Smart pill finds tummy trouble

Medical Technology
Your doctor soon may be able to take a fantastic voyage through your insides inside a tiny ''smart pill." Make that a virtual voyage.

The SmartPill pH.p (www.smartpillcorp.com) is a capsule packed with sensors and a radio transponder that rides the waves of peristalsis through your GI system.

The SmartPill pH.p detects possible signs of disease in your digestive tract, and transmits that data to a receiver you wear on a belt or lanyard. No need to retrieve the capsule, thank goodness. Instead, your doctor uploads the receiver's data recordings via USB to a PC. The SmartPill pH.p's sensors monitor pH levels, temperature, and pressure in the stomach and intestines. The radio receiver also records the time it takes the capsule to pass through different parts of the digestive system. All of these figures are critical to diagnosing motility disorders, said Smart Pill Corp. chief executive David Barthel.

''These are things you cannot see with a scope or a camera," said Barthel. Motility disorders often occur in patients suffering from diabetes and obesity.

Stomach trouble can be bad enough. Worse still are those visits to the internist. The barium shakes. The enemas. The scopes. The radiation. It's no wonder many people would rather pop another Prilosec and hope for the best.

The SmartPill pH.p promises to replace more invasive examinations, said Barthel. SmartPill Corp. completed clinical testing of the pH.p capsule at Massachusetts General and other hospitals last fall. The company hopes to receive FDA approval this summer.

Easier Listening

Better buds for race fans and iPod people

Race-car driver Lee Stagni had so much trouble hearing his crew above the roar of his dragster that he made earbuds to shut out the noise.

Stagni's TA-100 earphones (www.trickearphones.com) have foam tips that expand inside ears. The tips block much of the background noise, such as airplane engines and clanging gym equipment, that can drown out music. The earphones are proving a hit with NASCAR fans at the racetrack, who enjoy monitoring the two-way radio transmissions between drivers and pit crews. (Decibel levels in the stands at NASCAR events can reach 130 db, said Stagni.) But Stagni had his biggest marketing revelation around the dinner table at home.

''My daughter walked behind my chair wearing her iPod, and I could hear the music," said Stagni. ''People are cranking the volume up on their players to overcome background noise."

As some consumers shift the blame for their hearing loss to the makers of MP3 players, others will seek alternatives to ordinary earbuds, said Stagni. At less than $60, the cost of owning a pair of TA-100s is far less than a battery-powered, electronic, noise-canceling headset.

Prototype

Motes lead to your misplaced vehicle

Parking garages that make you pay before you retrieve your car can make the trip from the cashier's booth to your parking spot a race against the clock. Some systems only give you a few minutes to remember where you parked your car, and then exit, once you've paid. Miss that deadline, and it's back to the booth for you. But imagine being able to ask a computer where you parked your tiny Prius amidst all of those Armadas and Expeditions.

Two Northeastern University computer scientists, Nathan Faber and Ravi Sundaram, have designed a system using wireless radio-relay devices, called motes, to pinpoint a vehicle's location.

The wireless car-locating system is simple. First, you push the lock button on your keyless fob in front of a special kiosk/reader device. That signal is relayed throughout the network of motes until it finds the car that is a match for the code. The system of motes, known as a mesh network, then relays the car's location back to the kiosk.

The young computer scientists are applying for patents for their idea, and shopping it to parking meter vendors and makers of keyless car-entry systems.