Endoscopic surgery has used tubes for years, but now Japanese researchers have built a probe that can swim through the digestive tract:
The device, nicknamed the “Mermaid”, is about one centimetre (0.4 inches) in diameter and 4.5 (1.8 inches) long and has magnetic driving gear that allows for precise control of its direction and location.
Doctors use a joystick to control the capsule’s movements, watching them on a monitor screen. It can be swallowed for examination of the stomach or inserted rectally for the colon.
Robots roaming freely through the human body. What could possibly go wrong?
Link -via Geekosystem | Photo: AFP/Jiji Press