pill

When the Country Fire Authority in Victoria, Australia, noticed that its firefighters were showing signs of heat stress even when their ear thermometer probes were reading normal temperatures, they decided it was time to find a better gauge in the hopes of preventing heat-related illnesses.

So they tested a smart pill on 50 firefighters evacuating 20 people from a burning medical center, and have already used the readings to change firefighter work patterns, including how long they're exposed to blazes, according to the Australian Associated Press.… Read more

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- The confetti at Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade was made of confidential police documents.

- NEC is designing a suitcase-size DNA analyzer.

- A pill that calls home once you've taken it.

- CNET Exclusives: 35 percent off Outdoor Technology Bluetooth headphones and wireless gear!

- Cyber Monday CNET Holiday Gift Guide.… Read more

Netflix said last week it could work with Carl Icahn, but now its managers are girding for battle.

The Web video-rental service said today that it is preparing what is commonly referred to as a poison pill, in an effort to fend off attempts from outside companies from making a hostile bid to takeover Netflix. The statement below does not name investor Carl Icahn, but after the billionaire and former corporate raider acquired just under 10 percent of Netflix's shares last week, it's obvious he is the motivation for this action.

The Netflix board of directors approved the … Read more

Some big stories in Thursday's tech highlights, but stick around for the Olympic LOLs:

Google Wallet now lets users pay with any major credit or debit card. But you still have to have one of the few Sprint devices with NFC to use the service. That's because Verzion, AT&T and T-Mobile rather have you wait for the competing service they invested in, called Isis. But don't hold your breath waiting for Isis.

The Transportation Security Administration has been ordered to address comments and concerns from the public about its airport body scanners. Wired has reported … Read more

If you're not afraid to swallow your technology, you may want to check out new tech cleared by the Food and Drug Administration this week that lets you ingest a digital sensor powered by stomach acid that alerts your doctors about your health and your treatment habits.

The technology consists of a tiny, silicon-based sensor that, at 1mm wide (roughly the size of a grain of sand), can be consumed via pills and pharmaceuticals and pass through the body much like high-fiber food.

According to the developer, Proteus Digital Health, once the sensor is swallowed, stomach fluids that come into contact with it provide enough power to relay a signal that documents exactly when it was taken. This data is transmitted to a battery-powered patch worn on the skin that detects the signal and records the exact time the sensor was swallowed.… Read more

New technology out of Georgia Tech may reduce the number of pills people with multiple prescriptions need to take every day--or that Ray Kurzweil takes to try and live long enough to become immortal. That's because researchers have developed a new gelcap with multiple compartments that can be used to take different drugs at the same time.

Right now the hydrogel capsules are very tiny--just one micron across--and no one's actually tried to fill one with medication yet. But the researchers say a meta-pill could have significant advantages, like being able to suppress resistance to certain drugs by co-mingling them with medications that counter adverse effects. The one-shot capsules could also afford more precise control over dosages, and, of course, could mean less time spent organizing pills.

What's cool about the multi-compartment pills is that they can deliver two very different kind of drugs at the same time--those that can dissolve in water, and those that are hydrophobic, or generally repelled by water (think of how cooking oil refuses to mix with water). This is done by inserting microscopic polymer chains in the pill. The hydrophobic drugs are trapped within nanoparticles assembled from the polymer chains.… Read more

The concept of swallowing microchip-embedded pills that are activated by stomach acid to transmit data isn't entirely new. But it could go from concept to market quite quickly, predicts Swiss firm Novartis.

In January, Novartis committed to spending $24 million on the smart pill technology developed by Redwood, Calif.-based Proteus Biomedical. This week, the company projects that it will seek regulatory approval--at least in Europe--within 18 months.

"We hope within the next 18 months to have something that we will be able to submit to the regulators," global head of development Trevor Mundel told the … Read more

The earliest known reference to medicine in pill form dates back to 10th century Arabic medical literature, long after Egyptians were rolling active medicinal agents into breads and clays but some 900 years before the first patent for a tablet was granted in 1843.

Not much about the technology has changed in a millennium of pill production. Each tablet, shaped for swallowing, acts as a carrier of medicine. The active ingredient is typically one-thousandth the volume of the pill, meaning 99.9 percent of a typical pill is essentially filler material or agents that help digest the drug. (It is … Read more

As one of the definitive arcade classics, Pac-Man needs little in the way of introduction. We're sure that many readers can still remember putting quarters up on a Pac-Man machine at the arcade waiting with anticipation for their turn to play. You may also have played on numerous other platforms since the game's release in 1980. Whether you're an old Pac-Man vet or you're one of the few who has never experienced the pill-eating arcade classic, the iPad version is very good, with only a few minor annoyances.

For the uninitiated, the object of the game … Read more