Scientists have created a pill-sized sensor that has the potential to in the future navigate the digestive tract and track digestive problems in real-time.

Within the study, published within the journal Nature Electronics, engineers at MIT and Caltech have developed an ingestible sensor that navigates through the gastrointestinal tract and may in the future replace invasive procedures like endoscopy.

For the unversed, endoscopy is a procedure where doctors thread a camera within the digestive tract through the mouth or the anus.

The study, conducted on pigs, could provide clinicians with real-time information on the digestion process from the sensors working in tandem with an electromagnetic field.

The device has a transparent covering, which is product of medical-grade silicone. Throughout the device is a system that senses the electromagnetic field generated by a coil, or secondary sensor, placed outside the body, for example, on the skin.

“I personally take a look at this and see tremendous opportunities for other surgical applications where you’re tracking things contained in the body,” Mark Rentschler, a professor of mechanical engineering on the University of Colorado Boulder, who wasn’t involved within the study, told Inverse.

While there are similar alternatives available available in the market, this pill sensor could provide an in depth mapping of the gastrointestinal tract while tracking the capsule’s real-time location.

“It’s really about offering a possible solution and lowering the barrier of diagnosis or follow-up and having tools that enable that,” Giovanni Traverso, a gastroenterologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and co-author of the brand new study, told the outlet.

Debuted in 2000, an organization called Medtronic released its video capsule endoscopy. Now common, the device allows clinicians to see the within the digestive system with a tiny wireless camera.

Moreover, in 2006, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the SmartPill, an ingestible capsule that measures parameters similar to pressure, pH, temperature, and transit time because it moves through an individual’s gastrointestinal tract.

The MIT-Caltech team’s ingestible sensor is a proof-of-concept. Nevertheless, Traverso hopes their invention could transform the way in which clinicians manage gastrointestinal disorders in the longer term.

“Once we’re within the hospital, the activities we’re involved in are very different. In reality, we are likely to move less,” Traverso noted. “Having tools that allow us to essentially take a look at how things are working during our [daily] activities give us a special window in how our bodies work within the context of those we’re normally living in.”

The team has its work cut out for them. One major issue that should be solved is the space between layers of fat, muscle, or blood and the electromagnetic sensor placed outside the body, which can weaken signal reception.