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Swallowable Camera Pill Robots Now Anchor To Your Intestines Safely
Posted by John Mahoney at 12:00 AM on August 1, 2008
What wonderful times we live in. If you've got some funky stuff going on down below, a good way to diagnose exactly what's happening is to swallow a pill-sized camera robot to have a looksie. Only problem is, those things have trouble swimming upstream, if you will, to stay near the specific trouble spot. Carnegie Mellon university researchers have potentially solved that problem with a new capsule bot that uses tiny feet covered in hairlike adhesive projections to anchor the 'bot at a specific point, without damaging sensitive tissues when it's time to get unstuck. All the same, I really just don't know if I want anything anchoring to my intestines, ever. More including a quick video over at: [Technology Review]
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
Joseph
Posted 12:24 AM 1/8/08
Do not want.
Joseph
J. Nadeau
Posted 12:23 AM 1/8/08
That thing is huge! I'm not swallowing that any time soon.
J. Nadeau
OMG! Ponies!
Posted 12:21 AM 1/8/08
I'm in ur guts
Killin u from inside
OMG! Ponies!
Hectorvex
Posted 12:13 AM 1/8/08
They should put a little hook on it so it can fish out the coke filled condoms, rather than waiting for nature to take it's course.
Hectorvex
Kaiser-Machead's Chips Ahoy!
Posted 12:13 AM 1/8/08
Robots invading digestive tract. check
Robots learn to harness the power of digested food. check
Robots reproduce themselves in digestive tract. check
Humanity becomes slave to pill-sized robot. shit
Kaiser-Machead's Chips Ahoy!
92BuickLeSabre
Posted 12:10 AM 1/8/08
There's a pigs have corkscrew shaped penises joke in there somewhere, but I am not willing to investigate further.
92BuickLeSabre
TheAdAgency
Posted 12:08 AM 1/8/08
So does it have a flood lamp or does that come down on a separate lighting bot? Maybe following a little sound boom guy and a craft service bot too.
TheAdAgency
Gann
Posted 12:08 AM 1/8/08
If that thing malfunctioned, it would be a real pain in the ass to get it out.
Gann
Jon!
Posted 12:04 AM 1/8/08
Ohh, cant wait til the credits :)
Jon!
Curves
Posted 12:48 AM 1/8/08
Didnt they already do this in some old movie with Raquel Welch?
Curves
linuxidiot
Posted 12:47 AM 1/8/08
@ChoadNamath:
Have you seen some of the pills people have to swallow? Some look like horse-pills, not to mention that 10mm is with its lil wings extended out...
Besides all of the above, you ever seen some of that throat-gagging porn? Apparently throats are very accomodating!
linuxidiot
atomx
Posted 12:40 AM 1/8/08
Where is the door for Dennis Quaid?
atomx
venomous_duck41
Posted 12:38 AM 1/8/08
@Gann: I bet one night fuled with PBR and Taco Bell it would become dislodged.
venomous_duck41
ChoadNamath
Posted 12:37 AM 1/8/08
10mm? Are they serious? That's like swallowing half of a finger.
ChoadNamath
blakeHymer
Posted 12:37 AM 1/8/08
@Hectorvex: Hahaha beat me to it
blakeHymer
Git Em SteveDave is a poor substitute for LindsayJoy
Posted 12:33 AM 1/8/08
What's wrong with you?
You ever get that feeling there's a 20mm wide camera which has anchored itself to the insides of your intestine?
Surprisingly.....
Git Em SteveDave is a poor substitute for LindsayJoy
Noobs-R-Us
Posted 12:31 AM 1/8/08
Tape worm?
Noobs-R-Us
Hectorvex
Posted 12:29 AM 1/8/08
@J. Nadeau: Is that what you say to all the guys?
Hectorvex
SigmundTheSeaMonster
Posted 1:08 AM 1/8/08
I heard that one company is working on a dissolvable-camera...swallow, record, pooptube!
SigmundTheSeaMonster
Git Em SteveDave is a poor substitute for LindsayJoy
Posted 1:08 AM 1/8/08
@Curves: Journey to the Center of the Bertha?
Git Em SteveDave is a poor substitute for LindsayJoy
Gann
Posted 1:06 AM 1/8/08
@venomous_duck41: Maybe they could program the robotic hamster to retrieve it.
Gann
Gann
Posted 1:40 AM 1/8/08
@GeekyNerdGuy: Heh.
Gann
GeekyNerdGuy
Posted 1:26 AM 1/8/08
But do they have defense mechanisms against my worms?
GeekyNerdGuy
whatnot22
Posted 1:24 AM 1/8/08
Give it some car wash scrubbers so I can get a REAL colon cleanse.
whatnot22
Log1c
Posted 1:23 AM 1/8/08
@dMo: Depends which way the plumber's snake goes in....
Log1c
dMo
Posted 1:15 AM 1/8/08
Think about it, would you rather have to swallow 1 pill sized camera that can get a visual of your entire digestive tract or have to be put under anesthesia and have a six foot long plumbers snake put down your throat and up your booty only able to see a total of 12 feet of your 32 foot long intestines....
seems a whole lot less expensive and intrusive to me. I wouldn't mind using it because even if it does fail to release you are going to have to put a tube somewhere to get it out T_T
dMo
theblackdog
Posted 1:58 AM 1/8/08
That could be a whole new genre of porn: Anal - From the Inside.
theblackdog
mushroom73
Posted 1:55 AM 1/8/08
Holy Crap!! Now we can all gain the answers to one on the biggest questions at work!
Worker: "What crawled up his ass??"
Co-worker and amateur sport caster: "LET ROLL THE TAPE!!"
mushroom73
Git Em SteveDave is a poor substitute for LindsayJoy
Posted 1:43 AM 1/8/08
@GeekyNerdGuy: Especially if it's going after your Splenic Ganglia
Git Em SteveDave is a poor substitute for LindsayJoy
zenpoet
Posted 2:26 AM 1/8/08
@92BuickLeSabre: are you referring to the interior view of the female orgasm video that was up a while ago?
zenpoet
zenpoet
Posted 2:26 AM 1/8/08
Hopefully its not re-usable. I don't want someone elses ass-camera traveling through my body.
zenpoet
frigg
Posted 2:19 AM 1/8/08
This is what happens when Skylab is allowed to mate with a Flip Mino.
frigg
92BuickLeSabre
Posted 2:15 AM 1/8/08
@theblackdog: There was, once upon a time, a very NSFW Gizmodo post entitled "putting video cameras in the wrong places" that essentially covered this subject. It appears to have been removed from Gizmodo, but I bet it still exists somewhere in the interaether.
92BuickLeSabre
Lodlaiden_
Posted 2:12 AM 1/8/08
@SigmundTheSeaMonster: So do you poop a roll of film?
Lodlaiden_
kwanzabot
Posted 2:45 AM 1/8/08
I'll take a case of these for when I get my new website running: www.tonsilcams.com
kwanzabot
92BuickLeSabre
Posted 3:15 AM 1/8/08
@zenpoet: Ooh. That's too bad for you. Just do what I do:
After about a minute and a half, when I get that feeling like I'm really tired, and I just want to sleep...that's when I assume that she's finished.
Nobody's complained so far!
(Although I have to admit, it's hard to get complaints when I can't get them to return my calls...or texts...or emails...or IMs...or letters...or messages sent by carrier pigeon...or candygrams.)
Hope that helped!
92BuickLeSabre
ideaman2020
Posted 3:11 AM 1/8/08
All I can say is that the "hairlike adhesive projections" is a HUGE improvement over the old Swingline stapler anchoring mechanism..
ideaman2020
zenpoet
Posted 3:10 AM 1/8/08
@92BuickLeSabre: Maybe thats why I am so horrible in bed, I can't tell the difference between my orgasm and hers.
zenpoet
Migo
Posted 3:03 AM 1/8/08
Guys, when you swallow bits of your burger, think of how large each chunk is. When I'm hungry, I can swallow a golf ball sized chunk of half-chewed pizza. Look up "bolus"
[en.wikipedia.org])
Migo
92BuickLeSabre
Posted 2:58 AM 1/8/08
@zenpoet: If I remember correctly it was the interior view of the female during male orgasm video that was up a while ago.
92BuickLeSabre
Slartibartfast
Posted 3:43 AM 1/8/08
This is awesome!! I can lay face-down on a sidewalk with my pants around my ankles for some of the best up-skirts ever!!
Slartibartfast
mushroom73
Posted 5:26 AM 1/8/08
@zenpoet: But here is the REAL question in that statement.....do you care?
mushroom73
zenpoet
Posted 7:18 AM 1/8/08
@mushroom73: Of course I care. I need to know when I am done, silly.
zenpoet
EffieOgodai
Posted 2:26 AM 1/8/08
1. Put camera in pill 2. Swallow pill 3. Camera does job 4. Recover camera 5. Put camera in pill 6. Swallow pill 7. Recover.... Wait a minute! This camera has been used before? So how did you get I back? Stool as in crap? Ummmmm Nevermind. What do you mean I can't "really taste it"?
EffieOgodai
tricky1
Posted 12:53 AM 1/8/08
...
tricky1
tricky1
Posted 12:52 AM 1/8/08
So, you'd rather take it up the arse with a long flexible camera than swallow a 10mm pill? Not to mention the prep you have to do for a Colonoscopy(not to say you wouldn't have to with this...).
I'd take the pill camera over the Colonoscopy any day...and yes I have had a Colonoscopy and I get to have another in 3 months...eff you Crohns, I will kick your ass.
tricky1
Rafabos
Posted 12:42 AM 1/8/08
I prefer it over a colonoscopy!
Rafabos
Rafabos
Posted 12:37 AM 1/8/08
Its actually much better than having a colonoscopy; because we all know that by the time you hit 50.. thats going to happen...
so... big tube with camera at the top being put in to your ass with KY buy a doctor and his assistant while you're completely dopped up and talking about how you cheated on my wife last night
or
little pill that i swallow and shit myself
???
Rafabos