Eat This Pill And Doctors Will Be Able To See Your Farts Develop In Real Time

Farts are funny. Farts are rude. Farts are usually inappropriate. But also, farts are a window to our insides?

At least that’s what a group of researchers feel. They’ve managed to build a tiny edible electronic capsule that can track your smellies as they form in your gut. Why? To study it of course.

The researchers, led by Kourosh Kalantar-Zadeh of RMIT University and Peter Gibson of Monash University, believe they can use the capsule’s gas readings to learn more about how our digestive system works, as well as the sort of microbes involved in the process.

The capsule in question is about the size of a regular tablet, 26mm long and with a diameter of 9.8mm, with sensors, a transmitter, and a battery wrapped in a polymer shell. It has sensors for temperature, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, and oxygen, as well as a semi-permeable membrane on one end for the gases inside your insides to get in. When that’s paired with a pocket-sized receiver and a smartphone app, you can gather readings on what’s brewing in your digestive tract as the pill travels towards your colon.

Gathering this kind of data can be a big help to medical professionals, as it can help gauge the kinds of microbes present in your stomach and intestines, as well as how they’re working at a given moment. The current ways to collect those samples range from embarrassing to invasive, so this pill could really smooth along the diagnostic process.

“Our pilot trial illustrated the significant potential role for electronic-based gas-sensing capsules in understanding functional aspects of the intestine and its microbiota in health and in response to dietary changes,” the researchers said in their paper..

Right now, they’re looking to set up a commercial company in order to fully test and develop the device.