Eyeborg Project

Last week, soon-to-be eyeborger Rob flew from chilly Canada to sunny San Francisco.  While he was in town he got together with fellow team member Kosta G. and the awesome people at Omnivision.   We all made it to the SPIE Photonics convention where we met with industry leaders and connected with companies that could help solve the various technical problems we’re encountering.

The team has been working arduously to build a prototype in time for the 2009 “Digital News Affairs (DNA) conference where Rob will be speaking.   For our preliminary “Proof of concept” version we’re trying our best to curb our enthusiasm and get something working as quickly as possible.  We’ve got a fantastic design coming out of the woodwork.

The current setup involves an image sensor that is so small you could lose it in a sneeze– 2.1 x 2.3 x 4mm!  Lucky for us Olympus was kind enough to donate a microscope.   The wireless transmission system is coming along nicely, we’re working with a couple of different solutions and trying to determine which one will be the easiest to implement.  Powering this bad boy up is going to be a cinch with some tried-and-tested lithium button cell batteries– keeping it powered for an extended period of time is always a bit problematic, but we have some ideas.

We’re waiting for the miniature fuel cell guys to get their technology out of the lab.  Just add water and you have instant power!  We’ll connect a tube to Rob’s tear duct and make him cry every day or so to keep his eye powered!

That’s the update for the moment.  We’ll keep you in the loop.  If you’d like to get involved in the project we are always looking for corporate partners and donations!  Feel free to get in touch.