers to reestablish normal cardiac rhythm, and heart assist devices to augment a weakened human heart have assisted millions of patients in the previous 50 years and offers lifesaving technology for tens of thousands of patients each year. Significant advances in these biomedical technologies have continually...

Transport processes represent important life-sustaining elements in all humans. These include mass transfer processes, including gas exchange in the lungs, transport across capillaries and alveoli, transport across the kidneys, and transport across cell membranes. These mass transfer processes affect how oxygen and carbon dioxide are exchanged in your bloodstream, how metabolic waste products are removed from your blood, how nutrients are transported to tissues, and how all cells function throughout the body. A discussion of kidney dialysis and gas exchange mechanisms is included. Another...