Slashdot Mirror
FDA Approves Swallowable Camera
Pru writes: "Over at MSNBC.. ( yah yah just ignore the first two letters) there is an interesting article about a camera that is swallowable. It transmits its pictures back wirelessly. And with price at only $450 a camera, disposable of course, it can't be too long before cameras this size are well down under $100 -- now then the fun does begin ..." Just imagine the potential for cam sites now. I imagine now in addition to the living room cam, bedroom cam, and bathroom cam, they'll have to have a colon cam.
I bet it's going to be shitty.
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I'll go away now.
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Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
I ate there three days ago... belive me, I am NOT the only one who is still experiencing it.
The FDA also has broad powers to regulate stuff that goes directly into the body. They are also the people who regulate medical equiptment, including stethescopes, siringes and bot plugs.
:).
In fact I read somewhere ( link please?) that they had rejected a dildo because it had a tendency to short out and cause burns
--= Isn't it surprising how badly I spell ?
www.campchaos.com
Look for the flash animation clip titled
"They shoved a camera right up my ass"
It's the latest in reality, survivor-type shows
Phoenix
-- Wiccan Army, 13th Airborne Division "We will not fly silently into the night"
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Tired of FB/Google censorship? Visit UNCENSORED!
I liked how I went to this article and the pop under add was from X10. It was for a Wireless Camera. heh.
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Living room cam
Bedroom cam
Bathroom cam
Colon cam
Nostril cam
CowboyNeal cam
pronoblem
Well, the webmaster of goatse.cx could probably find a use for such things...
I seem to recall that he wouldn't need it though. Just as a hasty estimate, I'm pretty sure that guy could fit a whole news crew up there, including the mobile transmission/editing truck.
ABSURDITY, n.: A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one's own opinion.
What kind of encryption does this thing use? I sure as heck don't want just any script kiddie hax0ring anything inside of me, especially somethign that takes pictures! What about range? I can't be walking around broadacsting my insides to everyone with a TV that can't lock onto channels...
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Poliglut
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Poliglut
Underscores are not valid characters in host/domain names (no matter what Microsoft tells you). :P
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Instead of the dreaded "Oh shit!" comment from the doc, comes relief from "Ahhh, shit!"
Too late. It appears as though CBS has already implemented this idea into one of their reality TV shows.
(Warning: Very adult content)
This is old news. Stile Project already has had a Colon Cam. We've nicknamed her the Goatse Girl.
(No, it's not goatse.cx, but it's worse.)
This is one of the really really rare occasions where linking to porn is somehow on topic. Scary.
I wonder if the name is already taken...
But seriously, I have to wonder how much you could see with the camera, being that it is not lighted inside your body. It better have some pretty decent lighting attached.
Take care,
Brian
100% Linux Web Hosting Services, 99+% Uptime Guaranteed!
Forget complaining about "damn, you blinked" or, "you didn't smile." Now you'll have complaints like, "dude, what did you eat!?" or "you are eating too much bran"
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-
ping -f 255.255.255.255 # if only
I REALLY dont think im gonna run that bad boy back on through.
All Troll + "offtopic" mods are meta moderated as "Unfair", because you abused the system.
Just please make sure you wash it before doing any disection.
load "linux",8,1
Of course, a True Geek would recover the camera even after being told that it is disposable. Gotta take that thing apart and look inside, after all!
Or how about both - imagine your doctors surprise when he finds a camera up your butt! Even better your butt-cam should be able to snap a great picture of your doc as it emerges from your ass.
Does this mean lots of really tiny pop-under ads?
Heheh, maybe it's you that thinks he's smart. I mean, turning javascript off is a good defense against hostile web-pages that throw up pop-under ads. And then you said some really stupid things. So... you're right.
Pop-under ads are not a good revenue stream when they serve to anger and alienate eyeballs.
If you weren't such a chump and hated people for being smarter than you, maybe you'd be smart too.
Take care, chump.
mefus
In Open Society, GPL Software frees YOU!
You've obviously never dealt with, or forgotten what it's like to deal with a 2 year old ... you could be in the same room, turn your back for just one second ... and BAMMM .. they're outta there ... and fast.
Obviously, you didn't go to the electric-shock-collar school of parenting. The only "BAMMMs" my kids get is when they cross the invisible fence inside the house.
The little suckers are so cute when they twitch.
HI Mom!
Linux - Because Mommy taught me to Share.
http://www.campchaos.com/cartoons/ass/ They shoved a camera up my ass.
Just what i needed, a TV studio in my colon.
Coming soon to a webcast near you. sponsored by X10 no doubt, complete with popups.
This means we'll have one more angle to choose from in those pr0n DVDs!!
"People that quote themselves in their signatures bother me" - athakur999
To hell with the FDA's link. I want a copy of her resume', and I know a few pr0n webmasters who would probably pay good bucks for the video: "Insatiable XXVII: They Ain't Made A Dildo She Can't Burn Out" ;-)
The only problem with this technology is that we'll no longer be able to look at the typical RIAA or MPAA lawyer and say "so stupid they couldn't find their ass with both hands and a flashlight."
Because at $450 a pop, even Hilary Rosen and Jack Valenti will finally be able to locate their asses. Albeit with the assistance of one hand, a glass of water, and an LED.
>
> How much trouble could they possibly have finding their asses, when their heads are crammed so far up there?
Good point. I guess they don't need the pill.
But granted that their heads are shoved up their asses, I hereby volunteer to feed 'em the pill anyways. ("Nurse, get my elbow-length rubber gloves. Yeah, the special ones we keep in the big pool of tabasco-habanero sauce for, uh, sterilization purposes!")
At long last, we'll know.
>How come the best thing you can think of for something like this is stupid little web cam sites?
because I've had a cartoon hanging over my desk for over a year about a swallowed webcam, and a domain 'dogstomach.com'...
//rdj
No one can understand the truth until he drinks of coffee's frothy goodness.
--Sheikh Abd-Al-Kadir, 1587
Actually, this is a good thing, Taco. Would you rather have a tiny, swallowable camera looking at your prostate, or a proctologist with a very large hand feeling around for it?
What flavors do they come in?
From the article: "The pill won't replace colonoscopies, the exams that check for colon cancer, because the battery doesn't last long enough to get to the large intestine."
Hey, I haven't seen any of those yet. Maybe it's because I surf with Javascript turned off. And with 99% of the sites, I won't lose anything. The remaining 1% are "corporate" sites such as notes.net that for some odd reason think that you need javascript to implement a plain hyperlink.
Say no to software patents.
AFAIK, even in Lotus Notes itself Javascript is optional (it is more useful for filling out Lotus documents over the Web, but less for static contents). And actually most of the hyperlinks on notes.net are ok, except the download links. Which proves that it's somehow possible to have plain hyperlinks, even in Domino.
Btw, Lotus is not the only site to gratuitously require javascript. There is also http://www.polytechniciens.com/, who for some reason thought it was smart to wrap all their contents of their main page into document.write() statements. Oddly enough, the page still can be viewed (without the Javascript) at http://www.polytechniciens.com/index.html.
And most boorish of all http://www.cordis.lu who just do it with a <NOSCRIPT> tag. This is a government sponsored site, which normally should know better than to wilfully restrict people's access in such a way. Blind people browsing with lynx and a braille line are effectively shut out of the site. While the government spends millions to retrofit their physical buildings with ramps to present easy access for the disabled, cordis's id10t webmaster thinks he's so leet shutting them out in this want-on manner...
Say no to software patents.
X10's New Wireless Camera!
Spy on your girlfriend's digestive tract!
Hmm...
You could probably re-use it if you REALLY wanted to. I don't know if the effort would be worth it though. How much would you have to pay someone to go through your poo?
-Sean- Sometimes you're the pidgeon, sometimes you're the statue.
Give it to Mikey... he'll eat anything! I guess it beats sifting to make sure that quarter you swallowed came out.
Hey... I resemble that remark. Or parts of it, anyway. I'll let you figure out which parts.
Where the wind blows, the tumbleweed goes.
http://www.see_what_my_stupid_mutt_ate_today.info
Stefan
These sure hit the market rather fast... ;)
Second, swallow camera.
Third, spin yourself around twenty times real fast.
Fourth, projectile vomit.
Fifth, pass out.
Finally, enjoy the taped recording of your physiological feat! Brush your teeth while your at it.
Tie a string? Just catch it on the flip-side...
Hmmm...I wonder if they're gonna do any cross-promotional stuff?
i tried that with a penny once. i believe i was 3. my digestive track did a nice job of cleaning it.
A camera is all good and well, but wouldn't there be a problem with lighting?
I imagine now in addition to the living room cam, bedroom cam, and bathroom cam, they'll have to have a colon cam. Not really, no. The battery life on the camera does not last long enough to allow the pill to reach the colon. On the typical human it takes about 48 hours or so for cycle of food digestion to complete itself. The battery life on the pill camera is much shorter than that, I believe only a couple of hours. This is an interesting story in more ways than one, especially the tech behind the pill. That's a video camera, transmitter, and battery all inside of a pill! I can't even begin to count the possibilities and benefits that can arise from that kind of technology. Maybe toss a miniature motor into it and turn it into a sort of remote-control submarine that doctors could use to examine a baby while it's still in the womb. Or perhaps if you combine the technology used to charge up the battery on the new artifical heart with the technology of the pill and perhaps we'll see a pill make it all the way through the system, broadcasting as it goes. The question then becomes, is that something we really want to se?!
Both, it is covered in chocolate.
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I find that a bit hard to swallow.
(rimshot)
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The real question is will the camera be open source for all the GNU/Linux developers out there to be able to modify it's functionality. I mean if you buy a camera like that and use it in an intended manner that's one thing, but what if you want to stick this camera into your ear and use it? What would be the metaphysical and psychological ramifications of being able to view your own ear drum and various membrains?
On the other hand this kind of device could successfuly be used by spies of some sort. The camera can be swallowed and then expelled from the body when normal course of actions takes place... Then it can be reinserted into the spies nose and used as a nose camera to take various secret documents. The implications are countless!!!
You can't handle the truth.
This article (cleaned up from link of previous poster) talks about how white LEDs helped make this possible... I was wondering how they planned to illuminate that without fiberoptics. I wonder how much tumble there is to the thing, if they might miss something interesting because the camera faced the wrong way as it passed through the system.
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SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
I can't wait until Jenny upgrades her site with this new feature!
"He was a wise man who invented beer." -- Plato
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We have fought the AC's, and they have won.
--That's right folks, you grew up watching Urto Suki Doji now you can live it!
--We can't promise you multiple prehensile penises but we can, for a limited time, off you:
VULVA CAM! (..cam....cam...)
--That's right VULVA CAM! You can see it all! Just like multiheaded penises' of The Wandering Kid!
--Act now and get....
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This
So that's how they filmed Osmosis Jones...
Some of it is recoupment of development cost, but I'll bet a lot is various forms of malpractice and liability insurance premiums.
Whatever floats your boat, but my girlfriend's colon is not the part I'm interested in.
--The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese
"Hold on a sec. Nuts, the computer locked up again. I am going to have to reboot. Here's another pill. Oh, and that'll be another $450."
Gee, thanks Doc.
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
"Unnecessary zoom!!! Unnecessary zoom!!!"
Carousel is a lie!
How, exactly, is this camera going to take pictures without a light? I mean, I see the diagram, I read the article...what gives? Someone, as usual, clue me in.
sending someone a gift from this website: http://www.doggypoo.com/ with a disposable camera to watch their reaction.
--
When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a skull.
All they need to do is add a joy stick. Imagine the fun you could have when your system admin pisses you off. Slip a couple of these into his morning brew.. unreal suddenly seems boring
And for a wireless cam too. Oh the irony.
Hopefully it's encrypted pretty good or that would be a big invasion of privacy.
Just think of the engineers at work: "Wow, look at what I picked up on the TV guys. Hey Steve, what did your doctor say about that cancerous looking growth in your colon."
It came out in Nature well over a year ago.
*chuckle*...
Ich werde nie wieder denken
The doctor gets a kickback from the plumber for pipe checking services AFTER bodily use.
Ok... you try swallowing a Logitech QuickCam, wireless Ethernet card, and battery, and then tell me why the thing shouldn't be proprietary.
Also, another $450 on some medical procedures really isn't that much. You could say in the medical world, $450 isn't worth shit. But then again, thats where you'll eventually find this camera, so.....
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms should be the name of a store, not a government agency.
I have Unix underpants.
actually doesnt this make goatse.cx kinda redundant?
There's only so many camera angles you can have during your average skin flick. This thing would be able to show a little more than the average filmmaker could shoot with a handheld.
Imaging the freeze frame,rotated Matrix-like sequences!
No, it passes through. But you have to realise that the equipment to support it costs $20,000 USD. (I heard it on NPR this a.m.)
What I found funny, however, is that when I clicked on the article to verify that it carried this information as well, an X10 Camera Ad popped up.
-Mynn the Museless
Face it, people are stupid, and the internet is the place where they all meet.
Dildo-cams are real and in use... however they are ultrasound. And uncomfortable. I can't see one being converted to pr0n use.
-Mynn the Museless
Face it, people are stupid, and the internet is the place where they all meet.
Damn, $450 bucks? Better tie a string to that thing to re-use it.
I'm thinking a string won't be necessary...
"And like that
Or, as my wife called it recently when she needed a colonoscopy, a cornholio-cam.
For the rest of you old farts, kinda puts a new perspective on the old Reader's Digest "I am Joe's frobozz" series in new light. Especially when you recall the picture of the eyeball staring out of somebody's chocolate starfish.
Wait till the porn industry gets one. They can use a rubber to hold it on, cut a small hole in the tip so the cam can see out. Guess then it would be a c***-cam.
Hmmm, speaking of farting, just think of, ahhh, never mind.
There aren't enough downward mod points in all of /. to adequately deal with the sheer volume of toilet humor that is about to ensue on this topic.
"Because I love Pat Benatar." -- Britney Spears, when asked why she covered Joan Jett's "I Love Rock 'n' Roll"
Now we need you to swallow this miniscule stage, sound system and light show. The band will be here just a little bit...
- - - If the sun is a star, why can't I see it at night?
Here are the pictures from the pictures from Given Imaging web site.
there's big, hard cash to be made out there in medical informatics. there are only a few Trusted Suppliers of Software, and they get to charge mucho cash.
you see, the tolerance of downtime is very, very low. when a computer crashes in a hospital, people die.
the twenty grand isn't for the hardware, it's for the software. it has to be basically secure from anything but a nuclear attack.
and we all know how difficult it is to guarantee perfect software reliance, right? ;)
well, now you know what the price is.
my old sig used to be funny, but then slashcode ate it and now it's not funny anymore
Finally, now can we put goatse to rest? It has reached the ultimate goal of being on topic (albeit once)...
Never argue with an idiot, he'll just lower you to his level and beat you with experience.
Maybe "prune-flavored"?
A truly excellent pizza parlor is a delight unto the heavens. Treasure the sauce and the toppings!
Instead of "The Jeff Corwin Experience" we might see "Jeff Cowin's Experience"
Burn Hollywood Burn
So how do they possibly justify asking $20000 just to look at the low-resolution images coming out of this ovoid?
= 1
From their FAQ:
" 10Q. What function does the RAPID(TM) software perform?
10A. After the patient returns the Given® Data Recorder to the physician and the data has been downloaded from the recorder to the RAPID(TM) Workstation, Given's proprietary RAPID(TM) software performs advanced image and data processing on the video and data. It transforms them into a video that may be viewed and reviewed by the physician offline at a rate faster or slower than real-time."
You've got to forgive me for being skeptical. Image sequencing and processing? Here's a link to a screenshot of their software: http://www.givenimaging.com/usa/product.asp?x=4&y
Yup, that's either Win2k or WinME. On x86 hardware. Perhaps there's specialized hardware for downloading the data, but it can't be that complicated. And the total cost of the hardware can't be more than $1000, not to mention that most doctor's offices don't need another Wintel box.
The only reason I can imagine for forcing you to buy an entire Windows workstation just to look at pictures with a pretty front-end is so that they can recoup some of the development costs involved in making the pill and the costs of running clinical trials.
$20000 still seems pretty extravagent.
Although the article clearly states:Don't worry - the camera is, well, disposable. It is excreted eight to 72 hours after being swallowed. Before then, it has beamed its pictures to an external receiver the patient wears on a waistband. I'm sure some enterprising young snot nosed HMO executive will decide that at his company thay'll recycle the cameras, requiring patients to scavenge through their feces to collect the camera, under penalty of non-couverage of the procedure. I wouldn't put it past them.
--CTH
--Got Lists? | Top 95 Star Wars Line
reverse-angle.goatse.youknowtherest
BOSTON SUCKS!
Should be a hot seller, maybe have blueberry and cherry flavors.
Also, wonder if you can get one that takes like snot and other Harry Potter flavors?
"Mom, Shawna swallowed my camera again! Make her throw it up!"
"Eew! You spoiled it! I'm not touching that!"
--- Will in Seattle - What are you doing to fight the War?
Damn, $450 bucks? Better tie a string to that thing to re-use it.
Disposable...
but what does Disposable mean except "You can throw it away"?
I can see this as the new buzz-word for selling multiple units of anything...
"Anybody remotely interesting is mad, in some way or another" - Doctor Who
Now we can get the view from the Goatse guy's perspective: A programmer vomiting on the keyboard
Can't you just imagine it? The opportunity to work for yourself! Create your own hours! Never work for a boss again.
All you have to do is sift through the sludge coming out of the local sewage reclamation facility, fish out these lil' cameras, wipe 'em off, put new batteries in them, and sell them back to the doctors! Who'd balk at such an opportunity?
Kill Smart Tags:
political_news.c: warning: comparison is always true due to limited range of data type
Think Octane (SGI), or SunBlade1000 (Sun), or numerous other machines. And that doesn't count the needed wireless gear. And medical stuff is always really expensive.
I'm a loser baby, so why don't you kill me.
Hmmmm... getting an idea for a reality based TV show... cam races through the small intesting or something... actually getting to watch people digest the bugs after they eat them...
At least it should make those surgery programs on TV even more interesting.
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Developers: We can use your help.
Yeah. The problem is, though, that Flinstones vitamins are chewable.
I guess that HMOs will have to have a special clause that says they won't pay for deep throating Dr Ken's camera tool or him shoving it up your ass for $2000/pop.
Maskirovka
Let the kids enjoy their poo poo jokes. This is nerd stand-up at its best... KEVIN BACON SAYS: "Let the kids dance!!! Why won't you please, please, PUHLEEEASE let the kids dance!!!"
http://www.givenimaging.com/usa/given_news_detail. asp?id=6
It Is the Nature of Information to Transgress Artificial Boundaries
you know it will happen!
Maybe you could get rid of the battery altogether if you had the patient wear a transformer primary as a belt that would transmit energy to a secondary in the pill.
Getting rid of the battery and its toxic ingredients would also reduce the potential consequences of the pill getting stuck.
--
Caveat Emptor is not a business model.
Swallow one of those cameras and then go to White Castel for lunch. Imagine getting to see what all White Castle patrons have experenced
* Carthago Delenda Est *
I've got your picture, I've got your picture
I'd like a million of them all round my cell
I want the doctor to take your picture
So I can look at you from inside as well
You've got me turning up and turning down and turning in and turning 'round
I'm turning Japanese
I think I'm turning Japanese
I really think so...
Give it to Mikey... he'll eat anything! I guess it beats sifting to make sure that quarter you swallowed came out.
I want a doctor
to take your picture
so I can look at you from inside as well
You've got me turning up
and turning down
and turning in
and turning 'round
I'm turning Japanese
I think I'm turning Japanese
I really think so
- The Vapors - Turning Japanese
has anyone written a "crack" for this?
surely this indicates that a governmental department (the FDA) have accepted the use of back orifice technology?
*oP
You cannot see what i see because you see what you see.
You cannot see what i see because you see what you see.
You cannot know what i know because you know what you know.
jennycam.com
now see Jenny like you have never seen her before!
Anyway, it is dark down there!
Been thinking about swallowing my X10 camera for awhile now.
My statement of protest against their pop-ups.
"I drank what?" - Socrates
What's so funny about this? This looks like a serious leap forward in the medical field, especially for gastroenterolgists (sp?) and the like. How come the best thing you can think of for something like this is stupid little web cam sites?
--
Is your company running tools written by ma
"I imagine now in addition to the living room cam, bedroom cam, and bathroom cam, they'll have to have a colon cam."
Well, the webmaster of goatse.cx could probably find a use for such things...
*** Where are we going? And what's with this handbasket?
What a crappy idea...
/. to get to the bottom of this.
Trust
Hardly newsworthy, but you knew that it would come out in the end.
*** Where are we going? And what's with this handbasket?
D - M - C - A
If god had intended you to be naked, you would have been born that way.
"Oh, I'm not feeling too well. Let's see what inside" *swallows camera* "Ok, now I see you, big evil piece of meat!! Where's the photon torpedo launch button on this thing ??!!"
Linux *is* user friendly. It's not idiot-friendly or fool-friendly!
... oh what a disgusting image that is...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ now you know
How soon until we get the pop-under ads with attractive models offering to sell me a swallow-cam? See Your Lunch -- Again!
Toronto-area transit rider? Rate your ride.
...X10 ads will one day pop out of your ass?
I am Providence.
The article doesn't that they get real-time pictures, but assuming that they do, they should give it a polarity so that they can manipulate which direction the camera's looking using magnets.
Kind thoughts do not change the world
Porn.
Ok so its not two words...
The next really sick fetish...
Stick it to The Man!
My Karma was at 49, then they switched to words. All that work for nothing!
Which raises another interesting concept with this camera. Imagine how helpful it would be in dealing with children. I mean, anyone who's had to take their kids for shots can imagine the torture it must be to 'scope' a young child.
As long as they could dress-up the camera like a Flintstone Vitamin, then a swallowable camera is going to be a BIG step towards making EVERYONE more comfortable for an otherwise unpleasant process.
healyourchurchwebsite.com - WWJB?
Here we've spent the past year or so training her so she doesn't put things like rocks, button, the lens cap to my camera, a quarter that fell out of my pocket, a bug crawling along the ground out of fear she might swallow them (that and chewmarks on my lens cap really causes some problems).
Then again, it might be a valuable tool for trying to figure out if my car keys are in her cute little belly. Even more useful if they added a GPS so I could keep track of the little stinker when she decides she's had enough of the back yard.
healyourchurchwebsite.com - WWJB?
Okay, looking at the picture on the site, it's obvious that it only has a lense at one end. How do they make sure it's not going down backwards?
If they were looking for an obstruction, it could make a difference.
--T
http://www.theMediaBunker.com
Just registered www.lower-intestine-xxx.com!
At $450 per camera, how long before we see used ones on eBay?
It's just a camera, not a computer. They could put seti@home on the workstation, but...why?
USA Intellectual Property Laws: 5 monkeys, 1 hour.
I'm the stranger...posting to
from what ive heard. please keep your colon to yourself.
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"i was saying gnu-rd"
cant wait.
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"i was saying gnu-rd"
I wonder if it will be banned to use such things on aircrafts. After all, the use of electronic devices is restricted, especially the use of devices that transmit data. But I guess it might be hard to turn off these things...
BTW, this is already a problem with Bluetooth. Some mobile devices can't turn off the bluetooth sender, making it illegal to use them on aircrafts (normally it's ok to use them except during takeoff and landing).
Sig (appended to the end of comments I post, 54 chars)
It's a medical imaging device, and therefore part of the FDA's realm (like a drug, though I guess you could call it like food, if you'd like).
Well, it can safely pass through the digestive tract of healthy people - people who will never need to pass one through their digestive tracts. So for all they know it'll kill the people who actually end up using it, 'cause they're not healthy people. Smart. Ain't logic a wonderful thing.- --------
-----------------------------------------
See Pamela Anderson's G.I. exam-cam as it plops into the toilet and reveals ALL!
m00.
m00.
So which is this, a food or a drug?
-Shy
I'm sure that the camera pills are only approved as being disposable, and so reuse wouldn't be allowed. But in either case, endoscopic procedures are pretty darn expensive, and I'd be surprised if this camera pill, even at $450, is more expensive than an endoscopic procedure. However, the article mentioned that these cameras could not be used alone, but in conjunction with the standard endoscope.
So does this thing have a tiny flashlight attached, or just a normal camera flash?
Say cheese...
A Multiplayer Strategy Game for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux
yeah, that sounds pretty lame. Sounds like they're using some sort of proprietary wireless communication protocol, but i haven't researched the actual product.
Rigging one of these things up with one of the readily availible wireless communication protocols (i forget the names of the ones that are "in style" right now) and sending the information to an inexpensive linux box..i mean..how expensive does a computer have to be to connect to a wireless camera?
I bet anyone with the resources to do so could impliment an identical product that would send the images to..well..anything. Pick your platform. Wanna run it on an apple laptop? those things have wireless networking on them, right? so do those new Dell laptops, right? A linux workstation or windows box with wireless networking capability? Does this magical 20-grand computer support some kind of new magical wireless communication that exceeds the capabilities of existing PC wireless networking? Somehow i seriously doubt it.
Of course, its kinda a moot point..i mean..what kind of demeted end user would just pick one up for "shits and giggles" (no pun intended)? It's just obvious that someone's milking a few extra grand (like 18 extra grand at least) per-unit from the health industry.
The hardware implimentation is independant of the protocol by way of which the information is transmitted.
Of course, the question of whether or not the method of transmission should be proprietary depends on your point of view. If you're the developer, and you want to force people to purchase your reception solution as a way of either driving down the price of the disposable unit, or just scamming more money out of a bloated industry, then yeah, making it proprietary is a pretty sharp business move. If you're one of the intended users, and you want to find a cost-efficient way of implimenting the technology, it shouldnt be too hard to do.
"Doctors who wish to use the video pill will have to buy a $20,000 computer workstation; each capsule is $450."
;) They should put Seti@Home on it.
What type of computer would they need for it that costs $20 grand? Sounds like the company is using that to feed it's profits even more.
And what is the computer going to do while it sits there in between uses of the pill? Brain the size of a planet and you have me opening doors...
Thank goodness that the FDA approved this. My Sony DV camera was giving me a sour stomach.
------
www.moneybythenumbers.com
"it can't be too long before cameras this size are well down under $100 -- now then the fun does begin ..."
Oh yah, real fun.. I can see it now, the Logitech colon cam and movie maker software.. Hope they don't have any emergency recalls..
scubasteve http://www25.brinkster.com/irx/scubasteve
you buy one of these and implant it in the back of your head? That way you can finally see Them following you everywhere you go. See if They like a dose of Their own medicine!!!
We dance to all the wrong songs.
--Refused.
Geez FDA! What's next? The swallowable penis?
Instead of going through 2 grueling hours of having a tube shoved down your throat to look at your stomach, you can now just swallow a pill to see whats wrong. Whats so bad about that?