“This special software installed here gathers all the information that could be important for the doctor and the doctor analyzes everything and tells the patient what kind of tumors or internal bleedings or other diseases they might have,” boasts Dmitry Mikhailov, capsule designer.

For eight hours the capsule works its way through the stomach and large and small intestines, taking two pictures every second.

Once it has passed through there is no need to retrieve it, as all the pictures have already been beamed to a receiver.

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Doctors say it will be a useful tool:

“Examining the entire gut is very labor intensive, so it is done at the operating theater, the patient being under anesthetic,” explains doctor Sergey Grashenko.

“It is a very long and complicated process, and we only do it if the patient is diagnosed with something serious. So, it is not a routine process that we do daily, but an exclusive one. A photo capsule makes it possible to close this gap and receive full information about the entire digestive system,” Dr. Grashenko adds.

The Landysh is not the first camera capsule of its kind – similar devices have been produced in Israel and Japan – but it is more cost effective, and is not reliant on components from a single manufacturer.

It is hoped that the Landysh will help doctors in far flung regions to quickly send data for expert analysis, and the team has very high expectations for the device – literally.

“It is one of the best things to take with you into space,” claims Dmitry Mikhailov, “We are in talks with the Russian space agency and they want to have it to be used with the cosmonauts, because if they go to another planet it is rather hard to take the traditional endoscope with you.”

There is still work to be done, such as improving its image quality, but the team is confident it will pass its clinical trials.