A technical overview of the work that’s been done to date and the plans for the future can be seen on http://iamkosta.org
Kosta has been in Scotland for the last few week working with miniaturization experts on improving the functionality and battery life of the eye. 
The HAR 2009 hacker conference in Holland was an amazing experience. We would like to thank everyone who made the event possible– it was an honor to speak there, we had a blast. If you would like to download the slides of the technical presentation click here. Video will be up shortly.
But for now, how about a story?
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Off again. After four months in Montreal it was time to up the ante. With a one way ticket to Amsterdam, full knowledge of a terrible exchange rate (1.7 CAD = 1 EUR), and as few possessions as possible I was about to embark on a grand unplanned European adventure of a life time. First stop: hacking camp.
Nerds are amazing. I don’t know how many of you were the jerks who picked on us in high school—but let me tell you, the older I get, the more “vogue” it becomes to be a nerd. Travis Eden, who hit his high school popularity peak at my expense is still living with mom and pursuing a thrilling career in the concrete pumping industry. WHO’S COOL NOW TRAVIS!? PS: I made-out with your ex-girlfriend, yeah the one who dumped you.
The beautiful girls seem to be intrigued by a man who’s passionate about something, and we nerds are good at that. A past girlfriend of mine considered the simple act of talking about nerdy things foreplay. String a few sentences about particle accelerators, oscilloscopes, fluid dynamics, and space travel (in no particular order) “I voltage regulated a mosfet and impedance matched an inertial black hole while I was touring the large hadron collider babe.”
…and she was taking off her clothes.
The bourgeoisie have the right idea. I type to you today from the 7th story fine dining facility of the Rockefeller Hotel and Club located just steps away from Rockefeller center in NYC. Around me the suits are having power meetings, pounding away on their laptops/blackberry, and trying desperately to stay (or at least look) busy. There’s a bar with enough booze to intoxicate the Russian army, the walls are lined with art that looks as if it was pumped out by a team of charcoal briquette wielding 4 year olds, and a very out of place “FIRST AID FOR CHOKING” poster dutifully informs while throwing off the motif entirely.
(READ MORE @ iAmKosta.org)
What a day. Rob had the audacity to bang on my door and wake me up after a measly three hours of sleep. I guess it was my fault for going to bed at 7 a.m. — but can you blame me? Toronto is a happening city, it’s dying to be romped around in during the wee hours of the morning. I promise you I wasn’t staying out of trouble.
But the good news is that the stunningly beautiful Kris Reyes from City News had arrived to do a bit of an interview. I remembered to not wear the same shirt that I’ve worn for the last few televised interviews. C’mon though, it’s part of marketing, wear the same lame shirt and someone is bound to remember what the hell you’re doing. Right? Right? Probably not.
After that we rushed of to CTV to shoot a spot for The Daily Planet show. I monkeyed around with linear editing equipment, and Rob tried his best not to freak the world out while he… uh…. “manually installed” a prototype eye housing. Removing and installing a cyborg eye for the television cameras is not alarming in the least– it’s fun. Right kids? Stay tuned for that. Actually– have a picture.
In other news– the camera board is up and running off of battery power. Now it’s just a matter of integrating the whole thing together.
Stay smart eyeborg readers! You’re the best.
Jimmy Fallon Spoofs the Eyeborg Project from eyeborg on Vimeo.
Thank you Jimmy Fallon for your comic wonderment.
Kosta looks like a deer in headlights from eyeborg on Vimeo.
Kosta does his first LIVE interview with FOX News. A future in television– definite maybe. The brilliant part of this clip: Rob is referred to as a man who wishes to “fight crime!” EYBORGMAN WILL SAVE THE DAY! We love it.
You were kind enough to mention your interest in the EyeBorg Project on your twitter feed. We’re glad you’re hiring one-eyed people, because we have just the guy for you! Lets get in touch, because we have some ideas for the best punk’d ever.
There’s a rumor going around that the eyeborg team put up a new movie about the project. We hate rumors, so we’re here to set the record straight– yes we have, and you can watch it here: http://eyeborgproject.com
In other news: all the worlds a-twitter and so are we. Follow us, or we’ll shoot laser beams out of our eye at you.
hugs n’ stuff
I would like to give a big shoutout to Joenis of Anhedonia Blue and Ali of Spaghetti Strap Western for their amazing help in creating the new website. We’re not just a blog anymore!
Some updates:
Kosta sent in the first revision of the eye for manufacturing– thank you Candor Industries for making the thinnest PCB board we’ve ever seen, and Micro Art for soldering the BGA (ball grid array = so small you need a microscope and an xray machine to solder these components!) packages we’re having some difficulties getting the CMOS sensor fired up, but we’re learning a ton!
Rob is in Brussels at the moment talking to the press at the 2009 Digital News Affairs Conference. He’s a a big speaker– his mom and all of us are very proud.
We’ve all been shooting a ton of video and Rob is putting together an EPIC trailer about the the project. You should see it on the home page of the website in a few days.
Big thing are coming! Stay tuned!
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.
