Ingestible Computers

Today I had the opportunity to be a guest on over a dozen Fox News Radio affiliates around the county to discuss the topic of the “password pill.”

These tiny, ingestible “smart pills” may be making their way to a pharmacy near you as early as next year.  These traveling sensors are in the form of pills which are swallowed and then powered on by stomach acid.  They transmit low frequency signals to a wearable patch and then a smart phone app.  The pill passes through the body in about 24 hours and can then be recycled!  Eeww!  Several companies are making these in various forms including a consumer version that would send information to your cell phone.

The technology is already FDA approved.  In fact, astronauts have been using these for years to help monitor vital health indicators.  We can expect the technology to be main stream for consumers by next year.

For medical applications, this would enable sending real-time data about health conditions and effectiveness of medications directly to your doctor.

For password or authentication applications, the “password pill” can act as a form of strong authentication where YOU become a form of a password.  This provides stronger security than something you know or something you have (and can be stolen or misplaced). Read more