TECHNOLOGY SPOTLIGHT

—by Richard Mandel

Nearly 40 years have elapsed since Stephen Boyd, Raquel Welch and several others were miniaturized and injected into a diplomat to save his life in the movie, “Fantastic Voyage.” While some may have little problem with imagining Ms. Welch swimming about in their bloodstream, Given Imaging Ltd, Yoqneam, Israel, has produced a real-time videocam in a pill-sized form for gastrointestinal diagnoses. The device uses an array of LEDs for lighting its path, and an ASIC transmitter wirelessly sends two images per second to a recorder the patient wears as a belt-pack (eliminating an unsightly cable running out of the patient’s mouth). The patient simply swallows the capsule, and then goes about his business for eight hours until, as one doctor puts it, “the camera comes out as a souvenir.” The camera permits examination of remote areas that preclude access with fiber-optic borescopes, like the 21-foot long small intestine. The images help identify tumors, lesions and other anomalies more clearly than CAT scans and barium procedures, and the camera can be swallowed by patients as young as ten years of age. Unfortunately, the camera’s size allows it to tumble in the colon, making it difficult to determine just where the lens is pointing. So, colonoscopy is still a necessary diagnostic tool. Oh, well… Given Imaging Inc or connect at www.rsleads.com/207df-152

The open platform concept has been bandied about in industrial automation for the last several years — here’s the first non-industrial application that we’ve seen. Declaring it the first personal robot system for consumers, Evolution Robotics Inc, Pasadena, CA, has introduced the ER1, a rolling platform that only requires the user’s laptop (loaded with the company’s software) to be plugged in. The ER1 contains voice recognition and speech synthesis capabilities, and can be trained through point-and-click programming to perform remote monitoring, move about using vision and landmarks, perform tasks at specific times, and play music or send e-mail from voice or vision commands. The robot can be programmed for “if” conditions (“If you see red, take a picture”). Adding an 802.11 network card for wireless remote control and e-mail functions further extends control over the unit. For hobbyists, the company also sells the ER1-K kit that comprises all hardware and software equivalent to the ready-built, and the company is working to develop an add-on arm. Software is behavior-based, combining low-level reactive sensing and perception, high-level planning and dynamic personality modeling for many basic and custom applications. Evolution Robotics Inc, or connect at www.rsleads.com/207df-153