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Help! I swallowed a camera!

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

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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
Reply to
Gordon S. Hlavenka
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Is there a battery or is it powered by RF from the patches?

Reply to
Mike Harrison

I haven't opened it up yet but there's definitely a battery. The pill is delivered in a blister pack with a magnet in it, almost certainly to operate a reed switch. And as soon as they took the pill out of the package, the LEDs started blinking (it has 4 white LEDs for flash) but it wasn't anywhere near the receiver pack. Also, the patient instructions say that the camera may still be flashing when, umm, you next see it.

I found this video

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which clearly shows batteries, however this is not the same pill I have.

--
Gordon S. Hlavenka
Join the Revolution at http://www.ronpaul.com
Reply to
Gordon S. Hlavenka

I'm betting it's analog, like those tiny surveillance/security/babymonitor cameras that broadcast on 900MHz or 2.5GHz ISM bands.

Can you find an FCC identifier for it anywhere? If so, you can look up the identifier on the FCC's website to find some information about the device, which might include the transmit frequency and modulation scheme.

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   Wim Lewis , Seattle, WA, USA. PGP keyID 27F772C1
Reply to
Wim Lewis

Gordon, I've done the same thing. I found this thread while looking for the same information. I too thought about using this on an R/C helicopter, or maybe just a good spy-cam. I'm not sure that the focus on the lense will be ideal. It may be made only for macro focus, so this may be better for a camera-on-a-stick or something similar. I'll know more once I start getting pictures. So far, all I have done is to cut the pill open. I still have very little information, but this is what I have found: The device is broken up into two small circuit boards that sandwich two small 1.55v batteries connected in series to provide 3.1v.. Both boards have small test contact points that I think will be very useful for "re-purposing" this device. The first board contains the camera and is connected to the second board with a ribbon cable. The second board has a 27MHz crystal and small transmitter chip marked ZL70081. After some googling, I found this:

ULP Medical Transmitter (ZL70081) Technology:0.35=ECm CMOS Supply Voltage2.6 -3.2 V Battery Radio Frequency:400 -440 MHz Type of RF link:Transmit only Bit Rate:2700 kbits/s Operating Power:5.2 mW Ext. comps:10

Reply to
google

Just leading on from this very interesting info; have often thought about the following.

In many countries and areas of the world; and not just those run by dictatorships, 'the authorities' often don't like those who are obviously using cameras. And also cell phones that contain cameras. Even in some tourist places there are instructions 'not to take pictures' of police stations, military installations, political rallies etc.

However a small camera like that could be mounted unobtrusively in head gear without wires, sending to a recorder or transmitter to a satellite hidden in clothing! One could even swallow it for concealment if necessary!

Wherever the wearer looked could be recorded or transmitted to an orbiting satellite. Even if the observer perhaps a dedicated UN observer, witnessing, for example, an atrocity, was killed, a record of what had been seen perhaps even the killer/s themselves could have been transmitted instantly to UN headquarters.

Of course whether the UN could do anything without one of the major powers vetoing it is another matter!

Seems like it could be another version of a 'little UN blue pill'!

Reply to
terry

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