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With the \u2018metaverse\u2019 becoming a more frequent buzzword, applications of its virtual world are making inroads into the medical field and may soon allow doctors to travel into the bodies of their patients.<\/p>\n
Computer scientist, entrepreneur, and inventor Louis Rosenberg said in a recent blog post for VentureBeat that an area within the Metaverse known as telepresence is often overlooked but will become an important part of the virtual world.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile virtual reality brings users into simulated worlds, telepresence uses remote robots to bring users to distant places, giving them the ability to look around and perform complex tasks.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we combine that concept with another classic sci-fi tale, Fantastic Voyage<\/em> (1966), we can imagine tiny robotic vessels that go inside the body and swim around under the control of doctors who diagnose patients from the inside and even perform surgical tasks,\u201d Rosenberg said.<\/p>\n How the technology works<\/strong><\/p>\n Technology supporting this kind of innovation within the health field is already underway. Founded in 2019, Endiatx focuses on micro-robotics inside the human body and has created a minute robotic drone, known as the PillBot, that can be swallowed through a pill by patients.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the drone is piloted remotely inside the stomach and other parts of a patient\u2019s digestive tract, making it a minuscule remote-controlled submarine the size of a pill which is able to transfer real-time data to a doctor\u2019s smartphone, tablet or PC.<\/p>\n Further implementation and development of such technology could also well be supported by others, such as assisted\/augmented (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technologies.<\/p>\n Recently, IOL reported that despite their slow adoption, AR and VR technologies could come back in the manufacturing and medical fields, with Ronald Ravel, South Africa B2B director at laptop manufacturer Dynabook, saying that the technology could see adoption across industries within the next five years.<\/p>\n \u201cWith assisted\/augmented (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technologies making inroads into the market, manufacturers are finding ways of incorporating it into their everyday practices,\u201d Ravel said.<\/p>\n Augmented and Virtual Reality technologies have been widely implemented across various industries. They could well support innovations like the PillBot by allowing doctors to see data through a VR headset in lieu of a smartphone or tablet screen.<\/p>\n South Africa itself isn\u2019t far behind metaversal trends, with almost half the country\u2019s population active on social networks, already venturing into a digital world.<\/p>\n A recent study into the country\u2019s current social networking trends, the SA Social Media Landscape Report 2022 by Ornico Group and World Wide Worx, reported that in 2021, 48.8% of adult South Africans accessed a social network.<\/p>\n