Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
 |
Narcisystem Belt - The Biometric Self Captured
The Narcisystem is an effort by one person to continuously gather as much biometric information as possible and then use it for environmental control. The device is worn as a belt, and uses a Funnel IO Arduino clone from Sparkfun Electronics to gather all the sensor readings and then transmit them to a laptop.
(Narcisystem belt video)
Here's what kind of sensors were used:
- Heartrate monitor - In order to detect heartbeats, I used a Polar heart rate monitor strapped to my chest.
- EEG - To achieve something that looked like an EEG, I ripped apart a Ramsey Electronics Electrocardiogram Heart Monitor Kit.
- Breathalyzer - I measured my breath alcohol concentration using a MQ-3 Alcohol Gas Sensor from SFE. This cute little sensor was strapped to my arm, so I had to remember to occasionally breathe on it.
- Compass - I measured my bearing using a HMC 6352 compass module from SFE.
- Accelerometer - The accelerometer is a ADXL202 on a SFE breakout board.
(Narcisystem controls the lights)
The breathalyzer triggered a fog machine; the accelerometer data triggered a subwoofer.
I would connect this project to several other recent articles. In Total Health Surveillance, I opined that having allowing 24/7 monitoring of your physical state might have some dark applications. In the Narcisystem project, Eric takes as much information as he can about himself and then makes his environment all about himself.
In Roomba Detects Emotions Like HAL-9000, I wrote about how machines could take their cue from human beings in less explicit ways. A roomba was programmed to respond to bio-electric signals relating to the stress level of the user.
In novels like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Arthur C. Clarke wondered about the implications of letting a machine have access to the voice data and stress analysis software that would allow the HAL-9000 computer to deduce stress. Just how much biometric data do we want the machines around us to have? And how smart do we want them to be?
Kind of a neat experiment, though.
From Narcisystem via hack a day.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 3/30/2009)
Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |
Would
you like to contribute a story tip?
It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add
it here.
Comment/Join discussion ( 0 )
Related News Stories - (" Medical ")
Heart Patches Grown In The Lab Repair Hearts
I'm hoping that this procedure becomes a normal part of medical practice!
Pixel Watch 'Loss of Pulse Detection' And Philip K. Dick
'He carried on his person a triggering mechanism sensitive to his heartbeat.' - Philip K. Dick, 1965.
ErythroMer Artificial Blood
'My chemists are all working on the preparation of the artificial blood.' - Dr. David H. Keller, M.D.
MouthPad Supports Head And Tongue Tracking
'The operation that had transformed half his body... had located the control switchboard in his teeth.'- Alfred Bester, 1956.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
Current News
Robotic Barber Programmed With a Number of Styles
'He found a barber shop which, he thought, would be good for an idle hour.'
Humanoid Boxing Robot KO's Opponent - It's A Knockout!
'Thirty rounds of fighting is tough work. Even for machines.'
Caterpillar Electric Mining Loader Not Yet Ready For Moon
'...the excavations were already in progress, for he saw gray slopes of rubble.'
Centipede Robots Down On The Farm
'...the walking mills of Puffy Products began to tread delicately on their centipede legs across the wheat fields of Kansas.'
Anthropic's Claude AI Creates Legal Citation From Whole Cloth
'Here is a Clerk that would work incessantly, and neither eat, sleep, want payment, or grumble.'
Students Vie For Lunar Regolith Mining Robot Prize
'About time you got here,' the astronaut said.
'They Erased My Memory' Says Ariana Grande
'...using a neutralizing electronic impulse.'
Solitary Black Hole Wanders In Space
'...the Hole is something like a vortex or a whirlpool?'
Spaceplane From Virgin Atlantic
'ZARNAK, YOU'RE TO COMMAND A SCOUTING EXPEDITION --- FIND OUT WHAT THIS IS ALL ABOUT!'
DARPA Wants 'Large Bio-Mechanical Space Structures'
'These are your rudimentary seed packages... Some will combine in place to form more complicated structures.'
Robot Hand Creeps Along, Separate From It's Owner
'The crawling... object was V-Stephen's surgeon-hand...'
Taikonauts Exercise In China's Tiangong Space Station
'Joe got out the gravity-simulator harnesses...'
Korean Exoskeleton Suit F1 Helps You Put It On
'Better late than never.'
Have AI Researchers Given Up On 'Bio-Babies'?
'You couldn't have the capstone without the pyramid to hold it up.'
Bunker Busters and Bore-Pellets
'The first revelation of the new Soviet bore-pellets.'
'Spikeless' Brand Swizzle Stick Detects Spiked Drinks
'the unobtrusive inspections with tiny remote-cast snoopers...'
