From: deputydog23x@gmail.com   
      
   Could Ingestible Sensors Usher in a New Kind of Personal Technology?   
      
   "Swallowables," could be the next way to monitor the health of your gut.   
      
   Neel V. PatelSeptember 24, 2015   
      
      
   The future of wearable and personal technology means the ability to measure so   
   many different biometrics produced by your physiology -- be it your heartbeat,   
   movement and physical exertion, brain activity, whatever. And soon, you'll be   
   able to ingest    
   some sensors and collect data about your insides.   
      
   "Swallowables" are upon us, people.   
      
   Christopher Bettinger and other materials science and biomedical engineers at   
   Carnegie Mellon University have spent many years working on developing edible   
   electronics as a way to observe the gut for signs of infection and aberrant   
   gastrointestinal    
   activity, as well as to study the microbiome and a whole slew of other medical   
   applications.   
      
   There are two big obstacles to making these sensors work: One is finding a   
   suitable material for the sensor and its circuits that will both work inside   
   the body as well as the safety of the person swallowing the thing. The other   
   challenge is making sure    
   these sensors work while they're sitting around in intestines. You can't just   
   stick a triple-A battery on the back and keep it running. So what's the plan?   
      
   For the CMU team, the answer is using silicon circuitry encapsulated in   
   biodegradable hydrogel -- and using stomach acid itself to power the sensor.   
   Bettinger and his colleagues outline their findings in a paper just published   
   in the journal Trends in    
   Biotechnology.   
      
   The researchers built a battery using a cathode made of melanin (the pigment   
   that puts color in your skin) and an anode made of manganese oxide (a mineral   
   used in the function of nerves). The battery activates in the presence of   
   stomach juices that    
   facilitate electrolyte transport and current.   
      
   It's actually a pretty efficient design. In lab tests, the battery was able to   
   provide five milliwatts of power for 20 hours -- all from something with   
   dimensions of just a few millimeters on any side.   
      
   The Search for Tanker Survivors is OverUp Next	   
   The Search for Tanker Survivors is Over   
   This could be the breakthrough needed in getting edible electronics to be a   
   realistic form of technology. Other biotech companies are already trying to   
   push forward ingestible sensors to the market. The FDA already approved of an   
   ingestible sensor used    
   to measure data about the gut, which might soon be coupled with the mental   
   health drug Abilify to monitor drug uptake.   
      
   Beyond that, with an explosion in interest in probiotics and the microbiome,   
   ingestible sensors could be an extremely useful way for health fanatics to   
   keep track of how their diet is affecting their intestinal health, and how   
   they can go about modifying    
   their food intake to maintain healthy gut flora.   
   Photos via Ian Brown   
      
   Neel V. Patel   
   @n_vpatel   
   Neel is a science and tech journalist from New York City, reporting on   
   everything from brain-eating amoebas to space lasers used to zap debris out of   
   orbit, for places like Popular Science and WIRED. He's addicted to black   
   coffee, old pinball machines,    
   and terrible dive bars.   
      
      
   https://www.inverse.com/article/6445-could-ingestible-sensors-us   
   er-in-a-new-kind-of-personal-technology   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)