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The Diagnostic 'Bugbot'
Roland Piquepaille writes "The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that a robot combined with a swallowable camera could give doctors a better look inside the small intestine. This medical robot, dubbed 'bugbot,' is being developed at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in its NanoRobotics Laboratory. It will measure less than 800 nanometers in diameter and will transmit thousands of images during its trip inside yourself with its embedded camera. With the six legs attached to the microrobot, CMU researchers want to give more control to camera operators, such as coming back to a suspected lesion. This robot should be ready for human inspection within 2 to 3 years and opens the way for future nanorobots. This overview contains more details about this project."
800nm diameter? That doesn't make any sense! 800nm is close to visible light wavelengths. Could be tricky to design a camera when the wavelengths you want to record are the same size as the camera.
Hmm, and a quick scan the linked articles don't really mention 800nm.... Was someone just pulling that number out of their ass, roland?
And please stop linking to your summaries of the artice, which simply cut'n'paste the first linked article with a few bits of filler.
You are in a twisty maze of processor lines, all alike.
There is a lot of hype here.
Swallowable cameras already exist; the 800nm diameter robot is still on the drawing board; it would have to be that small to be injected, not swallowed, and might be used for drug deliver or other tasks.