If the Tin Man Actually Had a Heart, It'd Look Like This

[Narrator] If the Tin Man really did have a heart,

this is what it might look like.

Well, this robotic heart is in a pig, but still.

The new gizmo slips over a living heart

and contracts just like the muscles of the real thing.

So if this little piggy were going into cardiac arrest,

the device would help his heart pump blood naturally.

Implantable medical devices already pump blood

through a weak heart, but those could lead to blood clots.

Because this new device simply fits over the heart,

it doesn't need to directly mess with the blood.

Research here is in its early days,

but the idea is to get the devices into humans.

Doctors could even sew the device

inside patients at risk of heart failure,

so they can get help before they land in the hospital.

It sounds outlandish, but you'll need to get used to

more and more robots in your body,

propelled in large part by magnets.

For example, scientists are testing

this magnetic origami device, which unfolds in your stomach.

Doctors can use another magnet to guide it around your guts

to pick up foreign objects like batteries.

Even farther down the line would be nanobots,

which are almost guaranteed to look nothing like this.

But still, nanobots may one day precisely target

the nasties in your blood stream.

Again though, not like this.

The future does not look like stock footage.