For many decades, researchers have shared their development advancements of tiny ingestible pills filled with cameras, sensors, and electronics that could travel in the human gastrointestinal (GI) tract.

Sometimes known as ingestible wireless capsule endoscopy (WCE), these smart pills serve as a diagnostic technology for inspecting the entire GI tract for various diseases including internal bleeding, tumors, cancer, and other diseases. According to the report by “Markets & Markets”, the smart pills business is forecast to reach $ 3.83 billion in 2020, growing to reach $ 8.98 billion by 2024.

To understand the current commercial state of ingestible pills, Design News talked with various experts in the fields of component miniaturization, mini-actuators, and medical coating materials.

John Blyler is a Design News senior editor, covering the electronics and advanced manufacturing spaces. With a BS in Engineering Physics and an MS in Electrical Engineering, he has years of hardware-software-network systems experience as an editor and engineer within the advanced manufacturing, IoT and semiconductor industries. John has co-authored books related to system engineering and electronics for IEEE, Wiley, and Elsevier.