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Artist Blogger Vlach Wants Webcam Eye
Tanya Vlach, who lost one of her eyes in a car accident three years ago, would like an 'eye cam' - a webcam for her eye socket.
(Tanya Vlach wants an eye cam)
Vlach would like to be able to record what she sees; ideally, she could blink to zoom, focus and turn recording on and off.
"There have been all sorts of cyborgs in science fiction for a long time, and I'm sort of a sci-fi geek," said Vlach, 35. "With the advancement of technology, I thought, 'Why not?'"
This is a bit different from most of the usual sci-fi eye treatments, which are inorganic replacements for the 'original equipment' eyes, and are hooked into the recipient's nervous system. Consider the Tleilaxu Eyes from Frank Herbert's 1969 novel Dune Messiah, the Luxvid Jensen wide-angle eyes from Philip K. Dick's 1964 novel The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch and the artificial eye from E.E. 'Doc' Smith's 1937 novel Galactic Patrol.
And then of course you have the organic replacements, like the vatgrown Nikon eyes from William Gibson's 1984 novel Neuromancer
But what Ms. Vlach wants is different. She wants something that is implantable, but can capture images for transmission and viewing elsewhere, by electronic means. That sounds more like the Bionic eye from the television series The Six Million Dollar Man; it presented information to the cyborg Steve Austin, but could also be transmitted for use by others. See a bionic eye diagram here and a picture of Steve Austin's bionic eye here.
Take a look at these articles on the work currently in progress to provide artificial eyes to those who have lost their vision:
- 'Bionic Eye' Argus II Retinal Implant
The device can enable the patient to discriminate between rudimentary patters of motion, light and dark. - New Australian Bionic Eye Less Invasive
The new 'bionic eye' device uses a special prosthetic that sits on the surface of the eye. - Curved Electronic Eye Camera Like Retina
The team's solution was to use a series of silicon photodetectors (pixels) connected by thin metal wires.
In the film, a camera is surgically implanted in utero in the eye of each fetus. Robin Williams plays a "cutter" whose job it is to piece together the most special moments of your life in a video "rememory" of your life to be played at your funeral.
(A cutter pauses to decide which scenes go in your rememory)
Best of luck, Tanya Vlach.
From San Francisco artist looks to replace lost eyeball with webcam. Thanks also to BajaB who submitted a tip on the Final Cut connection.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 11/17/2008)
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