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A Panoramic View of Your Insides

Posted by kdawson on from the fantastic-voyage dept.

deepcleanfun writes "Researchers from New Mexico and Taiwan have invented a tiny probe — about the size of a rice grain — equipped with an ultrasound scanner that can travel through veins and arteries, taking ultrasound images of its surroundings. Unlike previous probes that travel through the body, which provide a view from only one direction at a time, the new device has seven imagers integrated onto the hexagonal prism that can see nearly everywhere at once."

9 of 74 comments (clear)

  1. Still untested though by Fred_A · · Score: 4, Informative

    Apparently they haven't even gotten around to testing it on animals yet. But they say it works great in a glass of water. The news might be a bit premature.
    No nice pics either.

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    1. Re:Still untested though by ShiningSomething · · Score: 5, Interesting
      They don't take pictures: it's an ultrasound. So it's not limited to looking around it, it can see beyond the blood vessels, in places that are hard to ultrasound from outside the body. From TFA:

      Ultrasound scanners are normally used to peer into the body from the outside, in order to examine unborn babies or look for tumours, for example. Enabling these devices to penetrate deep inside the body, and to provide accurate images at this depth, is difficult because longer wavelengths are required, which dramatically reduce resolution.
      So you get the ultrasound machine inside the body, right next to what you want to study. Since sonograms usually look at flows (you see heartbeats, bloddflows, etc), having input from different directions at the same time is much better than having a sequence of sonograms. So that's why it's an improvement.
  2. Origami style manufacturing. by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 3, Informative

    Origami is the art of making figures by folding paper. They seem to have fabricated the sonar emitters in a flat piece and folded it into a hexagon. That seems to be the key to get multiple views.

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  3. Without pics by jav1231 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Without pics you weren't IN my insides!

  4. How does this not kill you? by RandoX · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Isn't having solid stuff in your bloodstream bad?

    1. Re:How does this not kill you? by Otter · · Score: 4, Informative

      It's on a catheter, not floating around.

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  5. Martin Short... by butterwise · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...has generously offered to pilot the device.

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  6. different strokes by gEvil+(beta) · · Score: 3, Funny

    Some people make tiny rice-sized probes to look at someone's insides while others simply go the Goatse route...

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  7. Yes, it goes in the blood stream by MrMunkey · · Score: 5, Informative

    People... the only thing that is different about this than other instruments already in use today is that it can view in more than one direction simultaneously. How do you think an angiogram is performed? They stick the think in through the artery in your leg, and fish it up to the spot where the blockage is. Sure, it sounds scary, but it's done every day. I think this is a great improvement to help doctors.