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18 The PCB Magazine • January 2016 the area of active prosthetics. The Wounded Warrior Project has some hope at the hands of Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab who have created a robotic hand that can be controlled via electrodes attached to the wearer. It has the dexterity to handle an extremely delicate object like an egg without damaging it and can lift up to 43lbs. With a learning curve, it can restore an impressive amount of functionality to the user (Figure 12). Cirexx, a PCB manufacturer in Santa Clara, California, has been supplying this project for several years. Phil Mengus, president of Cirexx, says, "Nearly every flexible circuit in the system is manufactured by Cirexx here in California." The objective of all this electronics integra- tion is to collect more data, reduce errors in diagnoses or treatment and improve the pa- tient comfort level. A smaller form factor, but perhaps more ubiquitous area of technology growth is that of wireless communications. A recent report by Research and Markets values the wireless medical electronics market at $23.8 billion and is expected to more than double to $59.7 billion by 2018. The iconic photo of the patient struggling in a hospital bed amidst a tangle of tubes, wires and sensors will increas- ingly become a thing of the past (Figure 13). On May 5, 2015, the Federal Communica- tions Commission released the latest compli- ance documents for the allocation of a section of the broadcast spectrum for Medical Body Area Networks (MBANs) in hospitals, clinics, and doctors' offices that would operate in the ROBOTS, WEARABLES AND IMPLANTED DEVICES IN THE AGE OF BIONIC HEALTH Figure 9: First medtronic pacemaker produced. Figure 11: cochlear hearing aid circuit. Figure 12: John hopkins robotic prosthetic hand. Figure 10: nanostim pacemaker. Feature