This 'FitBit for your stomach' charges itself using your organs

MIT wants to help you listen to your stomach.

No, it won't project the grumbles you get before your lunch break. Instead, this team of scientists has created a "FitBit for your stomach" to monitor your gastrointestinal system, lead researcher Canan Dagdeviren tells Stat.

These so-called "conformable decoders" are packaged inside a pill and swallowed by a patient, Stat reports. The pill dissolves, and an embedded device latches to the stomach lining. It can then start transmitting messages, revealing how your stomach behaves when you're stressed, eating, or sleeping.

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The device powers itself on heartbeats and other organ movements using a form of electrical energy Pierre Curie first discovered in the 1800s. And since it conforms to the stomach wall, the decoder can likely stay in the body indefinitely, Dagdeviren told Stat. Eventually, it could be used to diagnose gastrointestinal issues.

Watch a video explaining the device below, and read more about it at Stat. Kathryn Krawczyk