Philips' remote control pill may cure your allergies

Philips has applied for a patent of a remote controlled pill which can be signaled to dose your innards via an external, electronic trigger. Freaky, we know. These aren't just time-controlled coatings now, but automated medicament delivery systems whose course can be monitored inside the body via MRI or ultrasound before precision ejection. Better yet perhaps for allergy sufferers, the device could be designed to communicate with external sensors which would release drugs if say the atmospheric pollen count reached a certain level. Tip for the colon: never confuse the remote-controlled pill with Philips' remote control tablet. You can thanks us later.

[via NewScientistTech]

[Rand @ Nov 19th 2007 12:47PM]

Drawing shown to scale!

[Grant @ Nov 19th 2007 12:58PM]

hahaha.
best.comment.ever.

[shaunj66 @ Nov 19th 2007 1:25PM]

It gets even worse.. it's a suppository

[Ignatius @ Nov 19th 2007 4:31PM]

"Good news, it's a suppository!"

[NowhereDan @ Nov 19th 2007 12:49PM]

Or it could carry a dose of cyanide! My plans for the prison camp of the future are coming to fruition at last!

[Grant @ Nov 19th 2007 1:00PM]

so.... it would just kinda chill out inside you?
i dunno, the average human has a good amount of undigested red meat in their intestines, the last thing we need is more random, indigestible shit in our bodies.

[Wes @ Nov 19th 2007 2:31PM]

Sorry Grant, but this is an urban myth. It is used to justify herbal cleansing products and in support of a vegetarian diet, but is simply not true. Bowels can become impacted, but this is a disease process (for example, cancer) not the normal state, and it is regardless of amountmeat consumed.

[Grant @ Nov 19th 2007 3:31PM]

i always thought that sounded a little fishy.
typed it into snopes.com and sure enough, there it was.

I still don't know if I'd want that floating around in my body though.

[3rdsun @ Nov 19th 2007 1:16PM]

I would like to see someone swallow a remote controlled tablet.

[majortom @ Nov 19th 2007 1:24PM]

there is a small pill like camera that people swallow for GI tests. Been out for sometime. If #116 is an antenna, it is not going to be done in MRI. The RF in MRI will hit that wire and HEAT the patient. Chitins from the inside out....

[JB87 @ Nov 19th 2007 5:58PM]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I remember reading that RFID implant antennas don't have this issue with MRI. I'm fairly sure that with a device that goes inside the body, this has been taken into consideration.

[sully @ Nov 19th 2007 1:32PM]

The Terran Marine stimpack just became possible.

[Kamokazi @ Nov 19th 2007 2:10PM]

From someone who was hosptilized four times for pneumonia as a child, endured 8 years of allergy shots, and suffers from March-November every year...GIMMIE!

[IndiaTech @ Nov 19th 2007 2:42PM]

Hey! I have seen this before! Isn't it the same one which Neo swollowed in the Matrix?

[trav @ Nov 19th 2007 3:10PM]

Not quite a nano-bot, but close to it. The singularity is near!

[SciFi Ranter Girl @ Nov 19th 2007 9:34PM]

OMG! I've been an allergy suffer all my life. I would love something like this. Controlled release would let me enjoy stuff like camping and exercise. This is great.