A cyborg is a cybernetic organism, a hybrid of machine and organism, a creature of social reality as well as a creature of fiction. – Donna J. Haraway
Eye-Cam
An intraocular installation of an eye-cam. An experiment in wearable technology, cybernetics, and perception.
Prosthesis designed by Ocularist, William Danz. Photo by Jonathan James
I am attempting to recreate my eye with the help of a miniature camera implant in my prosthetic / artificial eye. The intraocular installation of an eye-cam will substitute for the field of vision of my left eye that I lost in 2005 from a car accident. While my prosthesis is an excellent aesthetic replacement, I am interested in capitalizing on the current advancement of technology to enhance the abilities of my prosthesis for an augmented reality.
What is exciting me so much right now is that by combining cutting edge technology, robotics, bionics; with age old poetry we are moving closer to understanding our collective humanity.
She took the words right out of my mouth.
Aimee Mullins is an amputee (you would never know in the video below) her redefining photo with Nick Knight has been a great inspiration to me (Right). Please listen to her speech it is exceptional and moving; it is about redefining disability, and understanding the depth of humanity. While I may not share her height or speed I share her artistic vision. And I dream that one day soon I will have my own bionic vision.
The conversation with society has changed profoundly in this last decade. It is no longer a conversation about overcoming deficiency. It is a conversation about augmentation. It’s a conversation about potential. A prosthetic limb doesn’t represent a need to replace loss anymore. It can be as a symbol that the wearer has the power to create whatever it is they want to create in that space so people that society once considered to be disabled can now become the architects of their own identities, indeed to continue to change those identities by designing their bodies from a place empowerment. What is exciting me so much right now, is that by combining cutting edge technology, robotics, bionics; with the age old poetry we are moving closer to understanding our collective humanity. I think if we wanted to discover the full potential in our humanity we need to celebrate those heart breaking strengths and those glorious disabilities that we all have. … I think of Shakespeare’s Shylock. ‘If you prick us do we not bleed, and if you tickle us do we not laugh.’ It is our humanity and all the potential within it makes us beautiful.
~Aimee Mullins from her speech “How my legs give me super-powers” at the Ted Conference 2009
I lost my right eye in Iraq and I think it is awesome what you are doing! You go girl!!!! I hope it all works out for you. It is an awesome way to pave the way in technology.
Que viva las palabras de Dr. Randy Pausch, a Carnegie Mellon Professor, who died late July from pancreatic cancer.
Here’s the you tube video of his farewell speech at the Last Lecture Series at Carnegie Mellon … it’s what I consider the real “Bucket List.” Seriously these are words to live by…
