Mini-robot swims through bloodstream
By Joshua Topolsky 
posted June 27th 2007 9:57AM
posted June 27th 2007 9:57AM
[Thanks, Ralph]
posted June 27th 2007 9:57AM
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I have to admit, that looks just plain out too creepy for me to let anyone put it in my bloodstream. That totally looks like it's carrying c4 to the spinal cord or getting ready to deliver a load of arsenic directly to my heart.
Still, give it a few more years, maybe we'll adjust. Might take a bit though.
That just mad my skin crawl. For some reason it vaguely reminds me of that movie Runaway with Tom Selleck.
"Mini-robot swims through bloodstream..."
...And Into Our Hearts.
It was there, just waiting for you.
I am disappointed, Engadget.
This thing does look incredibly creepy, but to cancer patients, who already allow doctors to put toxic chemicals into their bloodstream, this may not seem like a bad option to have. Not that this is ready for mass adoption but it is a step in the right direction. What would you do if you were told at some point in the future that you had cancer and you could choose between chemo-therapy (with all it's nasty side effects) and mini-robots? The point is, every day people let doctors do things that were once considered crazy in an effort to save their life!
ok, am i the only one that can see this going horribly wrong when it accidentally gets on it's way into the heart? Spiky things don't seem like they'd be very good being pumped around in the heart chamber. not to mention that they might need to make it white or something so it doesn't look like a housefly.
Is the picture intended to be the 10x scale model? That appears way too large to be an ear canal robot, let alone a bloodstream projectile.
I hope it never has to reverse!
at first I thought that was a standard ruler..not a metric one.... thinking WTF that thing is huge for my veins
then i realised it was in centimeters...now it makes sence
There is nothing standard about an imperial ruler.
but it's still pretty massive
Whats stopping them from making nanobots that will be able to control the human body? Futhermore, whats stopping from anyone putting one of these things in my body without my permission? The ethics...technology shouldnt be made this small. Many things can arise from nanobot technology...it will be the end of human kind.
the same thing that stops guns from shooting you, or companies from putting industrial chemicals in your food. morality and trust in society.
You know, you may have been watching a few too many sci-fi movies. THat and if any of those things do happen the company that did it will be sued 'til they can't see straight, and shut down
makes me shiver ... a robot crawling through my body!!?! What if they forget to take it out, like when some doctors forgot to remove a pair of sissors from a patient after using them in an opperation. yuk!! :s
Haha every time you walk past a magnet you will feel your heart tickle!! haha
The get it out with that steam punk vacuum-cleaner device Trinity used in the Matrix.
Awesome!!! Now, I can eat all the fatty foods I want, and then have this little bugger clean up my arteries, good as the new!
lmfao, a roto-rooter for your arteries.
heads up!
hijacker advert with malware install prompt on the referenced site.
As a person who has been diagnosed with cancer, I welcome such news. If these 'bugs' can be programmed to target only cancer cells and tumors, and inject chemo drugs directly into them, instead of damaging 'normal' cells, then I would take it.
Now they just need to make a machine that can shrink Patrick Swayze down to a small enough size to fit in the thing. (Inner Space was an awesome movie)
@ Mark -
Inner Space was an awesome movie and I'm glad Patrick Swayze wasn't in it.
I'm gonna pass on injecting Patrick Swayze, Martin Short, or Dennis Quaid into my bloodstream.
However, Meg Ryan...
Still massive to be practical.
This thing is like any other piece of technology, it is initially developed and then refined to make it ready for mass adoption.
Neat. Any pics showing it's built-in drill/saw for rapid escape if needed?
I for once welcome our robotic overlords that infest our bloodstrams and eat our brains from the inside.
Imperial or metric system: This thing is freaking HUGE man, 5mm long! I bet you could see a nasty bump on your skin when this thing moves around. Creepy!
blood clot anyone?
I bet I know what "vessel" it exits out of...
It says 1 millimeter in diameter, so I am assuming as someone said, this is a larger version, so we can see what it looks like.