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The Pill Robot Is Coming (bloomberg.com)
Bloomberg has an article on a new project that MIT's Daniela Rus has been working on. They have developed a "robot," squeezed into an inch-long, 0.09-ounce pill, but it "unfolds like an origami after it's swallowed". This robot can be guided with a tiny magnet to remove a foreign object from the stomach or treat a wound by administering medication, the report says. The equipment to manipulate the robot is pricey, but its own components cost less than $100. The article talks about the next step in this project: Rus and her team have tested the robot in a silicon-molded prototype stomach and are seeking approval from MIT's animal care committee to try it in pigs. She says they're also looking to raise more money. "The experiments they've been doing are very promising," says Ken Goldberg, a robotics professor at the University of California at Berkeley. Until now, he says, "nothing has been able to essentially walk inside the body."
Already been done.
Eat me from the inside.
There was an old lady who swallowed a fly. I think she'll die.
CAPTCHA: surely
Does bloomberg realize how LARGE that is???
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
... but its own components cost less than $100
In terms of American healthcare, each such pill will cost about $200,000.
Will be billed at $1000-$5000 per use
We think you're bugged.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
That's 2.55 grams for those who like sensible measurements.
Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
That seems to be less of a robot and more like a magnetically guided piece of (in some cases medicated) gauze. I'm actually pretty surprised we don't have magnetically powered/guided robots with manipulators about the size of a pill and perhaps smaller that can do micro surgery by now. We know we can make micro electronics, micro robotics shouldn't be all that much different. The only issue would be power and processing, both of which could be done externally.
Same topic (different article
) was submitted by myself on Friday May 13, 2016 @09:58AM
The Washington Post article was longer and had more info, if not as much formatting.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
Got bug?
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
FTFA:
The only thing a patient would have to do, in theory, is swallow — a bit like gulping down a spider to catch a wayward fly.
Probably not the most confidence-inducing analogy, as our childhood nursery rhymes have already taught us how that one turns out...
You could put Raquel Welch into one of these pills and send her in to wipe away the blockages. That would be a fantastic voyage. However I imagine she might not fit into a pill case these days.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
More like "animal torture committee", but then, you can't expect psychopaths who enjoy torturing animals to admit it in public, can you?
Why can't this be tested in a human? What exactly is going to go wrong? Laughable.
To anybody who has ever had one of those long metallic "snakes" shoved up or down an orifice for medical examinations while awake will likely welcome this technology. Trust, me, "the snake" is sooo f8cking uncomfortable. I won't ever do the snake while awake again unless my life is directly on the line.
Table-ized A.I.