The Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering (St. Ingbert, Germany) has developed a control system for a camera pill. About the size of a vitamin pill, the "Camera Pill" is a non-invasive diagnostic alternative to traditional endoscopy, the most common procedure used to examine the esophagus -- first produced by Given Imaging Limited -- called "PillCam", and approved by the US Federal Drug Administration in 2001. The pill can be taken with water, and in about 3 minutes reaches the esophagus, where it can take digital images (approx: 14 per second -- in total about 2,600 images), transmitted to a device around the patient's waist worn in a belt. The image count is however restricted due to the size of the device -- causing it to move through the stomach (for instance) at a fast speed (due to it's weight). The control system from Fraunhofer and partners allows a doctor to steer the disposable camera inside the body using a magnet. An interesting new approach to utilize sensors inside a human body for diagnostic purposes. Reminds me of the 1960s movie Fantastic Voyage, where a submarine is reduced to microscopic size, injected into the bloodstream and able to travel through the body to provide medical treatment. Although the PillCam is not small enough to travel through a blood vessel, it seems that emerging interest in nanobots could eventually lead to the creation of such machines -- and according to the Jersulaem Post, they are already here.
image from http://www.biotech-weblog.com/
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