Artist Wafaa Bilal underwent a “very hard” surgical operation to implant a digital camera mount on the back of his head, upon which a “third eye” will snap photos every minute for a full year, uploading them automatically to a website and a museum in Qatar.

“I’m interested in these corners of our life we don’t pay attention to,” says Bilal. “To me, it’s like, that’s part of the project. That’s part of the mundane image.”

The camera will go live beginning December 15, 2010.

Do you fear that one day you may be required to receive a microchip implant? Perhaps you’re worried that this may violate your privacy by allowing your movements or behavior to be tracked. Or, perhaps you’re just worried that microchips are the “mark of the beast” from the Bible’s Book of Revelation. No, seriously:

Presumably most of the 88 legislators who voted in favor of the bill did so because of privacy concerns (just nine voted nay, and there was one abstention). Virginia also does not stand alone in taking a dim view of forced microchip implants — several states such as Wisconsin and Georgia have also approved similar bans.

But the bill also took on religious overtones due a belief shared by some fundamentalist Christians that microchips may represent the marks described in the Book of Revelation. It’s a view supported by Mark Cole, the Virginia delegate who sponsored the bill.

Despite what is, in my opinion, a dubious rationale for introducing this bill, any law that protects the civil rights of individuals is a good one. All’s well that ends well, no?

With the extremely heavy packs modern soldiers are expected to carry (upwards of 150 pounds), a robotic exoskeleton that  provides support and improves mobility makes perfect sense. Unfortunately, these exoskeletons require a lot of power to function – power that has been provided in the past via gasoline engines or traditional lithium-ion batteries. Gas engines are noisy and stinky, and li-ion batteries run out in a few hours. Not good if you’re in the field and your exoskeleton runs out of juice while you’re carrying hundreds of pounds of gear.

This week Lockheed-Martin announced its Human Universal Load Carrier (HULC) exoskeleton will be powered by fuel cells that will provide power for a full three days, along with charging other electronic gadgets, such as night vision goggles, electronic weapon sights, communications equipment, and so on. From The Register:

Rich Russell, Lockheed bigwig, describes this as a “whole system” approach. “With proper power management systems, the HULC can be used to recharge critical equipment while carrying heavy combat loads on an extended mission,” he says.

Stripping the batteries from a soldier or spec-ops trooper’s load would free up the entire mighty carrying capacity of the HULC for more attractive options such as armour, weapons etc. We here on the military crazytech desk have previously pointed out that remote-controlled powered gun mounts as light as 55lb can be had, able to handle various heavy weapons normally requiring a tripod or bipod for dismounted infantry use. These would be ideal for installation above a HULC-wearer’s shoulder, and easily set up so as to train the big gun to follow a head-mounted monocle pointing rig of some sort.

Other accessories already offered include an armour-plated “ballistic shield” to be mounted in front of a wearer’s body, or “heating or cooling systems, sensors and other custom attachments”.

(Via Engadget)