Robotic Capsule To Crawl Through Intestines

gonzo_bozo writes "New Scientist has a story about a capsule that can be swallowed and will crawl through your intestines with tiny legs made of shape memory alloy."

Comments

For those places...

[Black Parrot]

...your gerbil just can't reach.

This never gets old..

[WhatAmIDoingHere]

I, for one, welcome our intestine crawling overlords.

Alien invasion.

[Anonymous Coward]

"New Scientist has a story about a capsule that can be swallowed and will crawl through your intestines with tiny legs made of shape memory alloy."

Will this inconviently burst through your chest?

Reminds me of...:

[drakyri]

The Magic School Bus!


It had to be said....

How useful could something like this be

[KarmaOverDogma]

for supplanting or replacing a full intestinal exam to deal with things like Crohn's disease, spotting colon cancer early, and other ailments where early detection and/or prevention could save lives?.

A lot, I hope

.

On a serious note

[tod_miller]

They use the memory of the material to manipulate the legs back in locomotion. Originally the cameras used the bodies own peristalsis to move down.

Why not mimic this in the campsule, and have 4 coated tracks that create a surface 'catapillar' type wave and propells it along.

4 of them means you can turn it and keep it guided.

This might be safer and not have any sharp edges.

*prays to god of ascii art that this works*

__n__n__n
(_________\

_n__n__n_
(_________\

n__n__n__
(_________\

Where n is the rib on the track that deforms the rubber seals.

These guys must find it hard to pick up chicks - so what do you do? I design things that burrow into your intestines [or more /. - burrow up your ass].

mmmm maybe that approach would work on some women!