If Only I Had It

I was watching an old episode of House the other day. The patient wouldn’t allow Wilson to do a colonoscopy, so they had her swallow a Pillcam. The show followed the pillcam into her body snapping photos every few seconds. All very cool, but I didn’t believe a word of it. I thought it might be a good plot device for a medical drama, but I had no inkling that the Pillcam might be real.

It is. It’s made by a company called Given Imaging:

• Given Imaging Patients Information: Abdominal Pain, Crohn’s Disease, Gastrointestinal bleeding, Inflammatory Bowel Disease

The PillCam SB video capsule is designed specifically to help your doctor see inside your small bowel (small intestine) to diagnose disorders such as Crohn’s disease, Celiac disease, benign and cancerous tumors, ulcerative colitis as well as others disorders. The small intestine is the part of the gastrointestinal tract that connects the stomach to the large intestine and absorbs nutrients. PillCam SB transmits images at a rate of two images per second for approximately eight hours, resulting in more than 50,000 images.

It’s funny how little trust I have in television programming. I immediately thought that Pillcam was fake and that the refusal of the colonoscopy was just a plot device to demonstrate the patient’s insistence on control. Now, I’m pretty sure the entire episode based on control was a plot device to show off the cool new toy from Given Imaging.

I have to admit that I love House M.D. and his gadget-loving ways. From his DS to his PSP to his tiny medical camera the size of a calcium pill and even his bad-ass motorcycle, he’s got to be the most geekiest of the television personalities.

A new member, the Sony Twirl N’ Take concept camera, has joined the ODO line. If your memory isn’t as bad as mine, you should remember that the green gadgets, ODO, which Sony was talking about a couple of months back, which consists of gadgets that use spinning or dragging motion to generate power for them. The Twirl N’ Take concept camera here also needs you to give it a spin of its wheel for about 15 seconds and the device will gain enough juice to power its way through a single photograph. The camera is installed in the handle. Take a closer look, you’ll notice a tiny little camera hole. And you need to connect this green cam to your computer for viewing your snaps as it doesn’t have any display on it. So, you wanna have green power? Then you’ll have to tolerate its primitive nature!

There’s no dirth of adventurous people in this world, and I’m sure all of them would be truly happy if there was a small device that captured all of their wonderful moments so they could revel in the glory later when they share those memories with family and friends! Well, it seems like with O’Neil’s new product, this might not be a dream anymore, nor would you have to pay extra for getting a video while you are diving from a plane or engaged in paragliding or para-sailing. An external camera for video taping extreme sports is nothing new. But this new product takes it one level further by integrating it with a backack, yes, the one thing you usually would carry on such adventures, and also adding a whole lot of new features to their earlier version!

O’Neill, the sports manufacturer famous for wetsuits and clothing lines, have now upgraded it’s Campack (backpack) with a portable media player/recorder and external camera lens. Snowboarders, skier’s, and anyone who is addicted to getting the rush of extreme sports can use the H4 Campack to record their relentless pursuit of cheating death. What makes the H4 system so cool isn’t the external camera lens that attaches to a head or goggles, but the fact that recording is completely controllable through the backpack itself. Control buttons, large enough for ski gloves to press them, are located on the shoulder strap. Stop, start and record are easily accessible in this fashion. The drawback ? you lose the iPod and Bluetooth connectivity as well as a solar charging option which were a part of the H2 system.

The player sports a media 2.4-inch 240k color LCD, and stores video on either it’s 512MB of internal memory or up to 2GB in SD card storage. The camera allows for about 2 hours of 320 x 240 pixel @ 25fps recordings. A button panel on the shoulder strap controls the recordings which can be dumped back to the PC via the player’s USB jack or SD card reader. However, you’ll ahve to live with the fact that you will have to stop and change SD cards after only about 2 hours of YouTube quality PAL video. A bit uncomfortable, but not a show-stopper!

And now for the vital question. What’s the cost of capturing your moments of thrill on a lens?? Well, it is estimated to be around $400 USD and would be available during the hoilday season, starting December. That seems to be comparable to a regular Handy cam or portable video recording device. but only time will tell whether this baby makes a mark or not…I do like the idea of providing easier control ad not being dependent on other to shoot you live in action, so maybe this just might find a place with some people. What do you think??

The world of technology comes with a breakthrough each day, and with every new day, we find a solution to one of our problems, or a new and efficient way to do something better. Have you ever pictured a world in which your cell phone could print out the pictures that you take with the camera built into your phone? Seamless mobility might have been a dream a few years back, but is very much a reality now. Welcome to the world of inkless printing or “Zink” (Zero Ink).

Zink, based in Massachusets USA, is a new startup which is a spinoff of Polaroid. It uses its patented process where all you need to print your photos or documents is to buy Zink special paper, which is embedded with three layers of dye crystals-yellow, magenta and cyan- which are designed to melt at different temperatures. No cartridges, no printheads, no bulky printers!! With the unique technology, Zink can make printers which are so small they can be easily integrated into cell phones, digicams, laptops, TV’s, digital photo frames and similar household devices.

This holiday season will be a witness to this amazing new technology for the first time as Zink comes out with its first printers embedded into digicams. The special paper will be sold by Zink, priced at roughly 20 cents for a 2″x3″ print. Just insert the paper into your printer device (digicam in this case), click a button, and print your photos!! The special papers makes your words or images appear like a Polaroid picture. Simple and beautiful, isn’t it??!!

To watch a live demo of this product, click here. If you still find it difficult to believe, visit their official website zink.com for the technology overview and product details.