Would You Swallow A Battery ?

So if I told you to swallow a battery, would you do it?
I am certain I heard a Heck No!
And for good reasons, swallowing a battery is definitely a serious health hazard, so don't do it.. UNLESS..

Well, recent research has been conducted leading to advancements in the field of monitoring health via ingestible devices.
Several major difficulties are faced with such devices, including safety of the battery, high power utilization of devices, along with maintaining proper power for it to last effectively and perform a long term job.

Behold The Ingestible Battery

Gio Traverso, Philip Nadeau, et. al, at MIT were actually able to overcome those difficulties via a proof of concept for an ingestible small voltaic cell, earlier this year.
The cell actually can include small sensors, the purpose of which is to monitor the health of the patient including heart rate, temperature, .... It could also be used to administer, at specific dosage and for prolonged periods, specific medication.

While the idea in itself, is not completely new, yet the aspect of utilizing stomach acid for fueling the battery is one of the reasons that makes it such a big news.

The developed sensor has zinc and copper electrodes attached to its surface, based on the concept of Lemon Battery. In this case, stomach acid is the "lemon juice", and hence the generated power would be enough to operate a 900 MHZ transmitter.
Relying on low-power devices, this would make the experiment further effective.

In tests in pigs, the devices took an average of six days to travel through the digestive tract. While in the stomach, the voltaic cell produced enough energy to power a temperature sensor and to wirelessly transmit the data to a base station located 2 meters away, with a signal sent every 12 seconds.
(MIT Publication, reference 3 below)

Even while the device is moving outside the system, and in areas which are less acidic than stomach (small intestine), the battery generated only 1/100 of its prior power, yet that was still effective if the frequency of data transmission is decreased.

Size of the Battery

With current dimensions of 40 mm long and 12 mm in diameter, the battery is ingestible, yet work on minimizing it is in progress, with aims at a 3^rd of current size.

In short, the medical implications of such devices are immense, and we are just moving forward with key advancements that would improve lives of millions out there.

You could have a self-powered pill that would monitor your vital signs from inside for a couple of weeks, and you don’t even have to think about it. It just sits there making measurements and transmitting them to your phone.
(Philip Nadeau)

So, again, would you swallow a battery?
I think now I'm hearing a Positive Maybe :)

@mcfarhat

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References:

1. https://www.inverse.com/article/27527-stomach-acid-lemon-battery-robots-drug-delivery-mit
2. http://www.alphr.com/science/1005318/behold-the-mit-engineered-stomach-acid-battery
3. http://news.mit.edu/2017/engineers-harness-stomach-acid-power-tiny-sensors-0206
4. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41551-016-0022

Photo Credits:

1. Image 1: MIT - Diemut Strebe
2. Image 2: ALPHR

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