This week I enjoyed watching and listening to Neil Harbisson: I listen to color on ted.com. Neil Harbisson was born completely color blind, meaning that he sees the world in tones of gray. He says that his entire world is a black and white TV. Enabling Neil to "see" color is a very complex challenge. How would you be able to convey colors given his circumstances of never seeing an actual color? In this case, Neil Harbisson and a friend devised a video camera that is attached to his head that recognizes color and translates it into a musical tone which he is able to feel/hear. Now he is able to "see" grass and green through the tone that he hears.
Why was this interesting to me, and why do I bring it up here? Neil Harbisson describes himself as a cyborg. He is a combination of technology and human. His video eye is part of his being now and was permitted to be worn for his official government photo id. This is important because you aren't able to wear anything on your head/face that isn't part of your body for the official photo. His government actually agreed the video eye was a part of his body for the purposes of the photo. Interesting.
Now, as I alluded to last week, how long is it until we are the computer rather than just wearing it and augmenting our senses? I plan to continue exploring this path over the next couple of months.
No comments:
Post a Comment