Think sports look amazing in high definition? Forget about Derek Jeter's hair follicles-wait until you see the inside of your esophagus, courtesy of the world's first high-def miniature 3-D endoscope. It captures images of tumors and other diseases in unprecedented detail and perspective, an innovation that may help physicians spot trouble they would otherwise have missed.

A few years from now, your vacation might take you to a room much like number 267 at the Hilton Garden Inn at LAX/El Segundo. As you enter, motion sensors automatically turn on the lights. You touch the biometric safe with your thumb, and the door opens to store your valuables. You flop on the bed, and its system of slats and air pockets molds to your body's weight and contours. Your remote dims the lights, opens the drapes, checks your e-mail on plasma television, and changes the digital artwork on the walls to suit your tastes.

If you have a pacemaker monitoring your heart, you'd better hope nothing goes wrong with your mind. That's because MRIsthe most effective way to image the brainand pacemakers don't mix. The former heats the device's implanted metal wires so much they could scar the heart or trigger a rapid heartbeat. Now, Wilson Greatbatch, inventor of the pacemaker, has teamed with Biophan Technologies to create a fiber-optic cable impervious to the MRI's magnetic waves. Instead of using electricity directly, it jolts the heart with laser energy converted to an electric charge.