Easy-to-Swallow Wireless Telemetry

Many countries will experience the effects of an aging population, resulting in a high demand of healthcare facilities. Development of novel biomedical technologies is an urgent necessity to improve diagnostic services for this demographic. Electrocar diogram (ECG) and temperature recording have been used for more than 50 years in medical diagnosis to understand various biological activities [1], [2]. A more recent development, electronic pill technology, requires the integration of more complex systems on the same platform when compared to conventional implantable systems. A small miniaturized electronic pill can reach areas such as the small intestine and can deliver real time video images wirelessly to an external console. Figure 1 shows an electronic pill system (i.e., wireless endoscopy) for a medical monitoring system. The device travels through the digestive system to collect image data and transfers the data to a nearby computer for display with a distance of one meter or more. A high resolution videobased capsule endoscope produces a large amount of data, which can then be delivered over a high-capacity wireless link.