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.

Hope you like the new site!

We’ve made major headway into the project over the last few months. We’re hoping to have a working prototype by
the middle of next month. Just in time for some big journalism conferences! Stay tuned for updates, we’ve got a lot coming!

-EyeBorg Team!

http://watch.spacecast.com/the-circuit/current/january-2009/#clip128282

Here is a link to a video report on a show called the Circuit on Space TV.
Space TV is my favorite nerd channel where I watch a lot of my Star Trek.
(Pleased nerd noises).

I found this old shot of me in University where I look a lot like Orwell. Strange!
Take a look at this essay about Big Brother versus Little Brother from security guru Bruce Schneier.

Big Brother isn’t what he used to be. George Orwell extrapolated his totalitarian state from the 1940s. Today’s information society looks nothing like Orwell’s world, and watching and intimidating a population today isn’t anything like what Winston Smith experienced.

1984’s police state was centralized; today’s is decentralized. Your phone company knows who you talk to, your credit card company knows where you shop and NetFlix knows what you watch. Your ISP can read your email, your cell phone can track your movements and your supermarket can monitor your purchasing patterns. There’s no single government entity bringing this together, but there doesn’t have to be. As Neal Stephenson said, the threat is no longer Big Brother, but instead thousands of Little Brothers.

The fear isn’t an Orwellian government deliberately creating the ultimate totalitarian state… It’s that we’re doing it ourselves, as a natural byproduct of the information society.

Rest of essay here. http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/05/is_big_brother_1.html

http://www.indy.com/posts/marine-tank-commander-eyes-future-after-service-in-iraq

This guy is one hundred per cent Marine.

And here is the Canadian Press video of me getting a two part prosthetic popped in. There is enough room in there for the little camera that Omnivision sent us.

Not far off now!

Story here.

Toronto filmmaker plans to use prosthetic eye camera for documentary

Big Brother is watching — and so is Little Brother.
Toronto filmmaker Rob Spence says he is getting a tiny video camera put inside a prosthetic eye to allow him to secretly film his subjects.

Spence says his goal is twofold: to raise awareness of constant surveillance in society and to get people talking unself-consciously.

This is so ironic its tiresome almost. I guess that’s one of the problems I have selling the idea for this documentary. Even my reaction is a bit ho-hum, for God’s sakes we have heard it all before. Yes, yes, we are turning into a Big Brother society. But, like, we are.

Story is here.

In case you aren’t familiar with my other posts one of the main points of my film, Eye 4 an Eye (previous post about that here) is to examine how we are sleepwalking into an over-monitored Orwellian society. Am I a part of the problem or part of the solution if I get a camera-eye? Perhaps if I get you thinking about it more its the latter.

This fresh in my from my Cuz (Cuz=cousin) – who is now the official tune supplier for eyeborg.blogspot.com. He will supply appropriately eye-ish/cyborg-y songs that are good listening. Hey, trust me, Cuz knows his tunes. His eye-dentity I am afraid must remain secret for now.

So anyways, this just in from Cuz….

Cuz: “I’m deeming this the best track of the year. It is a long one, but soooo addictive, and no they are not from Montreal…..here’s an almost full version.”