Magnetically guided devices eyed for medical applications

Researchers in South Korea demonstrated a microrobot moving through a structure intended to simulate the environment of a blood vessel. The microbot can move up and down (1 and 2), and wiggle through the simulated vessel in a helical motion (2, 3, 5, 6). Image courtesy S.M. Jeon, Hanyang University, et al.

Scientists are constructing devices fractions of an inch in size that would be navigated and powered from outside the body by magnetism, according to a Jan. 5 report from the Inside Science News Service.

Scientists in Korea and at the University of California, Berkeley, are working on an imaging system that requires patients to first swallow a pill-sized robot, then lay inside a magnetic resonance imaging machine while doctors guide the device to the intended target inside the patients body. Doctors would view what the device sees on a video display. The MRI machine's magnetism would supply the power for the robot.

For more on this pill-sized robotic endoscope, visit the ISNS report by Joel N. Shurkin.