Slashdot Mirror
Ingestible Medical Robots Could Remove Batteries From Stomachs (washingtonpost.com)
"A child swallows a battery every 3 hours," reports a new article in the Washington Post. But now, gurps_npc writes: MIT has developed a small ingestible robot to remove watch batteries that kids swallow. It starts out folded up tight and surrounded by an ice sheath. You swallow it, the ice melts, and it unfolds. Then a doctor uses magnets to direct it to the battery, it wraps itself around the battery, preventing it from leaking acid until you pass it — perhaps a bit faster with the doctor using the magnets to guide it down through your system.
Interestingly, the MIT researchers built their proof-of-concept robot using a durable pork casing -- "the same stuff you might find surrounding a hot dog or kielbasa."
Interestingly, the MIT researchers built their proof-of-concept robot using a durable pork casing -- "the same stuff you might find surrounding a hot dog or kielbasa."
You know how this ends. The little robot swallows the battery but gets a bit lost. Then another robot-seeking-swallowing-robot is prescribed. Then...
On y va, qui mal y pense!
Problem solved.
This kid's parents seriously need to get a nanny.
"the MIT researchers built their proof-of-concept robot using a durable pork casing" That was smart of them to make it out of an inedible material.
You'd think that they could build kids with more efficient processors to extend their battery life.
Have gnu, will travel.
The video shows the robot entering the stomach and grabbing the battery.... Well, THEN WHAT? There are two ways to leave, up or down.
Steering little pouches around with external magnets while irradiating some poor kid with X-rays (so you can steer the 'robot') sounds time consuming. How does this compare (both in time and cost) with using a GI endoscope? Or just shoving a funnel and some syrup of ipecac down the kid's throat and having him vomit the battery back up?
This sounds like an interesting but very special purpose procedure and equipment. Better care might be had using commonly available tools.
Have gnu, will travel.
I'll bet that the same kid that had no problems eating the battery unprompted in the first place, will throw a tantrum when they try to make him swallow that robot-filled ice pill.
Rome taught me patience and assiduous application to detail. Virtues which temper the boldness of great, general views.
...will develop an ingestible robot to remove the ingestible robot that MIT developed to remove batteries that kid swallow.
...I'd say we're long past the point where we need to start STOP saving the babies that eat batteries. Maybe even make them MORE toxic?
With 7 billion people, we can start losing the stupidest.
-Styopa
WTF is "US libertarianism?" The US is a borderline totalitarian police and regulatory state.
How the fuck can you retain liberty and simultaneously put a gun to someone's head if they happen to do something productive, in order to take a cut?
Capitalism is just private ownership of the means of production. It only defines the character of the system of laws and their enforcement, and the form and means of funding social institutions, to the extent that any involuntary expropriation of wealth or compulsory duties are anti-capitalist, anti-individual, and anti-liberty.
For ex., it is entirely possible to have a capitalism that is heavily biased toward favoring the rights of individuals over larger aggregations of individuals, such as corporations. To the extent that corporations have limited liability, under capitalism they may have special obligations to "society" (regulation, liquidation of assets when guilty of a crime, etc.) without contradicting the principle of liberty for the individual--because they are not fucking people!
In short, almost everything that upsets people is directly related to the extent that this fucked up place has strayed *away* from capitalism and individual liberty. Yet they consistently beg for the "solution" to be the complete and total abandonment of individual liberty--in the form of socialism.
Somebody should talk to that child's parents.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
The one that eat through batteries are probably defective and we should allow the Darwin subroutine to shut them down before they multiply
Your'e all thinking it, I just said it for you
Can we please stop calling everything "robots"? For something to be a robot it has to be capable of some completely autonomous action. If the only action it can do by itself is "unfold once the ice melts" and then it has to be driven by outside magnets, it's not a robot, it's a remote controlled origami in ice at best.