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Filmmaker Working On Eye-Socket Camera
An anonymous reader writes "Wired has a story about Rob Spence, a Canadian filmmaker who plans to have a mini camera installed in his prosthetic eye. 'A camera module will have to be connected to a transmitter inside the prosthetic eye that can broadcast the captured video footage. To boost the signal, he says he can wear another transmitter on his belt. A receiver attached to a hard drive in a backpack could capture that information and then send it to another device that uploads everything to a web site in real time. ... Even though his project is still in its early stages, Spence says many people have already told him they wouldn't be comfortable being filmed. "People are more scared of a center-left documentary maker with an eye than the 400 ways they are filmed every day at the school, the subway, the mall," he says. He hopes he will help get people thinking about privacy, how surveillance cameras and the footage they record are being used and accessed.'"
Spence runs a blog for the 'Eyeborg Project,' as he calls it, and has recently posted a video about the progress they're making.
I always believed that 20 years from now, technology will allow us to keep a constant record of all that we see. It will be great for keeping memories of the kids, sure. It will also completely change the way we interact. The most fascinating part of this future is that very strong ethical, privacy and legal limits will have to be put in place.
Think of the switch from analog audio to digital. With analog, you could record, but you couldn't store forever without losing quality. Stuff eventually got lost, or forgotten. It's a different ball-game when information stays around forever, easily accessible. Google Search taught us as much.
Bottom line: there is no technological answer to this, it will have to come from principles and laws. Anyone can steal mail from my mailbox, there is no lock. But people don't. Let's see how we can create similar principles for digital information.
Dear Rob, maybe people feel uncomfortable because your eye gives a red glow and you keep telling them "See you later!" in Spanish with a heavy Austrian accent.
So, if he captures a crime in progress, the criminals (if they recognize him) can hurl all sorts of puns his way:
Eye of the beholder
Socket too me
An eye for an eye...
See, if you had that camera in your ass or fannypack, hindsight would be 20/20
Depending on the focal length he uses, if he fixates on breasts, will he be a living boob tube? Titty-gazing could, like, oh my god... soooo tubular...
If he sees two rogue law enforcement officers beating on a civilian, he could sing "EYE SHOT THE SHERRIF, but EYE didn't SHOOT THE DEPUTY..."
There may be a new law: DCMA
"Don't Capture Me, Aye!" (especially since he's Canadian...)
If he sees a SUUUUUPER ugly person, they may crack his lens.
If they put smoke and mirrors in his path, he could be blinded with science.
If he's in a room with flash-bangs and smoke grenades, he'll be "bedazzled and frazzled"
If his good eye goes out, and he's broadsided, it could be said he was blind-sided...
Would he go crazy if swimming with fisheye lens goggles?
I suppose much of this assumes he as a neuro-optical data link.... and can process the imagery. Hopefully he won't be a cross between Geordi (super barrettes) La Forge and Saul (Demon Eyes) Tigh...
But, if he's visious, and lays eyes on you, you'd be caught in the eye of the tiger...
Yeh, i'm on a ROLL (but not a film roll)... LOL!
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
This story has three icons attached to it, but not one of them is the "Bill Gates with Borg eye" one. C'mon, this was the perfect oppportunity to use that icon, and you blew it, slashdot!
... and then they built the supercollider.
If I was going to wear a small hidden camera, I would attach it to the end of my index finger and transmit it to a set of glasses so I can see what it sees. Think of the uses.. 1. You can see around corners 2. Look up a gal's skirt 3. Read with your finger 4. Pick your nose and put it on youtube 5. film yourself sleeping 6. Experience Sign Language in a fresh way The possibilities are endless..
Have you fscked your local propeller head today?