How small a camera can be? Well cameras can be as small as a multivitamin pill. Yes, it’s a Pillcam which helps doctors to find the cause of disease that endoscopy is not able to find in patient’s intestine. Camera is capable of sending continuous pictures in every second for about eight hours. Pill camera help diagnose crohn’s disease in intestine which are difficult to find with normal endoscopy.
It is primarily used to diagnose small intestine when stretched is about 25 feet long and normal endoscopy is not capable of examining the middle of 25 feet long gut while two ends can easily be examined. But, this swallowable pill camera makes it possible to examine whole of the gut by sending the high resolution images of inside in intestine.
Camera works wirelessly, means it send pictures of inside to data recorder attached to the belt placed on the belly of the patient from where doctors get continuous pictures of inside of gut and combining and rendering of those pictures produce the full length video tracks of pill camera. Camera itself contains blinking LED lights around the lense, power source and transmitter which makes it possible to capture clear picture and send them to the attached recorder.
The main issues with pill camera is to control their direction and movement, how fast it move, frequency of capturing images and direction control. However, researchers are developing the adjustable Pillcam and Endoscopic Capsule Robots that are fully adjustable. Their speed, direction and frequency of taking pictures is fully adjustable.
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