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Eyeborg: Man Films Through His Missing Eye
Two videos referred to above, can be found here: http://news.sky.com/home/technology/article/16057033 Please be wary if you're squeamish about eyeball removals! (Though it is actually more toe-curling, than yukky.)
10:17am UK, Friday August 26, 2011
Lucy Cotter, entertainment correspondent
A film-maker who lost his eye during a shooting accident as a child has turned his prosthetic one into a video camera.
:: The above report from Lucy Cotter contains pictures of Rob removing and replacing his false eye.
Rob Spence told Sky News the technology is like something you would usually only see in films and as a result he got backing from experts in the field.
"It wasn't easy but because it's so like (science) fiction, engineers had a lot of fun making it.
"I was able to do it without a budget - it was a fun project for these guys."
Rob Spence on the future of bionic beings
The technology used is the same as in a wireless lapel microphone with a transmitter and receiver.
However, the wireless transmits a video signal rather than a sound signal from the tiny camera inside Rob's prosthetic eye.
The device is not connected to his brain and hasn't restored his vision.
The video camera transmits to a handheld screen
But it records everything he sees, sending what he's looking at in real time to a computer.
Rob was commissioned to make a documentary by the makers of a new video game, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, which is set in the year 2027 and imagines a world in which cyborgs - part human, part machine - are the norm.
They asked him to look at how far away from their fictional world we are now.
According to Rob, technology is already advanced and the possibilities are endless in the future.
He said: "People are going to have the option of having superior arms, superior eyes at some point.
"People say no one would ever cut off their own arm and replace it, but if the technology gets there - and it looks like it will - people will think about it.
"They might be early adopters."
Two videos referred to above, can be found here: http://news.sky.com/home/technology/article/16057033 Please be wary if you're squeamish about eyeball removals! (Though it is actually more toe-curling, than yukky.)
