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Nature 438, 913 (15 December 2005) | doi:10.1038/438913a; Published online 14 December 2005

Open Innovation Challenges

Olympus finds market rival hard to swallow

Ichiko Fuyuno

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Imaging giant finally unveils its capsule endoscope.

A video camera nestling inside a transparent capsule just a few centimetres long has put Japanese imaging giant Olympus on the back foot. Launched in 2001 by Israeli start-up firm Given Imaging, the capsule is a wire-free endoscope that is simply swallowed by the patient.