FDA approves edible electronic pills. OF THE FUTURE.

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FDA approves edible electronic pills. OF THE FUTURE.

For the most part, eating electronics isn’t a good idea. The US FDA however recently approved the use of edible electronic pills, that once eaten, can transmit data about your insides to a mobile phone.

Unfortunately, these pills are not designed to rewire your insides and turn you into some sort of cyborg. Not yet. Until it figures out how to make that happen, Proteus Digital Health is content to just keep on developing a system that can verify if and when you take your meds.

Apparently, nearly half of people who are on medication don’t take it properly, either missing doses or screwing up the timing. With things like antibiotics, this can lead to complications, which is bad for everyone concerned. This is where the edible electronics come in: by adding them to pills, it’s suddenly possible for doctors to make sure that you’re taking the right doses at the right times.

The Proteus digestible microchips are made of trace amounts of silicon, magnesium, and copper. When you swallow one, the acid in your stomach causes the microchip to generate a tiny little voltage signal that’s detectable using a skin patch. The patch sends a confirmation message to your phone, which routes it to your doctor, who then knows that you’ve just taken your meds. Meanwhile, after a few minutes the microchip harmlessly dissolves and you get some extra minerals in your diet.

Via