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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

In a new study published in Scientific Reports, investigators from Brigham and Women's Hospital, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory report that an ingestible electronic capsule, complete with a capsule-sized antenna capable of receiving a radio signal wirelessly, can safely power a device in the gastrointestinal tract in preclinical models. The new work makes wireless medical electronics for treating the gastrointestinal tract one step closer to reality.

[...] This work describes the first example of remote, wireless transfer of power to a system in the stomach in a large preclinical animal model -- a critical step toward bringing these devices into the clinic," said co-corresponding author Carlo "Gio" Traverso, MD, PhD, a gastroenterologist and biomedical engineer at BWH.

Other medical devices -- such as cochlear implants or neural probes - use a well-established technique known as near-field coupling to deliver power wirelessly. But ingestible devices must be small enough to be swallowed and, moreover, lie a significant distance from the surface of the body, making this technique unattainable for most gastrointestinal electronics. A new technique known as mid-field coupling provides an alternative way to deliver power to deeply implanted devices. Mid-field coupling operates at higher frequencies to deliver power two to three times more efficiently.

-- submitted from IRC

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