Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Eyeborg Project leader looks at future of prosthetics, implants

From MedGadget:

The Eyeborg Project, a collaboration between Rob Spence, a filmmaker who lost his right eye in an accident, and Kosta Grammatis, an unemployed engineer, combines biomedical engineering and art in a device that not only seeks to revolutionize ocular prostheses, but also will record the world in a perspective never seen before.

The Eyeborg is a prosthetic eye equipped with a tiny video camera. It isn’t meant to replace Rob’s vision like a retinal prosthesis, but allows him to “lifecast” the world around him to the public.

As a filmmaker and an inventor whose innovative device falls at the intersection of biomedical sciences and art, Rob was approached by video game producer Square Enix to help promote their upcoming game, Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

In the game, Adam, the main character, has been equipped with various prostheses, implants, and other futuristic biomedical technology to make him a superior fighter.

Rob has produced a short documentary that explores just how far biomedical engineering is from the futuristic technology presented in the video game.