Pill-size camera gets inside look
Technology that doctors expect will help detect precancerous cells faster and less painfully also could someday take cameras to parts of the body where no camera has gone before.
Cameras the size of pills could “put eyes on tools” for laparoscopic surgery, snake inside a bile duct or fallopian tube, or weave their way deeper inside a person’s lungs than any nonsurgical device.
Unlike a standard endoscope, which is almost a centimeter wide and can only be inserted into the esophagus after a patient is sedated, a new device invented at the University of Washington consists of seven fiber optic cables encased in a capsule about the size of a typical painkiller.
The device is aimed at detecting early signs of esophageal cancer, which is the fastest growing cancer in the United States.
In addition to its size, the main advantage of this invention is its cost — a few hundred dollars compared with more than $5,000 for the standard scope.
The technology’s primary developer, Eric Seibel, a research associate professor of mechanical engineering, is the only human who has tried the device so far. But human testing of the device is set to begin in about a month at the Seattle Veterans Administration hospital.
Guinness compiles video game records: Yes, Billy Mitchell is still the king of Kong.
In the first “Gamer’s Edition” of Guinness World Records, due out March 11, Mitchell, of Hollywood, Fla., ranks as the top-scoring player of the arcade version of “Donkey Kong.”
Mitchell’s score is 0.1 percent ahead of Steve Wiebe of Redmond, whose quest to unseat Mitchell was the subject of the 2007 documentary “The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters.”
Other highlights of the Gamer’s Edition 2008:
The biggest-selling video game of all time is “Super Mario Bros.,” released by Nintendo Co. in 1985. It sold 40.2 million copies (though some were bundled with Nintendo systems).
The highest one-day gross for a game is $170 million at the U.S. “Halo 3” launch in September.
The controversial crime-adventure series “Grand Theft Auto” has the most guest stars in a video game series. Its 339 voice actors include Dennis Hopper, Samuel L. Jackson, Ray Liotta and Ice T.
Video chat program records calls: A new version of video chat software ooVoo released last week allows users to record chats, perhaps to post them to video-sharing sites like YouTube or just to keep them for posterity.
The free software from New York-based ooVoo is a video-oriented competitor to eBay Inc.’s Skype. It allows video conferencing with up to six participants, while Skype supports only two-party video calls and is more focused on voice communication. Skype video can be recorded through third-party programs.
Apple Inc.’s iChat does multiparty video chats, and a recording feature was introduced with Leopard, the company’s latest operating system.
Recording of calls without the knowledge of all participants is illegal in many U.S. states so the program notifies participants that they are being recorded.
OoVoo is available for Windows PCs only. A Macintosh version is in the works.
Associated Press
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