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Gordon S. Hlavenka
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 Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2008 7:06 am Post subject: Help! I swallowed a camera! |
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I was recently the subject of a photo shoot featuring a "Pillcam SB2".
This is a gizmo the size and shape of a large pill; it contains a color
camera which takes two photos per second, a radio transmitter, and 8
hours worth of battery -- total weight under 4 grams. See
http://tinyurl.com/5szgym for info.
I retrieved the camera (don>t ask) and would like to have some fun with
it. These are considered single-use items, but I>ll bet if I pry the
sucker open and replace the battery I can make it go for another 8
hours. Seems like it might be neat to hang under one of those $25 micro
helicopters. Plus they make another pill that does 18fps -- maybe they
use the same controller for both, and just change a jumper...
In normal use, they stick a bunch of patches on you. Each patch
contains a circular antenna about 2" in diameter. The maximum distance
from the pill to an antenna is probably around 18 inches. I>m hoping a
larger RX antenna might be able to gather enough signal to allow a range
of maybe 25 feet. I>d be able to play with the antenna on the TX side
as well -- I>ll bet 11mm doesn>t allow for an optimum transmit antenna
in the pill.
Problem is, I have no idea how to receive the images from my new toy.
Assuming QVGA with 75% compression, 2fps is almost a megabit/sec. I
don>t think Zigbee has that kind of bandwidth and Bluetooth is probably
too power-hungry. So I>m guessing some kind of custom transmitter...?
Does anybody know what kind of receiver is necessary to pull in the
pictures? I don>t have access to an RF lab so I kinda need to have an
idea what I>m looking for. The manufacturer>s site is not very Hardware
Hacker-friendly :-/ The FAQ is all medical stuff, go figure.
--
Gordon S. Hlavenka
Join the Revolution at http://www.ronpaul.com |
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Mike Harrison
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| Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2008 1:49 pm Post subject: Re: Help! I swallowed a camera! |
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On Thu, 31 Jul 2008 01:47:07 -0500, "Gordon S. Hlavenka" <nospam@crashelex.com> wrote:
[quote]I was recently the subject of a photo shoot featuring a "Pillcam SB2".
This is a gizmo the size and shape of a large pill; it contains a color
camera which takes two photos per second, a radio transmitter, and 8
hours worth of battery -- total weight under 4 grams. See
http://tinyurl.com/5szgym for info.
I retrieved the camera (don>t ask) and would like to have some fun with
it. These are considered single-use items, but I>ll bet if I pry the
sucker open and replace the battery I can make it go for another 8
hours. Seems like it might be neat to hang under one of those $25 micro
helicopters. Plus they make another pill that does 18fps -- maybe they
use the same controller for both, and just change a jumper...
In normal use, they stick a bunch of patches on you. Each patch
contains a circular antenna about 2" in diameter. The maximum distance
from the pill to an antenna is probably around 18 inches. I>m hoping a
larger RX antenna might be able to gather enough signal to allow a range
of maybe 25 feet. I>d be able to play with the antenna on the TX side
as well -- I>ll bet 11mm doesn>t allow for an optimum transmit antenna
in the pill.
Problem is, I have no idea how to receive the images from my new toy.
Assuming QVGA with 75% compression, 2fps is almost a megabit/sec. I
don>t think Zigbee has that kind of bandwidth and Bluetooth is probably
too power-hungry. So I>m guessing some kind of custom transmitter...?
Does anybody know what kind of receiver is necessary to pull in the
pictures? I don>t have access to an RF lab so I kinda need to have an
idea what I>m looking for. The manufacturer>s site is not very Hardware
Hacker-friendly :-/ The FAQ is all medical stuff, go figure.
[/quote]
Is there a battery or is it powered by RF from the patches? |
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