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Innovation

Eyeborg man puts a camera in his eye to record what he can't see

Canadian filmmaker Rob Spence put a video camera in his missing eye, instead of a regular glass eye. His goal? To film the world with his custom-made battery operated video camera.
Written by Boonsri Dickinson, Contributing Editor

Canadian filmmaker Rob Spence turned his prosthetic eye into a video camera.

He lost an eye in a childhood shooting accident when he was nine, but has made the most of it and become a cyborg celebrity of sorts. His custom-made prosthetic eye has a battery-powered wireless video camera. It is part of the Eyeborg Project, which aims to record the world from a view that's never been seen before.

The wireless video camera rests between two layers of a prosthetic eye. The OmniVision video camera is very tiny, only 3.2MM 328 x 258. When Spence puts the camera in his eye, a magnet is waved in front of it to turn it on. The video footage is then transmitted to a handheld screen.

Kosta Grammastis, a former SpaceX engineer, designed initial prototype. In 2009, the eyeborg camera was named one of the best inventions by Time magazine.

"This third iteration of the eyeborg is leaps and bounds better in terms of video quality and battery life. Previous versions had a shorter battery life and the picture quality was poor," Grammastis said. "Cramming all that stuff into such a small space was a big challenge, especially on a small budget."

Spence made a documentary about bionic bodies for the launch of a video game called Deus Ex: Human Revolution. The video game explores a world in which cyborgs rule. But some scenes in the film can make you squeamish (so don't watch it if you have a weak stomach):

via Eyeborg Project and The Daily Mail

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This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com

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