Would You Swallow an I-pill?
64First the I-pod, then the I-phone, now the i-pill
Did you ever see the 1987 film, "Innerspace"? Dennis Quaid played the role of a tiny, miniaturized test pilot who is accidentally injected into the body of Martin Short, a timid, hypochondriac supermarket clerk. Loosely based on the science fiction movie, "Fantastic Voyage", the film carefully details the adventures of traveling through the human body’s complicated systems.
The movie was clever and entertaining but unbelievable. How could you send something so microscopic as a teeny-tiny Dennis Quaid or anything else throughout a human body? Start believing, because now Philips has invented the electronic iPill
This intelligent pill is a robotic capsule, 11 by 26 mm small (about 1 inch by less than ½ inch) that can be swallowed with food or water just like any other pill, and then carried along by the normal movement of food through the gut. It measures acidity and temperature in the stomach and then determines where it is in the stomach and delivers the appropriate dose of medication.
How does this intelligent pill accomplish this? Tiny capsules containing ultra-miniature cameras are already in use as diagnostic tools, but they lack the ability to deliver drugs. The iPill contains a microprocessor, wireless radio and battery, pH sensor, temperature sensor, fluid pump and drug reservoir. It communicates via its wireless transceiver to a control unit outside the body.
Digestive tract disorders such as Crohn's disease, colitis and colon cancer are becoming increasingly common in the western world. Crohn’s disease and colitis can be treated with drugs, notably steroids, but many of these drugs have adverse, unpleasant side effects for patients when administered into the system as whole-body doses. By delivering the required drugs via the iPill directly to the site of disease, dose levels may be lowered and potential side effects reduced.
Be on the lookout for the iPill which will be moving into an intestinal tract in your neighborhood … soon.
© Copyright BJ Rakow 2010. All rights reserved. Author, "Much of What You Know about Job Search Just Ain't So."
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Thank you, kaltopsyd, for visiting my somewhat overlooked hub on the I-pill. It is pretty remarkable when you think of the strides that science has made in the last 50 years. As well as the therapies and cures that will be discovered in the next 50. Kinda makes one want to stick around.
Delighted that I made you laugh and thanks for your gracious comments.
I'd it is an intelligent pill - I'll have one. That will make me smarter right?
If it's not then someone else can have mine:)
I loved that movie btw:-) I just am shocked this is a real thing!
Of course, why else would it be called an intelligent pill?
That was a great movie - way ahead of its time.
Science is moving along at lightning speed. I enjoyed your very educational, yet funny hub. Bravo!!
I'm fascinated, Mrs. J.B., that you chose this particular hub to read and comment on. Why? Because it is the very first Hub I ever created when I joined Hubpages. Thank you for visiting, enjoying it and finding it educational 'yet funny.' The bravo is nice, too.
"We have the technology". It might not be the 6 million dollar man, but heck an electronic pill you poop out? What next?
Oh, dear Duchess, you hit the nail on the head or is it "IN the head." (A little bit of naval humor.) Now that the i-Pill is practically here can a robotic physician be far BEHIND? Sorry about that
very interesting. just never know what they will think of next. thanks for the very informative hub. i certainly learned something new today.
Isn't technology wonderful, tim... ? Now we have robotic pills as well as robotic surgery. Can robotic people be on the way? Oh, wait, we already have them. They are called Congressional representatives.(Sorry, couldn't resist this one). Thanks for the visit, m'dear.
An inch long? Whoo that's a big pill, but what amazing technology! A very interesting first hub. I think I probably deleted my first hub.
You are so right, Dolores, The iPill is not for the faint of heart nor the narrow of esophagus. But it does represent an amazing breakthrough in robotic technology.
Thanks for being so kind toward my first hub. The iPill thanks you, too.
Whoa! I'd have to be feeling pretty lousy to go for it-- but good news for a lot of people suffering from some pretty awful conditions.
Hi, Anaya - you are so right. We might not choose this option unless it was absolutely necessary. But it is no longer science fiction. Robotic surgery, for example, is performed in big hospitals today all over the U.S.
Hi Doc, I felt like I was the pill swallowed by the robot in Tokyo when I entered their subway system, dumped out into the heart of robot guarded electronics shopping areas. I made a diagnosis, took pictures but delivered no drugs.
Have a very Merry Christmas and productive New Year. =:)
I know how you felt, Winsome, in that robotic Japanese subway system having been exposed to it a few times. But it is an interesting experience, no?
So you 'made a diagnosis, took pictures but delivered no drugs?' Very clever. I may use it one day. Wait a sec, I just did! May you have a phenomenalicious Holiday and New Year. And thanks for the visit.
Wow, BJ - that's pretty amazing! A friend of mine had to swallow one of those tiny cameras to take pics of his innards. Voted up!
Today it's amazing, Holle. Tomorrow it will probably be a standard diagnostic tool. Ain't science wonderful? Thank you, m'luv for your visit and the up.
So this was your first hub, well you started on a high, I thoroughly enjoyed it just like I did the film.
I am not sure I could swallow a pill that big though if I had any of those painful conditions that you mentioned I think I would soon change my mind.
I love the way you write and I love your great sense of humour. Voted up and hit the interesting and funny buttons on the way out :D
How very nice to meet you, maggs, and thank you for your very gracious comments about my first hub. It does have a special place in my esophagus, I mean heart. And you are so right, depending on conditions, our aversion can become necessity. May we both be spared.
Thank you for the up and the button-pushing, too. Look forward to reading your hubs also.
kaltopsyd Level 1 Commenter 22 months ago
"Be on the lookout for the iPill which will be moving into an intestinal tract in your neighborhood … soon." I love it! That made me laugh.
The movie you mentioned reminds me of a movie I watched in Middle school (Osmosis Jones, I think it was).
The iPill is pretty interesting. Wow... Science is crazy. Soon science and science fiction will be pretty close.