Some of you may recall the 1966 movie "Fantastic Voyage," in which the nuclear submarine Proteus is miniaturized to a length of one micrometer and injected into a Soviet defector in order to save him from a life-threatening blood clot in the brain.
Well, such science fiction may become reality soon with an interesting development at Osaka Medical College and Ryukoku University.
Dubbed the mermaid, the self-propelled, remote-controlled capsule endoscope developed jointly by the two institutions allows scanning of the entire digestive tract for signs of cancer and other ailments.
What's different from similar devices is that the mermaid is propelled by a tail fin that is electromagnetically stimulated from outside of the body. Other devices are merely swallowed, and follow the course of nature on their photographic trip back to the outside, whereas the mermaid can either be swallowed or inserted rectally. An operator can control it (position, and direction) using a joystick.
This ability to precisely control position is a major advantage when doctors want to focus in on an area of interest. A complete esophagus, stomach, intestine, and colon scan takes several hours, with the mermaid able to take two pictures every second. Free-fall remote endoscopes tend to make up for their lack of control by being more trigger happy -- taking up to 35 frames per second.
Measuring around 1 cm in diameter and 4.5 cm in length, the mermaid is admittedly a bit of a swallow, but compared with the alternative of conventional endoscopy, it sounds like a comfortable alternative once the entry procedure has been sorted. And the developers say it only costs around $30 or so more than existing swallowable systems that can't be controlled.
It's becoming clear that medical devices is probably the single biggest arena in which design engineers can have a huge impact. Here we have a case where the technology was already in place and someone came up with an application which is an incremental advance on what was previously available. But there are also numerous opportunities to push the tech envelope forward in search of new devices. Even if they're just for one-time use. . .
The idea of operator control with such a device is indeed compelling. Add in the benefits of 3D visualization and there's no telling what can be detected and erradicated with this kind of technology. This this the kind of engineering advancement we want to hear more of.
This is a great advancement from traditional devices. Being able to control the device while inside the body will allow doctors to really explore areas they think are problematic and will be able to help a lot of people. The size of the mermaid is rather large, and I wonder if people will shy away from the technology because of its size.
Very cool. I would imagine this is just the beginning of putting devices inside the body to look around and take readings. As technology gets smaller, I would imagine we'll see a wide range of applications for inner-body exploration.
The remaining design issue here is size. Fortunately, the history of silicon electronics shows us that size reduction is relatively predictable. In a decade, this pill will be easy to swallow.
If there is one consolation for our bloated military-industrial complex and our bloated health care system, it is that they seem to be funding some incredible research and development.
Great. It can be controlled from outside one's body. There's NOTHING in the article about what it feels like to the patient. And no, I never swallowed a goldfish.
What's the turning radius? That behemoth looks like it could turn inside the stomach, but that's it. Can you see a new operator getting jack-knifed in the small intestine? Do we send a second one down to tow it free? Or can it be dislodged by several well-placed thumps to the abdomen?
Interesting comments TJ. From what I've heard, one of the doctors behind the development said he had no trouble at all swallowing it, experiencing no discomfort. The again when was the last time a doctor said, "this won't hurt at all"?
Apparently the device can navigate the small intestine. Maybe they do have to lead it to wider spaces though for that U-turn.
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