 |
Beetle-Sized Robot Roams Your Body
A beetle-sized robot prototype developed by researchers at Ritsumeikan University and the Shiga University of Medical Science in Japan was unveiled this week. The robot is designed to enter the body through a small incision; doctors would then direct its movements.
(Robot roams the body - under a doctor's direction)
The robot is equipped with a tiny camera in its head; it can even deliver drugs with an injection device. Tiny dual forceps take tissue samples. In tests with animals, the robot, which weighs just five grams, performed very well.
(Robot fact sheet)
This robot could even perform procedures while in the body. Alternatively, it could be directed to maneuver from place to place, taking samples looking for the spread of cancer.
Science fiction fans doubtless are reminded of the Proteus, the miniaturized ship made famous in the 1966 film Fantastic Voyage. However, this robot is much too large to fit into a blood vessel.
Don't miss these tiny medical robot prototypes:
- Slime-Ridin' Snail-Bot Colonoscopy Robot
A tiny robot that slides on a layer of mucus right on up your intestine. - Propulsion System For 'Fantastic Voyage' Robot
A novel propulsion system for a miniature robot to travel through the spinal canal. - Microrobot To Swim Like Bacteria With Flagellar Propeller
Read a bit more at the Mail.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 3/8/2007)
Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |
Would
you like to contribute a story tip?
It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add
it here.
Comment/Join discussion (Back On) ( 0 )
Related News Stories - (" Medical ")
CARMAT Bioprosthetic Total Human Heart Replacement
'George Walt's corporate existence proved the workability of wholly mechanical organs...'- Philip K. Dick, 1964.
Physical Exam? We've Got Apps
See the future of handheld, personal medical devices used with your smartphone.
Japan's Nursing Home Robot Plan
Let's make the Roujin Z-0001 Robotic Bed!
Mini-Livers Made By 3D Printer
Organlegging may not be the growth industry that some fear.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
Current News
German Firm Seeks To Recruit Autistics
Not a deficit, but a strength.
NASA Supports Pizza Printer
Is it extra with printed pepperoni?
Could Ground-Based Lasers De-Orbit Space Junk?
'Then their lasers vaporized the smaller satellites...'
'Hello, Computer!' Google Now Highlighted at IO13
'Hello, computer!'
MIT Robot Cheetah Video Shows Gait Transition
'The legs are long, curled way up to deliver power, like a cheetah's.'
TrackingPoint Smart Rifle
Not your typical 'smart bullet' approach.
Sky City's 220 Stories Are Go
'It rested among green parklands and... stood in total isolation, a glittering block of whites and flashing windows dotted with colors.'
CARMAT Bioprosthetic Total Human Heart Replacement
'George Walt's corporate existence proved the workability of wholly mechanical organs...'
Personal Sniffer Robots
'...The ticking combinations of the olfactory system of the hound.'
Physical Exam? We've Got Apps
See the future of handheld, personal medical devices.
The Interplanetary Internet, Vint Cerf Speaking
'This was the center of Interplanetary Communications.'
Drosophila Robotica, The Mechanical Fly
'... the Scarab [flying robot] buzzed into the great workroom as any intruding insect might...'
Robo-Raven Flapping Wing Robot Bird
'When he had first built them, they had been crude indeed, flying mechanisms with little more than a reflex-response unit.'
Japan's Nursing Home Robot Plan
Let's make the Roujin Z-0001 Robotic Bed!
Samsung Smart TVs With Gesture Control
'He waved his hand and the circuit switched abruptly.'
Swiss HCPVT Giant Photovoltaic 'Flower'
'...leaning against one of the slender stalks of a sunshade-photocell collector.'
