How Real-Life Bionic Man’s ‘Eyeborg’ Cam Represents First Step Toward Singularity – TheWrap

Just like the Bionic Man, Rob Spence has a prosthetic eye. But instead of fighting crime, he uses it to make films. Rather than use a GoPro or Facebook Live to document his surroundings, Spence can do so with his own eye. Hes been stumping at TED Talks, boasting the technology, which has robot enthusiasts calling it a first step toward technological singularity e.g. the marrying of tech with the human body.

After a childhood accident with a shotgun a la A Christmas Story left him blind in his right eye, Spencedecided not to let it slow him down inhis career as a filmmaker. So in 2007, he enlistedthe help of a team of engineers to design him a prosthetic eye with a specialattachment: a video camera, which Spence calls the Eyeborg. The device fits snugly into Spences eye socket. Although he cant see out of it since it isnt connected to his brain the prosthetic contraption allows him to film his surroundings for short periods of time.

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Time Magazine named the Eyeborg among the top 50 inventions of 2009.Since then, Spence has put the tech to use, filming a documentary. (To pay the bills, he does commercial work for brands such as Ford, Salesforce and Absolut Vodka.) Spence has also given TED talks on cybernetics and the future of human bodily modification.

Most recently, Spence appeared at the FutureWorld techconference in Toronto, where he showed off his fancy ocular gadget to a crowd of robotics enthusiasts at the Ontario College of Art and Design, reports Vice.

Spence told TheWrap that he plans to employ theEyeborg as more of a toy than a filmmaking tool in the future. The Canadian filmmaker and tech enthusiast said he currently uses hisprosthetic eye camera as the worlds most absurd toy for one-eyed filmmakers. In fact, he doesnt actually use it for his work. Spence said, Thats like trying to be a journalist but your style of writing is stream-of-consciousness. Among the top challenges that come with using the tiny tech: I get blinking, glancing, and the picture is 320240 with analog dropouts. As for the reason why he transitioned out of making documentaries to commercial content: Documentary is an expensive hobby.

You can keep up with Rob Spence, his Eyeborg, and his upcoming projects on his website.

Steven Spielberg's tech-heavy "Minority Report," starring Tom Cruise, is now 15 years old. Considered one of the most prescient sci-fi movies to grace the big screen, it predicted multiple future innovations, including facial recognition, personalize advertising and predictive crime fighting. In honor of the movie's anniversary, click through here to revisit 18 more movies that accuratelypeered into the future of technology:

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Tech giant Elon Musk is at the helm of SpaceX, which will send two tourists to space in 2018. But "2001: A Space Odyssey" imaginedcommercial space travel decades ago.

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"The Terminator" predicted military drones in 1984 -- long before they were introduced to police forces and militaries.

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Remember when the TSA rolled out invasive body scanners and a lot of people freaked out? "Airplane II: The Sequel" imagined airport scanners that revealed a person's naked body to agents.

Woody Allen's "Sleeper" had robots assisting surgeons by offering advice during surgery. Today, doctors use robotics to add precision to procedures.

The beloved 1960s cartoon "The Jetsons" -- which was made into a movie in 1990 -- predicted the use of robots to clean homes. They had a robotic vacuum and a robotic maid.Can you say Roomba?

In vitro fertilization and at-home genetic testing are common place these days. "Gattaca," with Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke, predicted this tech in 1997.

FaceTime, and Skype before it, are commonplace today. But it was cool new technology in 1989's "Back to the Future Part II."

There are a ton of different options out there for smart watches. This was predicted in 1990's "Dick Tracy."

It's so easy to order Domino's online -- you can even watch how far along in the process your pizza is. In 1995's "The Net" with Sandra Bullock, they showed ordering pizza online for the first time.

Tinder, Bumble and OKCupid are only a few of the many, many online dating options out there. But Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks were on the forefront of the online dating trend in "You've Got Mail."

VR porn is growing in popularity. Or as it's called in 1993's "Demolition Man" -- "digitized transference of sexual energies."

From robotic vacuums to smart watches, Hollywood got these tech trends right

Steven Spielberg's tech-heavy "Minority Report," starring Tom Cruise, is now 15 years old. Considered one of the most prescient sci-fi movies to grace the big screen, it predicted multiple future innovations, including facial recognition, personalize advertising and predictive crime fighting. In honor of the movie's anniversary, click through here to revisit 18 more movies that accuratelypeered into the future of technology:

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How Real-Life Bionic Man's 'Eyeborg' Cam Represents First Step Toward Singularity - TheWrap