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Real life cyborgs

Stelios Arcadiou has an ear growing out of his arm. Rob Spence has avideo camera hidden in his false eye. Jerry Jalava's finger is a detachableUSB drive. Kevin Warwick yes him likes nothing better than stickingradio chips under his skin or connecting his central nervous system to robot

arms.

Four very different men with four very different kinds of technology, but theyall have one thing in common: they're cyborgs.

We've had cyborgs for a long time - the term was originally coined in 1960to describe people whose bodily functions were aided or controlled bytechnology, so for example anyone with a pacemaker or hearing aid is acyborg.

In recent years, however, we've gone beyond using tech to fix bits of us

when they break. Increasingly, we're using technology to expand thepossibilities of the human body and to blur the lines between (wo)man andmachine.

But do we really need ears in our arms?

Ear we go

Stelios Arcadiou, aka Stelarc, probably isn't the template for Humans 2.0:

his extra ear, grown in a lab from cells, is part of an ongoing performanceart project designed to make us think. In interviews, he explains:

"I'm speculating on ways that individuals are not forced to, but may want to,redesign their bodies - given that the body has become profoundly obsoletein the intense information environment it has created

"We shouldn't have a Frankensteinian fear of incorporating technology intothe body, and we shouldn't consider our relationship to technology in aFaustian way - that we're somehow selling our soul because we're using

these forbidden energies. My attitude is that technology is, and always hasbeen, an appendage of the body."

Rob Spence is making a point, too. As the Toronto film maker explains: "Iam a filmmaker who lost an eye so naturally I decided to modify myprosthetic eye into a video camera. I am nota lifecaster. I will use the eye-

http://www.stelarc.va.com.au/http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=71http://eyeborgproject.com/http://eyeborgproject.com/http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=71http://www.stelarc.va.com.au/

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cam the same way I use a video camera now - or the same way anyfilmmaker would use a camera enabled cell phone."

Spence is working on a documentary "about how video and humanityintersect, especially with regards to surveillance."

ALL-SEEING EYE: Rob Spence's Eyeborg project uses a secret videocamera implanted in his false eye

That doesn't mean artificial eyes and embedded cameras aren't coming. AtMIT, researchers have developed a digital eye that enables the blind to

see. At first, it was a giant machine costing $100,000. Then, a $4,000desktop system. Now it's portable and costs around $500.

Elswhere at MIT you'll find Sixthsense, a wearable computer that uses acamera as an input device and nearby objects as display screens. Thecurrent prototype costs just $350 to build.

Rob Spence's eye uses a camera sensor developed by OmniVision, whichspecialises in high quality cameras for medical devices such asendoscopes. The firm is also working closely with Stanford University's

Daniel Palanker on the Retinal Prosthesis project, a hugely complex andambitious attempt to use sub-retinal implants to restore blind people's sight.

As an OmniVision spokesperson told us, the firm "agreed to participate inthe project to jump-start and/or fuel research to provide vision for the blind."

Palanker has published a number of scientific papers detailing the project,and they make fascinating reading. In Design of a high-resolution

http://www.bio-medicine.org/medicine-news-1/MIT-develops-camera-for-the-blind-33762-1http://www.pranavmistry.com/projects/sixthsensehttp://www.ovt.com/products/part_detail.php?id=55http://www.stanford.edu/~palanker/lab/retinalpros.htmlhttp://www.stanford.edu/~palanker/publications/prosthesis%20design.pdfhttp://www.stanford.edu/~palanker/publications/prosthesis%20design.pdfhttp://www.stanford.edu/~palanker/lab/retinalpros.htmlhttp://www.ovt.com/products/part_detail.php?id=55http://www.pranavmistry.com/projects/sixthsensehttp://www.bio-medicine.org/medicine-news-1/MIT-develops-camera-for-the-blind-33762-1

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optoelectronic retinal prosthesis [PDF] he explains how "an image from avideo camera is projected by a goggle-mounted collimated infrared LED-LCD display onto the retina, activating an array of powered photodiodes inthe retinal implant." Essentially the digital eye enables the blind to seeagain.

Hands-on technology

When Jerry Jalava was fitted with a prosthetic finger after a motorbikeaccident, he decided to make the finger more useful - by turning it into aUSB drive containing Linux and some key applications.

"I'm planning to use the other prosthetic as a shell for the next version,which will have [a] removable fingertip and RFID tag," he writes.

Prosthetics have come a long way in recent years, with amputees beingable to take advantage of myo-electric prosthetics that work just like reallimbs. For example in May, Dawn O'Leary was fitted with a prosthetic armthat offers similar fine motor control to a real arm.

Sensors on her skin pick up nerve signals and operate the digits, enablingher to carry out complex tasks such as grasping the handle of a cup.

Researchers in Chicago have gone even further. The Neural EngineeringCenter for Artificial Limbs has developed techniques that combine myo-electric limbs with nerve transplants to deliver even finer motor control, withpatients even being able to feel the objects they grip or touch. You can seethe technology in action on YouTube.

http://www.stanford.edu/~palanker/publications/prosthesis%20design.pdfhttp://protoblogr.net/blog/view/usb_finger-more_details.htmlhttp://protoblogr.net/blog/view/usb_finger-more_details.htmlhttp://www.herald-mail.com/?cmd=displaystory&story_id=222603&format=htmlhttp://www.ric.org/research/centers/necal/index.aspxhttp://www.ric.org/research/centers/necal/index.aspxhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddInW6sm7JEhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddInW6sm7JEhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddInW6sm7JEhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddInW6sm7JEhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddInW6sm7JEhttp://www.ric.org/research/centers/necal/index.aspxhttp://www.ric.org/research/centers/necal/index.aspxhttp://www.herald-mail.com/?cmd=displaystory&story_id=222603&format=htmlhttp://protoblogr.net/blog/view/usb_finger-more_details.htmlhttp://protoblogr.net/blog/view/usb_finger-more_details.htmlhttp://www.stanford.edu/~palanker/publications/prosthesis%20design.pdf

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TOUCH AND FEEL: Jesse Sullivan operates a bionic arm via nerve signals