Micromed
BOTies for Your Bodies
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Introducing MicroMed! Our body bots are adaptive nanobots that are situationally responsive to the needs and wants of your body. These bots record health data from blood, track physical activity, analyze blood storage and optimization, can help with minor cut healing, and detect incongruities that lead to illnesses. Once in the body, body bots will disperse throughout the body and monitor medical information. Through MicroMed’s accessible and intuitive mobile app, users are able to learn more and keep track of their health stats, trends, and needs.
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Below is an in depth research analysis and ideation of this concept idea.
While the human body is a remarkable organism with many systems, the human consciousness cannot directly and actively interact with its own systems. Most systems are regulated by organically automated decisions that happen on the cellular level, and we wanted to change that. We believe that in 20 years, with the help of nanobots, we would be able to let humans better monitor, and even manage, their body’s on a much smaller and more accurate level than ever before. While we used to have to wait for conditions to get so bad that the body developed symptoms, our nanobots will be able to monitor important vital signs like heart rate, blood oxygen levels, carbon dioxide levels, glucose levels, lactic acid levels, body temperature, signs of disease and infection, and hazardous chemicals, just to name a few! While it will be difficult to program millions of microscopic robots to operate perfectly for every unique human body, and get them to communicate with each other as well as with the user, MicroMed believes that these challenges can be overcome with cutting edge technology and more importantly, thinking smarter rather than harder. While nanobots will easily be available within 20 years, the more important challenge will be ensuring that they work efficiently to travel the entire human blood stream, and we believe that the only way that can be achieved is through the use of machine learning. Lastly, while our robots will be tiny and plentiful, they will be unable to do every single task and every single idea. We have decided to limit the scope of our nanobots to intervene with brain death through lack of oxygen and lack of blood, but otherwise mostly observes in order to maintain a small robot packed full of various sensors.
User Psychology
As society and technology continue to develop, humans strive to make every day a good one. We do not have time to waste a day if we are not feeling 100%. Using MicroMed you can confirm that you will feel your best. While our nanobots are the strongest on the market, each individual bot is about 1 micrometer big. Due to the mere micro-size of our bots and the size of one’s body, the capabilities are a bit limited. To overcome this imbalance, each person (depended on height and weight) will get an individualized number of initial bots (subject to change given person preference or medical needs).
MicroMed is intended for everyone but can be particularly useful/helpful for those who are health conscious or looking to gain more information about how their body is functioning - the elderly, athletes (or anyone training towards a specific exercise goal), those with chronic illnesses.
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Once customers begins their journey with MicroMed and have successfully gone through the onboarding process on the MicroMed mobile app, they will be sent a starting package. Inside the package will be detailed instructions and information laying out some of the most important things that the nanobots will help with, medical guidance and a smoothie! To minimize user violation, instead of an injection of bots, users will receive this delicious smoothie that is already made and has the nanobots in suspension. Available in a range of flavors, the smoothie with arrive that day in a beautifully crafted glass bottle (perfect to wash and reuse for future day to day activities). As the user drinks their smoothie, the nanobots are absorbed into the bloodstream in the small intestine (95% of food nutrients are absorbed there). That’s that! The bots will then do their thing.
For the first week of having the bots, they will map out the body - gain a platform/base of knowledge that they can begin to build upon. From that point forward, each bot will work to make each and everyone the best version of themselves. If any major fluctuations appear in the collected health-data, users will receive a push notification to alert them of the changes. In the rare case of an emergency, the app can automatically call emergency services and work internally to support you in the best way possible until help arrives.
Bot Capabilities:
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Track physical activity, heart health, and lactic acid.
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Oxygen storage, each bot has a small capacity for oxygen that can be released in an emergency.
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Clotting accelerant (to help heal cuts or gashes) or anti-clotting (stroke prevention).
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Detecting diseases, cancer, dangerous chemicals, health risks.
From this point on, all interaction happens through the app. This is where the user can check to see their information.
Meet Lucas
Lucas is a very active guy who is striving to learn more about his physical body condition and prep for an upcoming competition. From Southern California, he starts every morning with a multiple hour SUP workout through the bay and out into the open water. He heard about MicroMed from his buddy who works in biomed and knew he had to try it out. While he was a bit hesitant at the thought of nanobots inside his body, his research relaxed him when he recognized that MicroMed understood the concerns and specifically presented and explained what they have done to combat it.
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After talking to his doctor, signing up, downloading the app and completing the on- boarding process, he was ready to go. The next morning, he woke up to a package on his doorstep and his bot smoothie inside. Admiring the glass bottle it came it, he drank his strawberry-banana smoothie and was amazed at the delicious flavor and inability to notice/taste any bots.
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A month into Lucas' new life with his bots, he is loving being able to keep track of is heart and muscle health. Due to a minor health illness he has battled with since he was a boy, he has always been prone to the common cold. While not life threatening, it makes training difficult. To his surprise, he has not been sick a single time since introducing the bots into his life. Lucas is able to maximize every workout and meal and is always feeling 100%.
So what is MicroMed?
Once ingested, our nanobots would be absorbed by the large intestine and dispersed into the bloodstream. With a vast array of sensors, they are able to spread throughout the body and gather important information to allow the user to stay up to date on their vital signs and overall body health. By gathering this important data and then relaying it to the user’s phone, data can be analyzed and thus, informed decisions can be made.
The system of implementing this will take part on a micro level and a macro level. On a micro level, the bots will follow their own logic and interface, whereas on a macro level, the data gathered by the bots will be turned into something usable for the humans decision making. Because of this, a task analysis must be performed on both levels.
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User and Bot Interaction
The bots will constantly be interaction with the user's body once inside the bloodstream, but the user's conscious interaction with the bots themselves will be minimal. The user will consume a smoothie containing the proper amount of bots for their body. From there, the bots will enter the user's bloodstream through the pancreas. The smoothie method of activation is meant to decrease the invasiveness of the process. Every once in a while, the user may need to drink a "bot top off smoothie" to replenish the amount of bots in the bloodstream. The need for a "top off smoothie" and amount of bots needed to be replenished will be determined on a case by case basis. Once consumed by the user, the bots will constantly circulate throughout the body collecting data on nutrition and performance levels. The bots will transmit this data to a watch worn by the user, when they pass through the veins in the wrist. The watch will be able to be worn on either wrist.
The data will then be sent to a mobile application on the user's phone. The application will function on Android and IOS systems. The user will be able to use this application to control the function of the bots through inputting goals or requesting specific data. On the application, the user will be able to input their medical history and fitness or dietary goals that the bots will then help them reach. The bots will be able to track fitness related performance within muscles and run diagnostics to provide a training plan that matches the goals entered on the application. There will also be post workout total body diagnostics that guide the user through a recover phase. In a similar manner, the user can have the bots analyze their diet and provide recommendations based upon vitamin levels and the goals that are set (ie: weight loss or weight gain). While these are specific inputs that will be the focus of daily analysis reports, the bots will track and transmit all health related data throughout the day. The user can use the application to pull any information wanted at any time. For example, if a user wanted to know their oxygen levels they would be able to view it instantly in real time.
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The user can request a full diagnostic reports by changing the mode of the bot. The modes that the bots will be able to enter are: activity/workout performance analysis, dietary analysis, injury diagnosis, illness diagnosis, and emergency mode. By entering injury diagnosis, the bots will be able to detect if an ache or pain is something more serious and recommend an immediate course of action, such as go to the emergency room or schedule a doctor appointment with a knee specialist. The bots will be programed to enter illness diagnosis or emergency mode based upon certain detections. Say the bots detect a flu virus within the user, then a notification alerting the user of the virus will be sent along with a recommendation. This should help user's identify and stop illnesses before they become severe. When the bots detect an emergency; such as a blood clot, low oxygen levels, or poison; they will immediately spring into action. The bots will be able to break down blood clots, release oxygen, or stop the poison from spreading. The bots will also take emergency action and send alerts when smoke inhalation is detected, carbon monoxide is present, or a dramatic change in physical or oral health occurs. The mobile application will initiate a 911 call if needed.
As the user sets up the application by inputting medical history and goals or modes, they will be prompted to set up daily alerts related to these inputs. The alerts will include congratulations on achieving goals; daily nutrition and vitamin levels; oxygen levels; soreness or tiredness; and lack of physical activity. These alerts can be extremely helpful in many ways. For a user that struggles to get enough calcium in their diet, the alert will help by confirming or denying if the user hit their needed intake for the day. The alerts will allow asthma patients to know sooner if a dose of their inhaler is needed. A track athlete could use these alerts to better target their stretches, training, or physical therapy appointments. On the opposite side, an individual working a desk job can improve their fitness levels with alerts gently reminding them to stand up or walk around.
Ethical & Societal Concerns
Equally important to the technological developments is the need for ethical codes of conduct. There is a growing concern about data protection in the world and medical information is among the most sensitive data an individual has. Measures to ensure the user that their data will be completely protected and private need to be taken with a very serious approach. On top of the health data, we need to ensure to the user that additional data that companies could use, such as their favorite foods, will not be shared, sold, or even collected in a database. We will also need users to trust that there is no tracking technology associated with our bots.
Aside from data storage and privacy issues, there are ethical concerns to be dealt with surrounding the technology itself. The technology is extremely invasive and will function as artificial intelligence living inside of the user. We have tried to minimize the invasiveness with the method of activation being consumption through a smoothie rather than say an injection, but the user may feel violated as there is no turning back post consumption. Before drinking the smoothie, it must be understood that there is currently no plan to have the blood-bots be extractable. The invasiveness of the irreversible procedure and the technology itself would be something that society needs to be accepting of for this to become real. The accessibility of the product will be a societal issue as well. If the cost is extremely high and only the upper class can afford the product, it will cause conflict over users receiving unfair advantages in multiple performance areas and further the current issues with health care.
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On a more macro scale, the technology would require insurance that the bots do not have the ability to reproduce due to the grey-goo fear. The grey-goo fear is a hypothetical situation where nanobots never stop reproducing or duplicating once they begin. The nanobot population would become so large from the constant growth that they overtake the living organisms and consumer the planet. For this reason, the artificial intelligence inside the nanobots must also be thoroughly inspected or standards would need to be created to confirm that the nanobots cannot develop the ability to self-replicate.
From Here to There and Beyond
To get from where we are right now to where we want to go with this nanotechnology two things need to happen: technological developments and ethical codes of conduct.
To deploy our blood bots we will need to make major leaps in the field of nanotechnology. The biggest challenge that will need to be tackled is developing a nanobot that can safely navigate the bloodstream and work in conjunction with the cells rather than the body rejecting it. The technology to store the data and transmit the data are currently in development or available, but the safety of using the current technology inside of our bodies will need significant research. The safety of the technology is of utmost concern. After safety precautions, other technological hurdles will mainly surround machine learning. The artificial intelligence inside the nanobot will need to recognize molecular levels within the blood, trigger release of oxygen if needed, identify and navigate to the proper locations, and learn the optimal routes through the body. Once these challenges are tackled, the last physical hurdle will be production costs. The amount of blood bots needed will be, at the lowest, in the high hundred-thousand range but the number will most likely be somewhere in the millions.
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As the technology develops, the team hopes to expand the blood-bots capabilities. Right now the blood-bots are able to detect illness allowing them to send recommendations and alerts to the user. Eventually, we would like the blood-bots to aid in building antibodies against diseases and viruses to stop illness before it occurs. In the same way the bots will hopefully be able to stop illness, we anticipate the bots being able to stop clotting through early detection. The bots will routinely clean arteries of any buildup that could potentially lead to clotting. With these routine cleanings, the hope would be to eliminate any possibility of health risks associated with blood clots.
Once the deterioration method is developed, the bots should be able to employ similar tactics to break down any scar tissue left from injuries. Additionally, the blood-bots will be able to limit or minimize arthritis by drawing white blood cells to repair and regenerate tissue, such as cartilage and joint lining. To help minimize risk of injury due to overloading muscle groups, the blood-bots will stimulate muscle regeneration during their diagnosis of physical performance and recovery by repurposing red blood cells in the area. More research is needed to confirm this possibility, but the ability of the bots to repurpose red blood cells gives the team hope that this ability can be used to potentially end headaches.
Despite technological developments, there will always be limitations with the blood bots. A very important limitation the blood-bots will always be their inability to reproduce or duplicate. While it would be nice if the bots replenished themselves instead of potentially needing "top off smoothies", this arises the issue of the grey-goo fear. If the bots are able to duplicate or reproduce, there is a potential risk of malfunction or over-duplication/reproduction. This risk could lead to fatal repercussions.
Additionally, the blood-bots will be limited to detecting and diagnosing illness, but they will never be able to cure illnesses. The bots will attempt to attack viruses or draw white blood cells to the area, but their primary function will always be to detect and send recommendations. In regards to mental health, we do not see the blood bots as ever being able to detect or diagnose mental health issues. Individuals will be able to improve their diet or physical abilities and hit the goals they input by following the recommendations given through the mobile application, but these improvements will depend solely upon the user's actions. The blood-bots will not be able to help the user reach their goals through augmentation.
Meet the Team
