At just a couple of centimeters long, the future of medical technology is the size of a grain of rice.

Researchers in the endoscopic department of Olympus Optical Co., based in the west Tokyo suburb of Hachioji, are developing a tiny capsule of glass and plastic that will be directed through the arteries and organs of the human body looking for signs of disease and transmitting images to doctors.

The "smart" capsule, which a patient only has to swallow, will even be able to perform small-scale surgical procedures when it comes across a trouble spot, operating with a microscopic scalpel and guided by doctors through a remote-controlled camera in its nose.