By Cho Jin-seo
Staff Reporter
The Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) said Monday that its capsule-type endoscope has passed European medical standards.
The institute said that the endoscope, named MiroCam, is now being sold in Portugal, Sweden and the Czech Republic, and is wanted by buyers from some 20 other countries. The institution is also waiting for approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that is expected to come next year.
Endoscopes are used to look inside the human body to diagnose diseases, and spot hemorrhages and tumors. Capsule endoscopes have become increasingly popular in many countries, especially in Japan and the United States, since the early 2000s, as the method saves patients from the unpleasant experience of swallowing a conventional endoscope with an articulating cable.
Several Israeli, Japanese, Chinese, and American makers have been selling such tiny capsule cameras that travel through the digestive system and take pictures. The market was estimated to be $100 million this year and is growing by more than 30 percent annually.
KIST began developing the device in 2000, and sold the technology to medical venture firm IntroMedic. The product has been on sale in Korea since this May and is now used by a number of general hospitals including the Severance and Gangbuk Samsung hospitals.
The MiroCam is about the size of the tip of a pistol bullet _ 11 millimeters in diameter and 24 millimeters long. It is the smallest and most advanced capsule endoscope currently available, the institute said.
The major difference with MiroCam and its competitors is its transmission technology, KIST said. It does not use a radio transmitter used by competitors that requires an antenna and pulsing signals. Instead, it takes advantage of the human body as a conductor to send data from the capsule to a receiving device that can be worn, thus it has a longer battery life and a smaller size.
The innovative technology can deliver three frames per second at a resolution of 102,400 pixels for 11 hours, KIST said.