Bluetooth Smart Pill That Connects With Your Phone From Inside Your Stomach

The future of medicine could be foreshadowed with a tiny product of 3D-printed technology.

A team of researchers coming from Draper, MIT, Brigham and Women’s Hospital has created a tablet from a 3D printer. Their research is published in the journal Advanced Materials Technologies on Thursday. This tablet has the ability to release medicines inside the stomach and monitor body temperature within a month. And researchers believe that what they have created is just a tip of the iceberg.

After being taken, the outer capsule of the pill dissolves, leaving a very small Y-shaped device. This “Y” shape will let the device stay inside the human's stomach for 1 month before it breaks apart and leaves the body via the digestive tract.

Currently, this device is powered by a small silver oxide battery. But researchers are studying the use of stomach acid to fuel it.

The device has two arms, one of which contains four little compartments which have drug holding capability. The drugs will then be released in a few days. The researchers then decided to create the device which, through smartphone command, can control the release of the drugs.

In addition, this tablet also has the ability to monitor the temperature inside the body and transfer that data to a smartphone through a Bluetooth connection. Previously, the team has designed a similar tablet with smart sensing capabilities for heart rate and respiration monitoring.

Users won't need to worry about anyone manipulating the control of the smart pill as it also comes with a security feature allowing it to only connect with a device within arm's reach.

The team believes that this kind of smart pills is extremely beneficial for people with a high risk of infection. For example, for those who have to undergo chemotherapy or need immunosuppressive drugs, they could take this pill, and antibiotics could be released when the patient shows the first signs of infection.

Until now, scientists only used pigs as subjects for experiments. But they think that within two years, this smart pill would be tested on humans. And if the experiment came through, with this tiny device, people around the globe can stay healthy, right from the inside.