Smart Pill Reports on Body from the Inside 55
An anonymous reader writes "In the 1966 movie "Fantastic Voyage," scientists enter the submarine Proteus, which is miniaturized so they can go inside the body of Jan Benes and save him. While such feats may be a ways off, a new smart pill "enters and exits the body through preexisting orifices" and reports on what it finds along the way, including temperature and pH. Sounds a bit creepy, but apparently it can lickety-split diagnose a disease that otherwise requires lots of uncomfortable probing."
Look out (Score:5, Funny)
And we were worried about the government wire-tapping our phones?
Re:Look out (Score:1)
Re:Look out (Score:2)
Re:Look out (Score:2)
Some artist did this (Score:1)
Re:Some artist did this (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Some artist did this (Score:3, Informative)
Here's hoping... (Score:5, Funny)
Here's hoping this means you swallow it and it exits through the other end and NOT that it enters said other end and claws its way up to exit from your mouth.
Pre-Existing Orificies! (Score:3, Funny)
I'm just glad it exits thru Pre-existing Orifices
Re:Pre-Existing Orificies! (Score:1)
Re:Pre-Existing Orificies! (Score:1)
Re:Pre-Existing Orificies! (Score:1)
In other news.. (Score:1)
Market experts baffled.
yeah (Score:2)
Re:yeah (Score:2)
Prexisting orifices? (Score:5, Funny)
Preexisting orifices? I guess we should be thankful they don't enter and exit through non-preexisting orifices - I can just imagine a doctor saying "There's this great new SmartPill but I'm gonna have to tear you a new asshole to use it."
-Peter
Re:Prexisting orifices? (Score:1)
Which is precisely what his bill WILL do!
Re:Prexisting orifices? (Score:1)
Re:Prexisting orifices? (Score:2)
Fast food joints love the smart pill! (Score:2)
But, which ones? (Score:2)
Re:But, which ones? (Score:1)
I am completely blown away by this (Score:2, Funny)
Re:I am completely blown away by this (Score:1)
Remember kids:
In Soviet Russia, smart pill computes your orifices!
(sorry- had to cover the usual to get it out of the way)
Re:I am completely blown away by this (Score:3, Funny)
Re:I am completely blown away by this (Score:2)
In a way, I'm glad they didn't do this in the early 80's. Commodore 64 computers cost $500 back then, and would have been a bear to swallow. Especially if they needed the disk drive also to record the images to.
Long way off? (Score:2)
Professor: "Oh my no, that would require extremely tiny atoms, have your priced those lately? I'm not made of money, leave me alone!"
Pill-based communication? (Score:2)
Re:Pill-based communication? (Score:1)
Oblig Futurama (Score:3, Funny)
(P.S. Some of us enjoyed the old style 'uncomfortable' probing)
Re:Oblig Futurama (Score:1)
This is ripe for sniffing. (Score:4, Funny)
Receivers in promiscuous mode. Sniff away.
Conincidentally there's a whole new... (Score:3)
Sounds useful for us trypanophobic hypochondriacs (Score:2)
I'm going to be having a gastroscopy soon-ish, and the procedure appears to involve an IV. (It's probably just acid reflux. Probably. Hopefully.)
(Yep, TFA gave me the creeps.)
26-by-13-millimeter device?? (Score:1)
Good Lord! That's around 1" by 0.5"! This thing is huge! What kind of multivitamin capsules do these people take?
I don't know how thick an endoscope is (1 cm in diameter doesn't seem too bad), but I have never seen a capsule close to that size. Having a thick endoscope pushed down my throat by another person doesn't seem as hard as having to convince myself to swallow a 1" capsule.
On second thought, I believe drug mules
Re:26-by-13-millimeter device?? (Score:1)
Re:26-by-13-millimeter device?? (Score:2)
Here's a hint: your mouth is not your only orifice.
Good god, have you never seen Futurama?
Re:26-by-13-millimeter device?? (Score:1)
Or are you saying one would use the fing-longer (sp?) to aid its movement through the digestive tract? :-)
Re:26-by-13-millimeter device?? (Score:2)
Smart Pill Reports on Body from the Inside (Score:2)
Okay, that's the best I've got.
Pill Camera (Score:5, Informative)
Happily, I wasn't required to view the resulting pix, and the camera ended up in the local sewer system.
Painless, and you can do what you want while waiting for the six hours or so pass.
Here [sciencedaily.com] is some info about the procedure.
Re:Pill Camera (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Pill Camera (Score:2)
Exactly.... If I had to pay $500 for that camera, I'm keeping it. I'm sure the hardware has been hacked already. Anybody who ever changed a baby's diaper after they ate a lot of fruit isn't afraid to retrieve this camera.
Re:Pill Camera (Score:2)
A ways off? (Score:4, Insightful)
Uses of such a pill (Score:1)
I am not trying to belittle the invention and am sort of happy that such a thing was made (in fact I knew about it at least 5 years ago).
However, as far as its applications for diagnostic or therapeutic purpose are concerned, they are very little. Most of the things in lumens in our body can be observed using putting an endoscopic tube (like a colonoscope or a flexible bronchoscope).
The advantages of an endoscope are
1) we can simultaneously remove a portion of the tissue for biopsy.
2) We can manipulate the
Re:Uses of such a pill (Score:2)
Re:Uses of such a pill (Score:2)
I wonder if anyone has bothered to patent barium Jello.
Thank God. (Score:2, Informative)
A $500 _disposable_?! (Score:2)
What the heck? I understand, that its true, mass-produced cost is far lower, but you could still feed a few draught-stricken African villages for months with the money.
Why is it not reusable, or, at least, recyclable — change the wrapper, keep the electronics?
If the consumers of the medical care were the ones paying for it, I bet, the number of people suddenly capable of overcoming their revulsions would've risen significantly...