Edible batteries to power pacemakers + more

This weeks Wearable Tech roundup features edible batteries, 3D-printed eye cells, and a pacemaker the size of a pill.

Advancements in medicine have given birth to ingestible diagnostics, tools like tiny cameras that can uncover cancer in your digestive track, or a pill that can monitor if you are adhering to your medication plan.

There are also implants to help your body functioning normally, but require a battery change every few years or so, which means the device will be surgically taken out then put back in. These minute devices also requires a source of power to function, but their own batteries may not last that long. So researchers have found a way to deliver safe amounts of electricity to these devices that can also be ingested.

Edible batteries are made from the pigment of cuttlefish, which can discharge 10 microamperes of electricity for a period of five hours, with an ideal performance of 24 hours, as long as something ingested is likely to remain in the body. The melanin from the cuttlefish served as the anode in the studys aqueous sodium-ion battery, and manganese dioxide served as the cathode. The chemical reaction between the two produces the electric charge needed to power body-residing devices.

According to the National Academy of Sciences, it is safe to consume one edible battery per day. The hope is to eliminate the need to replace implant batteries, and create a cost-effective and non-intrusive option for patients.

Last year, people afflicted with retinitis pigmentosa were given access to Argus II, a bionic eye implant that helps them better recognize objects. The device doesnt really help blind people see, but for the wearer to see outlines of images better so they can properly identify them. Argus II is a step towards providing blind people the gift of sight, but British researchers may be a step ahead with 3D printed eye cells.

The researchers have successfully 3D-printed functional eye cells with the use of the piezoelectric printer. Adult retinal ganglion and glial cells of rats were printed with the piezoelectric printer, and the undamaged 3D printed eye cells were successfully cultured. Glial cells play a crucial role in the regenerative approaches to blindness, as it has been determined that when glial cells are activated following an injury, they release a growth factor that rewires the connection to the optic nerve.

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Edible batteries to power pacemakers + more