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Still More Bionic Eyes
jeno writes "An Australian-invented 'bionic eye' device is about to begin human trials. The device consists of a silicon chip inserted into the eye, which is designed to act like a retina -- receiving images captured by a pair of glasses worn by the user."
When can I get a Geordie LaForge Visor so I can tell when people are lying by their body temperature?
Buying a Dell computer is equivalent to dropping the soap in a prison shower.
Just imagine if your bionic eyes get hacked and you spend 24/7 looking a banner ad burned into your silicon retina.
Speech for the Deaf, Sight for the Blind, now all we need is Sex for the Ugly and I'll be all set.
Think of all the legible text can be viewed in a grayscale 10x10 image. Wouldn't be much use unless the product happened to be one letter long.
Manufacturers clamor for market dominance in the bionic eye market, and come up with a hodgepodge of several dozen incompatible technologies. The Justice Department demands the ability to remotely observe what people are looking at, and pressures manufacturers to secretly include key escrow technologies in their circuitry. Copyright-holding corporations realize that the junction between the optic nerve and the CCD chip is ripe for targeting, since you can effectively close off the "analog hole" by sticking an agent in there that enforces copyrights on all visual images passing through. They lobby intensively and as a result the government steps in and mandates that within X years all vision should be digital and incorporate some approved form of copy-protection. This is hailed by the corporate press as a "victory for the consumer" because of the expected abundance of pay-per-see content, even though the early adopters get struck blind by the mandated copy protection- making their eyes worthless, although they are still prized by a small minority for their ability to boot up free operating systems.
Manufacturers continue to trip over each other in their efforts to corner the market, and come up with even more incompatible formats. Consumers who purchase the systems find that the left eye from manufacturer X (about to go out of business) and right eye from manufacturer Y (about to go out of business) both want to be in charge of what you're looking at. Getting different components to cooperate is next to impossible. When one eye breaks, you have to get them both replaced because everything is incompatible with everything else and every model is discontinued or obsoleted as soon as it comes out. People start to write scathing reviews about how the industry and Congress both need to get their act together.
Meanwhile, consumers look at this fiasco and rightly conclude that their eyes are working fine, and that there is no reason to throw them out.
Damn now I have to get a fcc license for my eyes.
Hacker Media
Just as long as the bionic eye doesn't make that "do-doo-do-doot" funny noise everytime you use it. That would drive me nuts.
Heh, I am from down under - I have wondered what they put in the water here many times. You missed out the refugee crisis, supporting 'the war on terror' and then whinging when iraq cancels our wheat exports, the teleportation device using lasers and elle mcpherson.
Reminds me of Babylon 5 when G'Kar has his bionic eye, especially when he can take it out and still see from it.
(Sheriden and Delenn - honeymoon night)
Londo: (something along the lines of) It almost makes you wish you could peek in and see what they are doing.
(G'Kar looks distracted)
Londo: G'Kar, where is the prosthetic eye that Dr. Franklin made for you?
(G'kar is smiling)
(Scene changes to show the eye on a table looking towards the honeymoon bed)
Are you local? There's nothing for you here!
I know some people working on getting the implant talking to PLEB (http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~pleb/).
On-topic and pro-linux. I'm certain this is going to get modded up!