Robot invented to crawl through veins
SCIENTISTS FROM Israel's Technion University have unveiled a tiny robot, made using Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) technology, purportedly able to crawl through a person's veins in order to diagnose and potentially treat artery blockage and cancer.
The little robot - with a diameter of just one millimeter - has neither engine nor onboard controls, instead being propelled forward by a magnetic field wielded on it from outside the patient's body.
Controlling the tiny bot externally means boffins have been able to shrink it to a previously impossibly tiny scale, allowing it to crawl its way through the typical human body's veins and arteries using miniscule outstretched arms which grip the vessel walls. Yes, that made us shudder too.
Scientists reckon the mini bot can even withstand massive blood flow and is able to push forward regardless of the magnetic field actuation direction, doing away with any need for exact localisation and direction retrieval.
A controller can move the little crawly creature in increments, with its speed of up to nine millimeters a second regulated by varying external magnetic field frequencies. Outside control also means the robot can be made to work for an unlimited amount of time, rather than suddenly - not to mention inconveniently - keeling over to die of battery failure in the middle of a medical procedure.
A small cross sectional area on the tiny robot apparently allows fluids to flow with minimal interference making intra-vascular motion more feasible, and opening up the possibility of minimally invasive medical treatments, as well as diagnosis within the body. Researchers are also apparently toying with the idea of attaching miniscule cameras to the bot, as well as other "tools" it may need to perform internal surgery.
As if getting under people's skin wasn't enough, Technion researchers say they're also looking at putting the ant-like creature to work in urban water distribution systems, to look for any leaks that need plugging.
We hear that research is going swimmingly. µ
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Robots already exist for surveying the inside of piping while in use. Municipalities use 'em for water and sewer piping, pipeline companies use 'em for petroleum and natural gas pipelines. There are even versions for nuclear power plants, designed to handle the intense radiation.
Only difference is this one is a bit smaller.
I can't help but remember the 'Magic School Bus', with Ms. Frizzle guiding her class through the veins/arteries, marvelling at the cholesterol deposits causing an irregular hearbeat...fun stuff
ChemC
Hey, cool! Reminds me of the borg assimilation process... :D
No that just wrong!
There are all sorts of possible variations on this theme. In terms of pornography(for which I've renewed my fight against my addiction in the last 36 hours) toilet cams, upskirt cameras in shoes, rather than handbags or cell phones. Spying on people through air-conditioning ducts, spying through gaps in doors. You could put cameras anywhere, and you wouldn't even necessarily have to enter the room to place them. You could enter a room, drop the thing anywhere and people would never know.
You know what, I think I'll try to be anonymous for this one.
Thhis is going to lead to the development of devices like Interceptors from the anime series "Ghost in the Shell" that can be implanted in someone's blood stream and move to the eye to record everything they see in their daily life.
So when is the movie coming?
"Seven Of Nine" looks better. Retain the flesh & blood, and at the same time can have all the things helping your body to work better...
Anyway, when can i schedule to clear up my cholesterol?
:)
A few questions:
- Can you destroy them with an EMP?
- How do they extract it, it moves with the flow, meaning hard to catch or it holds on to the veins and then they are going to rip it off?
Can you destroy them with an EMP?
- Very unlikely (meaning no), seeing that it is made of mechanical parts.
How do they extract it it, meaning [...]
- Wild guess: put it in "park-mode", ie: stop the external magnetic field so it comes to a stop, then cut and extract it
Creepy little bugger!
At least not any more than a pair of scissors is. A robot, given most accepted definitions, should be able to sense, move or manipulate things or itself in its environment via either a programmed route or using automated decision making. This is nothing more than a remote controlled grain of rice with whiskers unless it has additional features that are not listed.
"How do they extract it-"
It´s something related to planet Uranus...
This thing is like the Eniac version of Nanobots. Give this tech a few decades and it will be thousands of times smaller, have a 10 Mpixel camera, MP3-player, FM-radio and WiFi ;-)