How It Works: The Endoscope Camera in a Pill

The tiniest endoscope yet takes 30 two-megapixel images per second and offloads them wirelessly. See how it works inside the body in an animation

By Gregory Mone Posted 03.13.2008 at 3:36 pm 14 Comments

Sayaka Endoscope Capsule In situ, in your gut Medi-Mation

Pop this pill, and eight hours later, doctors can examine a high-resolution video of your intestines for tumors and other problems, thanks to a new spinning camera that captures images in 360 degrees. Developed by the Japanese RF System Lab, the Sayaka endoscope capsule enters clinical trials in the U.S. this month.

How the Pill Films Your Innards

Easy Pill to Swallow: The Sayaka is 40 percent smaller than previous endoscope cameras Luis Bruno

Down the Hatch
The patient gulps down the capsule, and the digestive process begins. Over the next eight hours, the pill travels passively down the esophagus and through roughly 20 to 25 feet of intestines, where it will capture up to 870,000 images. The patient feels nothing.

Power Up
The Sayaka doesn’t need a motor to move through your gut, but it does require 50 milliwatts to run its camera, lights and computer. Batteries would be too bulky, so the cam draws its power through induction charging. A vest worn by the patient contains a coil that continuously transmits power.

Start Snapping
When it reaches the intestines, the Sayaka cam begins capturing 30 two-megapixel images per second (twice the resolution of other pill cams). Fluorescent and white LEDs in the pill illuminate the tissue walls.

Spin For Close-Ups
Previous pill cameras place the camera at one end, facing forward, so the tissue walls are visible only in the periphery of their photos. Sayaka is the first that gets a clearer picture by mounting the camera facing the side and spinning 360 degrees so that it shoots directly at the tissue walls. As the outer capsule travels through the gut, an electromagnet inside the pill reverses its polarity. This causes a permanent magnet to turn the inner capsule and the image sensor 60 degrees every two seconds. It completes a full swing every 12 seconds—plenty of time for repeated close-ups, since the capsule takes about two minutes to travel one inch.

Offload Data
Instead of storing each two-megapixel image internally, Sayaka continually transmits shots wirelessly to an antenna in the vest, where they are saved to a standard SD memory card.

Deliver Video
Doctors pop the SD card into a PC, and software compiles thousands of overlapping images into a flat map of the intestines that can be as large as 1,175 megapixels. Doctors can replay the ride as video and magnify a problem area up to 75-fold to study details.

Leave the Body
At around $100, the cam is disposable, so patients can simply flush it away.

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14 Comments

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smstrg

03/17/08 at 4:38 pm

Just curious about its success at shooting the large intestine -- if there is feces there, couldn't this instrument get covered and lose its ability to take decent pictures? OR, is it a part of the protocol for the patient to empty his/her bowels (completely) and fast before ingesting this device?

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Dlanor14

03/18/08 at 7:42 pm

yeah same here doesn't seem as tho you would get a pic worth squat.

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Gwiz

03/25/08 at 5:56 pm

You do have to take laxatives to empty your bowels... I had to take a camera pill once. Pretty neat technology.

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roycebarber

03/28/08 at 1:14 am

This is really afordable medical science. I love the idea. I want to try it out, but I don't want to go without eating! Let me know when they develop a 3D scanning version, such as how the old Sony camera lenses could see through objects by bouncing light off the object.

Signature: Royce Barber of www.eh3.us
Often reading: The Message, The Bible in Contemporary Language.

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Drew121

from Franklin, TN

03/31/08 at 2:24 pm

Endoscopic / colonoscopic procedures using this pillcam are not yet FDA approved or available to the public.

There is an approved PillCam for small bowel and esophageal endoscopy manufactured by Given Imaging

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kardelen133 (not verified)

05/26/08 at 10:06 am

It is surprising that a mere clone can be superior to its original. This is only about a gadget I am talking about. China's clone artists are probably jealous of Apple for creating such a masterpiece in design or probably saw flaws and were itching to fix them and thus the ‘iClone’ was born.

I wonder in the future, if humans are allowed to clone each other, will we soon prefer their clones over the originals like now; maybe we call them ‘iHuman’. burun estetigi burun estetigi estetik
I guess at this time, we will never know. But bravo to the artists for imitating and improving on once thought of as a flawless design.
thanks.
botoks botoks evden eve nakliyat saç ekimi saç ekimisaç ekimi saç ekimi saç ekimi

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max9 (not verified)

07/16/08 at 1:21 pm

You do have to take laxatives to empty your bowels... I had to take a camera pill once. Pretty neat technology.

http://www.arabstart.com

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jbr

08/14/08 at 9:38 pm

thanks

مركز تحميل الصور

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genedoug

01/28/10 at 4:45 pm

...if there is feces there, couldn't this instrument get covered and lose its ability to take decent pictures? OR, is it a part of the protocol for the patient to empty his/her bowels (completely) and fast before ingesting this device?...
************************
In an ordinary endoscopy, the person is not allowed to have anything but water for 24 hours.

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TX Seeker

02/08/10 at 3:01 pm

This capsule is, in fact, already in use by doctor(s) associated with the Baylor Hospital group in the Dallas area. My director is going through this procedure next Thursday.

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evdenevenakliye

05/15/10 at 9:24 am

very good post..

evden eve evden eve nakliyat * şehirlerarası nakliyat nakliye* ev taşıma ev nakliye *

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qzal

05/28/10 at 11:25 am

thnks

مركز تحميل الصور

مركز تحميل الملفات

رفع الصورر

رفع الملفات
http://qzal.net http://qzal.net

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cptman

07/04/10 at 12:30 pm

I had this done.....it is Only for the small intestines & you take a laxative the night before....so your all cleaned out

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TVGizmo

01/25/11 at 9:45 am

Looks like a good opportunity for a recycler. Has to be a use for these rascals in other venues. Plumbers and pipeline maintainers would love them. Like they say, it's always somebody's "bread and butter".