Live demonstrations are often unpredictable, but this one was pretty unique. During a TED talk, the audience witnessed a medical innovation: a swallowable pill containing a camera known as Pillbot. This pill promises to transform the healthcare system by providing doctors with a view of a patient’s internal organs.
During the talk, Alex Luebke, co-founder and engineer, decided to showcase his company’s latest invention live on stage. Luebke swallowed the Pillbot, a move that captivated the audience. Controlled remotely by a Mayo Clinic professor and co-founder, Vivek Kumbhari, using a PlayStation 5 controller, the Pillbot successfully transmitted live footage of its journey through Luebke’s oesophagus and stomach.
“Since the beginning of the modern era, the only way to look inside was through rudimentary surgeries,” Luebke explained. “Over the past 150 years, we’ve had great technologies that allow us to look from the outside, like X-rays and MRIs. But what I propose and want us to explore today is looking at micro-robotics inside the human body.”
Before the live demo, Kumbhari displayed the Pillbot in a small water tank, showcasing its capabilities. Luebke shared the journey of Pillbot’s development, revealing that the original prototype was the size of a rugby ball and “not quite swallowable.” Through extensive refinement, the team reduced its size to that of a small multivitamin capsule, making it feasible for patients to ingest.
Luebke emphasized that the Pillbot provides views similar to those obtained with a conventional endoscope but without invasiveness. “Now, fortunately for Alex, on this brief review, everything is looking normal here. Though if there were a problem, being able to show and discuss with Alex in real-time.”
“So now that we’re done here, Pillbot will take its natural course through and out of the body and fortunately for Alex, he’ll have no awareness of this, and he won’t have to retrieve this capsule,” Kumbhari added,.
Luebke said, “That was yummy, and no, you don’t feel anything when the robot moves around inside you.”
Pillbot represents a significant leap forward in medical diagnostics, offering a non-invasive method to map the entire interior surface of the stomach. This innovation enhances patient comfort and provides medical professionals with real-time, detailed images.
While the thought of swallowing a tiny robot might seem daunting, the benefits of such advanced medical technology are undeniable. Luebke’s demonstration gave us a hint about the future of medicine, and it’s nothing short of extraordinary.
