Wearable magnetic locating and tracking system for MEMS medical capsule

This work focuses on a wearable magnetic tracking technology for the MEMS medical capsule. As a booming non-invasive medical diagnostic technology, the MEMS medical capsule provides effective solutions in deep intestines as wireless endoscopes, wireless parameter detectors or drug deliverers. To provide a precise, easy-to-operate and low-cost tracking solution for the capsule, we develop a wearable magnetic tracking system based on Hall-Effect and magnetic dipole model. The system basically consists of the wearable tracking vest and operating software. To accomplish the real-time data collection and prevent the interference from the earth magnetic field, some effective multi-channel data collecting and processing solutions are implemented. Several trial tests have been performed with relatively accurate expectation to justify the precision of the system. The volunteer experiments showed that the system can be adjusted for suitable wearing. The effective reduction of the interference from the earth magnetic filed allows the volunteer make basic movement during wearing the system. Moreover, the results compared with the X-ray image of the small intestine demonstrate that this system can successfully trace the motion of the capsule inside the twisted intestine.