Pass the Microchips

The future of health care could rest in “edible computers.”

That was the theme of last week’s keynote speech by technology guru and MIT’s Media Lab founder Nicholas Negroponte, who spoke at a medical conference in Irvine. The event, sponsored by Medical Data International of Irvine, was designed to explore how information and the computer age can advance the business of medicine.

The key, warned Negroponte, is how quickly scientists can find new applications for the computer chip. One possibility is tiny computers that could someday be ingested to monitor and record bodily functions.

“It will do more than a watch-like monitor to make measurements,” Negroponte said. “When I go to the doctor and say I don’t feel well, it’s like asking him to throw out a few darts and maybe he’ll zero in on the problem. But if I can give him measurements from a monitor in my body, say for the last 24 to 48 hours, he could better diagnose what’s wrong.”

Of course, this type of technology isn’t available to the public. But researchers at the Media Lab are already testing the limits of such notions.

Earlier this year, lab staff had a person swallow a microcomputer, then run in the Boston Marathon. The electronic pill, when ingested, transmits temperature changes from the human body.

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P.J. Huffstutter covers high technology for The Times. She can be reached at (714) 966-7830 and at p.j.huffstutter@latimes.com.