Tiny technology aims to boost health

Global Business

As new devices continue to get smaller, one company Proteus has created something from a natural ingredient in an aim to boost health. CCTV’s Mark Niu reports.

Proteus has created a pill with a computer chip the size of a grain of sand embedded in it. The pill is paired with a special patch that monitors activity and sleep patterns.

This is the world’s first ingestible sensor, and is being tested for approval by the United States Federal Drug Administration and the European Union’s European Medicines Agency.

Every hour, Proteus produces 25,000 sensors that will each go into 25,000 pills. The ingestible sensor is currently taken in a separate pill, but Proteus is working with several other drug makers in hopes of developing the sensor into the same pill.

Now that the challenges of cost and regulatory approval have cleared, it may just be a matter of changing the way people perceive such technology to further develop it.

Tiny technology aims to boost health

We keep hearing about how new devices embedded with computer chips keep getting smaller. But how about one made from natural ingredient that's so small you can swallow it. Mark Niu explores how one unique company is trying to change the way we take our medicine and boost our health.