igargoyle

Cyberhand

This cybernetics project looks interesting:

It works in much the same way as a real hand; by using synthetic tendons that run through each finger, the artificial hand only needs 6 motors to control motion. So far they’ve created a touch sensitive prototype, and now it looks like their next task is to attach the hand and fire it up. Though what’s really got us excited is the wireless communication between the nerve endings and the hand, opening up a whole realm of possibilities for hot-swapping arm attachments. We think you know where we’re going with this. [engadget]

[ Link via engadget ]

BlinkyBug - Simple Toy Robots

Cute, and yet awfuly simple robotic toys called BlinkyBugs. You can buy them for $25 each, which isn't really all that terrible considering each bug is unique.

[ Link via del ]

Working for Disney

For all of my friends, I'm just saying that I'm going to continue to work for Disney. This is motivated much in part by my desire to build a wearable computer. Many of the other companies that I've been talking to recently just wouldn't afford me the kind of time to allow me to tinker. My goal is to make igargoyle into a much more rich hub for gargoyles and cyborgs alike. I as always encourage people to send in links as it's sometimes quite hard to find articles that I think are high enough quality for the crowd that reads this site.

Cheers all!
nym

Lazyweb Request: Heartbeat Sensor

Dear Lazyweb:

Does anyone know where I can get a reliable, cost effective heartbeat sensor? Ideally it would be something small that would not be cumbersome like the Garmin ForeRunner, and wouldn't have to go on my fingers to get a pulse. Even if that's all you know about, please share with me, and the rest of the intarweb.

Thanks!
nym

Update:
So I guess my comment system isn't working anymore unless you're a spammer. For the meantime, please email me at igargoyle nospamplease at gmail.com.

Marke writes:

radioshack # 63-1520 $49.99
My dr was impressed with accuracy
requires a band (not pictured) worn around the chest....

Cyborg Reporting

Can we say gargoyle?

[ Link to movie on the design ]

Femtech - Mutaytor Future

This is a "Femtech", also known as a "Teen Raver Barbie Clone", from the Mutaytor performance group. The Mutaytor is more known for it's dancing and drumming than technology, but three of the people in the group are amazingly inteligent engineers with artistic flare. While this picture doesn't have a wearable device associated with it, I like it all the same.

The teen raver Barbie clones from Mutech Corporation are America's greatest weapon in the WAR Against Ravers. All models utilize genetically enhanced chameleon and firefly DNA coupled with Mutel Obtanium processors for realtime bioluminescent pattern generation and state of the art industry standard graphical user interface. Black Rock edition anti spectator tactical shields, Amazon support suspension, and LED finger sensory overload systems are also standard.

[ Link ]

Cyborg Bill of Rights

This Cyborg Bill of Rights by "Cyborgologist" Chris Hables Gray caught my attention, but I'm not sure how much it applies to cyborgs, as it doesn't really address some of the problems that people like Steve Mann have had as a result of being different from the norm. Here are a few bits that did seem interesting:

Freedom of Consciousness. The consciousness of the citizen shall be protected by the First, Fourth, and Eighth Amendments. Unreasonable search and seizure in this, the most sacred and private part of an individual citizen, shall be absolutely prohibited. Individuals shall retain all rights to modify their consciousness through psychopharmological, medical, genetic, spiritual and other practices in so far as they do not threaten the fundamental rights of other individuals and citizens and if they do so at their own risk and expense.

Freedom of Information. Citizens shall have access to all information held on them by governments or other bureaucracies. Citizens shall have the right to correct all information held on them by governments and other bureaucracies at the expense of these bureaucracies. Institutional and corporate use of information to coerce or otherwise illegally manipulate or act upon citizens shall be absolutely forbidden.

[ Link via del ]

Cyborg Web Shop

Can I have the LCD Lens and Telescope Lens implanted at the same time? Yes, you can. We do however recommend waiting another 6 months when a new model with both options will be coming out.

Some artists put together this site intended to explore people's reaction to commercial, cyborganic, high tech implants. You have to answer some questions first to get to the site, but it's pretty interesting. I love the comment in the picture above from a visitor, "are these items genuinely for sale?". How soon do you think until a cyborg web shop actually does open? There are already two wearable computing stores that I personally know of.

[ Link via del ]

Banksy: What are you looking at?

I'm on a roll today...

[ Work by BANSKY ]

George Orwell CCTV

How To Avoid Surveillance

[ via enjoy surveillance ]

Sousveillance Good or Bad?

CBC Newswriter Stephen Strauss thinks that sousveillane may not be as wonderfully democratic as some might think. Sure sousveillance may eat away at public police brutality, and has even brought to light situations like the Abu Grabi, but if the society and regime around you is oppressive, maybe it will only lead to more oppression.

I am not sure at all that citizens armed with cameras must make the world a more democratic place. There are lots of undemocratic societies wherein masses of people have embraced narrow, mean, spiteful and never-endingly illiberal civic behavior. Think “no dating” in Iran. Think “destroy Buddhist sculptures” in Taliban-run Afghanistan. Think apartheid in South Africa.

You don’t necessarily have to have a dictatorial state, or paranoid businesses spying on defenceless citizens. You can have common zealots righteously sending to the authorities pictures of Mina and Yusef holding hands, or of a soft-hearted soldier ordering a couple of Buddha’s statues to be left standing.

If everyone is taking pictures of everything that everyone else is doing you can easily create the evil backside of small towns. That isn’t innocent gossip but relentless active efforts to drive out deviants, what author David Brin, who has written extensively on sousveillance, has labelled “the bad posse … old time vigilantes and the more recent psycho-racist-self-righteous militias.”

[ Link via cydem ]

Virtual Walking with Brain Signals

Using brain signals, researchers in Austria and London have been able to use the brain signals of people thinking about walking in order to control virtual reality interfaces, as well as potentially control wheelchairs and eventually exoskeletons.

Researchers from Graz University of Technology in Austria, University College of London in England, Guger Technologies OEG in Austria and the University of Graz in Austria have expanded the amount of control available via external electrodes with a means of detecting changes in brain signals when users imagine moving their feet and translating the effect into walking motion within a virtual reality environment.

The system is distinguishes brain signals produced by thinking about different types of movements, including right hand, left hand, foot and tongue, and converts the information to control signals. Three test subjects were able to move forward through an immersive virtual street scene by imagining walking.

This type of interface promises to enable those who are disabled, and could eventually give and people whose hands and voices are otherwise occupied another way to assess computers.

In a related development, members of the same research team have developed a portable brain-computer interface for use in virtual environments. The battery-powered interface, which includes a diskless Pocket PC, makes it possible for people to physically move while using brain signal control.

I'm not impared, but this is major news in my opinion- if only to improve the immersion factor of playing first person shooters.

[ Link via del ]

Wireless iPod Wrist Remote

This iPod wrist remote is another controller in the long line of wearable controllers that we've seen, and while the idea is great, I can't really say much for the design. I'm not sure if I'd wear one honestly.

That being said, the iPod is going to be marked as the first major wearable computing device alongside the cellphone, and I really want to see more come out of this. Maybe the next major iPod accessory could be an HMD for watching videos while in transit. May the floodgates open.

[ Link via del / gizmodo ]

Cyberpunk Wedding

Bruce Sterling and Jasmina Tesanovic are getting married in LA today in a small private ceremony. Maybe not as exciting as spock and kirk slash fiction, but still nice to hear.

[ Link ]

SEXLAB 3000

21:04 -!- Topic for #infoanarchy: SEXLAB 3000 -!- Topic set by Ash
20:35  * wmf looks at the topic
20:35 < wmf> Ash has gone Xeni on us
20:38 < Ash> haha
20:39 < Ash> wmf: dude, it doesn't say ROBOT VOMIT SEXLABITRON 3000 ON NPR

In other news, I still need others to help find content and write for igargoyle. I'm having trouble posting everyday, and I need you guys to step up!

Telescope Eye Implant

Visioncare Inc. has developed a telescope eye implant, which can reportedly zoom up to 3X. It is designed for people with age-related macular degeneration, or AMD, instead of those who want better than human vision, but it's a step in the right direction. Just imagine being able to get an implant that allows your eyes to zoom far beyond our natural limitations. Instead of seeing someone wave to you from a distance, you could tell if they had rings on their fingers or not.

The device is implanted in one eye, which provides central vision [...] while the non-implanted eye provides peripheral vision for mobility and navigation. After the surgical procedure, the patient participates in a structured vision rehabilitation program to maximize their ability to perform daily activities. Situated in the eye, the device allows patients to use natural eye movements to scan the environment and reading materials.

[ Link via shawn vlad ]

Underdog ROV Beats MIT

The school PA system crackles, and an upbeat female voice fills the bustling linoleum-lined hallways. "Anger management class will begin in five minutes," says the voice from the administration building. "All referrals must report immediately."

Across campus, in a second-floor windowless room, four students huddle around an odd, 3-foot-tall frame constructed of PVC pipe. They have equipped it with propellers, cameras, lights, a laser, depth detectors, pumps, an underwater microphone, and an articulated pincer. At the top sits a black, waterproof briefcase containing a nest of hacked processors, minuscule fans, and LEDs. It's a cheap but astoundingly functional underwater robot capable of recording sonar pings and retrieving objects 50 feet below the surface. The four teenagers who built it are all undocumented Mexican immigrants who came to this country through tunnels or hidden in the backseats of cars. They live in sheds and rooms without electricity. But over three days last summer, these kids from the desert proved they are among the smartest young underwater engineers in the country.

[ Link via del ]

Robot Stands Up for Itself

Someone has developed a robot that can stand up for itself. From a laying down position, it can throw up it's legs and arms, then throw it's legs down to allow it to go from laying down to squatting. The video doesn't actually show the robot standing up from there, but I assume that part is fairly trivial. Before we know it, we're bound to have breakdancing robots working the streets for spare change and battling humans for props. I think robots are already pretty good at beatboxing, so it's a logical step.

See the robot for yourself in the video below.

[ Link via del ]

Festival for Cocktail Making Robots

above: servebot, a cocktail serving robot

There is a festival for robots that make cocktails. Yes you heard me correctly. There has always been a problem with having humans make cocktails, and serve them. Logically, the next step to help alcoholics everywhere get their drink on more quickly would be with robotics.

Until recently, no attempts were made to publicly discuss the role of cocktail robotics as an index for the integration of technological innovations into the human Lebensraum, or to document the increasing occurrence of radical hedonism in man-machine communication. Roboexotica is an attempt to fill this vacuum. It is the first and, inevitably, leading festival concerned with cocktail robotics world-wide. A micro mechanical change of paradigm in the age of borderless capital. Mr. Turing would without a doubt test this out.

[ Link via del ]

INITION: New Video & Cyborg Store

A new UK based store, INITION, is now selling video display products like Head Mounted Displays and Heads Up displays. While they're obviously not the only place on the web to buy this kind of gear, it is nice to see more outlets. It's the kind of thing that will ultimately help competition in terms of price wars and drive for manufacturers to build more reliable and high tech systems. The best thing about their website is that you can do comparison based on specs, so you can sort by price, resolution, etc.

They're also selling haptic feedback devices, VR gloves, motion tracking systems, and even a few wearable computers. I definitely recommend checking them out.

[ Link via del ]

WARNING: Do not touch the artwork

Christian Ristow and highly dangerous robotic mouth wall sculpture.

The Man and his mouth Credit: Karen Marcelo

[ via tribe.net ]

Wearable Translation

Last month, Carnegie Mellon University and German scientists unveilled a new babelfish like invention using wearable computing and electrodes which translateds mouthed words into other languages, effectively becoming a personal translator. In addition, using a head mounted display (see above), they are able to translate audio around the wearer into their native tounge on their goggles. This collaborative effort between the CMU campus in Oakland and at the University of Karlsruhe in Germany is called interACT and while imperfect, is making huge leaps in breaking down linguistic barriers.

CMU computer science graduate student Stan Jou, 34, of Shadyside, stood before the audience yesterday morning with 11 tiny electrodes affixed to the muscles of his cheeks, neck and throat.

The Taiwan native then mouthed -- without speaking aloud -- the following phrase in Mandarin Chinese: "Let me introduce our new prototype."

The sensors captured electrical signals from Jou's facial muscles when they moved to form the silent Chinese words. In a matter of seconds, this information traveled to a computer that recognized the words and translated them into English and Spanish. The phrase was then displayed on a screen and spoken by the computer in both languages.

This is the kind of tech that is truely delicious and empowers people everywhere, even if it isn't perfect... yet.

[ Link via ]

VoiceUbique: Discrete Audio Information

VoiceUbique wants to provide discrete audio information for a variety of situations like audio guides for art tours, quiet television viewing at home, and mobile terminal access in noisy areas like on the train. They plan to do this with wireless headsets that pick up data over over an infrared chanel.

One of the things they're offering, at least optionally is RFID personalization. That is, if they know who you are by use of an RFID tag, they might say something custom to you. Wow, this sounds a lot like minority report, even if you can pull out the headphone from your year.

I can see this product as being helpful, but far from being something I'd invest in due to consumer adoption. I just don't think this would take off beyond nitch markets like museums, where they would be willing to rent out the headphones individually for self-guided audio tours.

[ Link via del ]

Ubiquitous Fashionable Computer

KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) has made this "Ubiquitous Fashionable Computer". I don't think they know what fashionable means, but it sounds like some they have some interesting functionality associated with it:

The wearable PC features an augmented reality HMD (640 x 480 pixel), wrist keyboard and a VR glove. One highlight is the data exchange capability with a throwing gesture, much like how one would throw a baseball. And get this - you can throw somebody wearing a UFC an MP3 file and it is transferred wirelessly to that user, it can also transmit other general data like video clips or word document files.

[ Link via google news ]

Lumiloop Wearable LED Display

Lumiloop is this neat wearable LED display that has a series of modules that can be chained together to make a reactive bracelet. Each has an 8x8 LED matrix, and is driven dynamically by interchangable program modules.

I asked my brother about this, and here's what he had to say:

These are really cool, especially since they have accelerometers in them to detect gestures! I get to start playing with accelerometers myself.

My brother is working on his senior project, and is going to be using accelerometers to help control a motor to aim a laser to do underwater imagery. I can't wait to blog about his stuff on here!

[ Link via del ]

4m Walking Robot

I originally passed on this 4m walking robot suit for igargoyle because I thought the robot was way too slow to be of any real use, and probably to noisy to sneak up on anyone, but a former coworker convinced me to post about it anyways:

I think you fail to see the point here. The JAPANESE have giant WALKING ROBOTS. Sure, it's just a prototype. But seriously, is this a technology we want them having? If anime has taught us anything, it's clear that we do not. On the other hand *I* should be trusted with giant walking combat robots, and promise to use my robotic walking minions for good, and never for evil.

Someone, give this man a giant walking robot. Sysadmins like him need a proper way like this to help redistribute the pain.

[ Link via Davy K. ]

Hi Fi Robot Toy

What this hi fi robot toy lacks in functionality, it definately makes up in retro style. Instead of trying to take over the world with lasers and gripping action, this robot wants to enslave you with deep beats to make you bop your head.

[ Link via del ]

Strange Days are here

Anyone remember the 1995 movie Strange Days? Set in 1999, it featured a small head-mounted device that recorded the sensory input of the wearer. In 1999, a Harvard researcher discovered a way to see through the eyes of cats by monitoring the activity of neurons. He was able to create low-resolution video of the cat's surroundings.

If extended to humans in a non-intrusive manner, this could provide an interesting alternative to conventional video cameras. Human eyes are light-weight, unobtrusive, hard to confiscate and use a long-lasting battery. Jokes aside, electronic-biological interactions will will play a big role in wearable computing. I look forward to what uses people will find for video vision.

Wearable Computing Meets BW Photography

This is a pretty gorgeous BW photo of a woman wearing a wearable computer. Hopefully more people will take to preserving this era so elegantly.

[ Link ]

Rokeby: A Cyborg Pilgrimage

I just really liked this photo. Below is some information about the artist behind this socially-crippling gargoyle setup. Then again, maybe his highlights counteract the repelling effect of the huge HMD and round webcam comming off of his head.

Rokeby is a British artist, Cyborg and Internet pioneer who lives and works in London. Working on some of Britain's most innovative multimedia projects, he was one of the founders of Cerberus (1994), which was the first company in the world to distribute and sell music over the Internet. He was also creator of the 'VNC - Virtual Nightclub' , published by Phillips - one of the first interactive movies to be released.

...

His most recent work, MEMEX: A Cyborg Pilgrimage in The Age Of Amnesia (2003) saw him transform himself into a cyborg; embarking on a 40 day pilgrimage throughout London. Recording the differing ideas to identity, existence and spirituality in the twenty first century the pilgrimage crossed certain murder spots. At the exact locations of murder, the cyborg went into deep meditation, recording his EEG brain signals and converting them into music. Rokeby will continue the rest of his life as a cyborg recording his life as art and plans to transmit his stream of consciousness portraiture and EEG brain signals, live on the web later this year with the launch of Rokeby.TV.

His art sounds like stuff that's been done really. Even though Steve Mann is not known primarly for being an artist, his work is essentially the same, while pushing stronger boundaries with privacy and surveillance. Also I personally know people who have done the EEG brain signals to music thing.

Maybe this is just more of the fashion art biz embracing the cyborg/cyberpunk style.

[ Link via del ]

Removable HMD for Glasses

Man, I wish I grok'd Japanese. This removable HMD for glasses looks pretty sweet. One of my problems is that I wear glasses, and I would prefer to have an HMD that rides on top of them.

[ Link via del ]

Burton Audex Jacket

This jacket from burton and motorola uses bluetooth to give easy access to your cellphone and iPod.

Bluetooth wireless technology in the jacket allows you to link up to your Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone and cruise and converse with ease. Use the control panel on the left sleeve to take or make calls and switch songs on your iPod without removing them from your pockets. There's even a mini caller ID screen. A removable control panel, detachable hood speakers and microphone complete this super tech getup and make it easy to clean your jacket.

Personally, I'd like to see Apple develop one of these since their trademark controls are far superior to anything else I've seen, and I think they probably could design some kick ass jackets as well.

[ Link via del ]

Defend Yourself from a Robot Rebellion

"Any machine could rebel, from a toaster to a Terminator," says CMU roboticist Daniel H. Wilson, in his satirical new book.

[ Link via /., del, etc. ]

Strange Wearable Keyboard

This guy built a wearable computer with a two handed keyboard on a napsack. Odd.

[ Link via del ]