Nanobots And Your Health

I got an email from a friend yesterday that said this:

Here's my idea for some scientific dudes to make millions off of: I want a pill I can swallow that contains some kind of microtechnology that will scan my system to determine which hormones are not present or at insufficient levels and just release those hormones. Every time you take the pill it determines your need of the day and provides it. Vitamins, too.

There is at least one scientific dude who has a similar notion. The futuristic medical concept I read about today is not exactly the same as what my friend asked for. There are no pills to swallow. I'm doubting pill swallowing was really her goal, though. I think what she really wants is some sort of automatic health monitoring system, something that could collect and analyse physical data, and treat imbalances it found in her system. Thus we return to a favorite Meow topic, nanotech.

Tracy Staedter, at Discovery.com last October, wrote about one man's vision for a dermal display that would report all sorts of snazzy medical data, like heart-rate and cholesterol.

The dermal display, still a theoretical idea based on fact, is being worked on by Robert A. Freitas, Jr., a senior research fellow at the Institute for Molecular Manufacturing in Palo Alto, Calif.

The display would consist of billions of light-emitting robots implanted under the skin and capable of rearranging themselves to spell out words and numbers and produce animations.

They would display data received from other nanobots in the body designed to monitor a person's vital signs. Instructions from the patient could be communicated by touch-screen-like finger taps on the skin.

There would be billions of nanobots spread throughout the body collecting readings, and communicating them to the display. One cool thing is that the nanobots would feed off the same energy we do, so they would, in effect, be self sustaining. Staedter goes on to say:

Sitting about 200 to 300 microns below the surface of the skin, the display would consist of about three billion nanorobots that cover a rectangular area on the back of hand or the forearm about six by five centimeters.

The mote-sized machines would maintain their respective positions in a predetermined array and draw on local sources of oxygen and glucose for power.

When turned on, they would emit light through diode-like elements embedded in their surface. When turned off by the user, the skin would resume its natural color.

Here's the part my friend will like the best, "Not only could the dermal display be used for medical purposes, but it could also be used as an embedded PDA, MP3, or video player. " Arm TV--on every kid's Christmas list.

This article didn't talk about the treatment end of things, but good grief, if the time comes when they can invent Arm TV, I'm sure they will be able to deliver vitamins, and keep your hormones in balance, along with cleaning the cholesterol out of your blood, repairing heart tissue, eradicating cancer cells...

Hat tip: Futurismic