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Antenna implanted in cyborg's skull gets Wi-Fi, color as sound

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Man and machine melded. Lars Norgaard

Neil Harbisson, a 31-year-old European artist, was born with a rare visual condition known as achromatopsia, which means that he can only see the world in black and white. Because he wanted to experience color, in 2004 he had an antennalike device, which he calls an "eyeborg," attached tightly to his head. The eyeborg could sense color around him and convert it to sound that he could hear as it was conducted along the bones of his skull. He then learned to associate the sounds of colors with their names.

A few months ago in December, Harbisson underwent a surgical procedure that more deeply integrated a new model of the eyeborg into his body via three holes he had drilled into the back of his skull.

Like the previous version, his new model can sense 360 different colors and pick up ultraviolet and infrared frequencies. This version of the eyeborg, however, has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, so friends with smartphones can use an app to beam images directly to Harbisson's gear so he can "see" them without using his eyes.

I spent a fascinating half-hour chatting with Harbisson and I'm truly excited to meet him later in April at Moogfest, a festival celebrating the future of technology and sound, which I'll be covering for Crave. Here are the highlights of our interview.

Lars Norgaard

I call it a cyborg antenna because it can do many more things than just convert color to sound. So it's an antenna that goes directly inside my bone. It's drilled inside the skull and then it has Bluetooth connections and allows me to connect to other antennas or other mobile devices or to the Internet directly so I can perceive things that are not in front of me.

So if somebody with a mobile phone wants to send me images from anywhere else, then I can receive these images directly inside my head and I can perceive them. The main difference is that it's now inside the skull and I can connect to other people's vision.

Before it was an explant, so it was pressuring the bone...now there's no pressure anymore because the sound goes directly inside the skull. There are three holes. One is for the audio input, the other is for the antenna, and the third one is actually a spare one.

It's different, yes. I don't feel any pressure now. The big difference as well is that if someone touches the antenna basically I feel it, which is something I didn't before. It's as if someone was touching your tooth or something. So this is very different. And not feeling the pressure is also very different. At the beginning I felt that I didn't have the antenna, so I felt weird because I didn't feel it. Otherwise it's just really good. It's a big, big difference physically.

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Antenna implanted in cyborg's skull gets Wi-Fi, color as sound

Marina Shafir says in a year & a half, shes ready for Cyborg; talks pro debut on April 12th – Video

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Marina Shafir says in a year a half, shes ready for Cyborg; talks pro debut on April 12th
Layzie The Savage talks to Marina Shafir about her long awaited pro debut on April 12th. For more Boxing and MMA videos log onto http://www.fighthubtv.com Li...

By: fighthub

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Marina Shafir says in a year & a half, shes ready for Cyborg; talks pro debut on April 12th - Video


  1. Cyborg