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 [...]
Posts under ‘New Abilities’
Hacked Kinect delivers on “Minority Report” style computer interfaces
In the movie Minority Report, precrime chief John Anderton is able to interact with a holographic display using a series of gestures, as seen here: When Microsoft recently released its Xbox 360 peripheral, called Kinect, they intended it to be primarily used for gaming. However, a number of enterprising hardware hackers have re-purposed Kinect for a [...]
Transhumanist Week in Review: October 17, 2010
Here are a few items I wanted to cover here this week, but didn’t get around to because of work, travel or other priorities. If you’re interested in helping out on this blog, feel free to drop me a line. Why the Singularity isn’t going to happen (10/16/10) – “That is how Singularity-level technologies work [...]
Raytheon’s XOS 2 “closest thing we have… to the ‘Iron Man’ suit”
Yesterday defense contractor Raytheon released the above video for the latest iteration of their XOS 2 exoskeleton, which coincides with the home release of Iron Man 2. The XOS 2 is designed to help military personnel personnel by lightening their loads and assisting with lifting heavy objects, like armaments. A Raytheon spokesman said he expects [...]
New powered exoskeletons to assist military, disabled
Despite similar concepts and design, two new robotic exoskeletons designed to assist humans are intended for very different audiences and very different purposes. The first is designed to enhance a person’s strength while preserving mobility. The second is designed to provide mobility to those in which it has been severely restricted. HULC, or Human Universal [...]
Engineering synesthetic flies to “smell” light
I’ve long been fascinated with synesthesia, a condition in which”the real information of one sense is accompanied by a perception of another sense.” Humans have reported the ability to perceive sounds as having certain colors (sometimes even the ability to “see” music) or “taste” certain words. More commonly, synesthetes perceive numbers and letters as having [...]
Baby hears for first time with Cochlear implant
This video has gone viral, but it’s worth linking here. The expression on eight-month old Jonathan’s face when he hears for the first time, due to a Cochlear implant, is priceless. A reminder of how technology enhances our lives – and a promise of what’s to come. (Via Neatorama)
R.U. Sirius offers his utopian vision for a transhuman future
One of my favorite blogs, io9, has been running a series of posts on “posthumanity” from both fiction and real-life. Today R.U. Sirius of h+ Magazine has a great post up about his “best-case scenario for posthumanity.” In it, he describes what his ideal vision of the future might look like, which includes open-source style [...]
Bionic eye may restore sight for patients with progressive vision loss
My grandfather suffered from age-related macular degeneration (ARMD), which causes loss of vision over time. By the time he passed away in his late 70s, he was almost blind. ARMD progresses from the “inside” of your visual field to the outside, so those affected are unable to see that which they are looking at directly. [...]
New technology enables blind man to interpret images with his tongue
Lance-Corporal Craig Lundberg was blinded while serving in Iraq when he sustained injuries from a rocket propelled grenade (RPG). Although he said he felt lucky make it home, he returned without his sight. Because Lundberg had been normal sighted before losing his vision, the British Ministry of Defense recognized him as an ideal candidate for an [...]