Video: “Eyeborg” Replaces Eye With Functioning Wireless Video Camera

Devin Coldewey is a Seattle-based writer and photographer. He has written for the TechCrunch network since 2007. Some posts he’d like you to read: The Dangers of Externalizing Knowledge | Generation i | Surveillant Society | Choose Two | Frame Wars | The User’s Manifesto | Our Great Sin His personal website is coldewey.cc. ? Learn More

You might remember Rob Spence, known online as the Eyeborg for his project to create a working bionic eye. We wrote about him before, and interviewed him a while back, but the project has advanced to the point where even a seasoned tech blogger is left speechless with amazement.

Spence has worked with a team of engineers to adapt an endoscope into a working in-socket video camera. It’s turned on by waving a magnet near it, at which point it will begin transmitting a wireless video signal to a handheld LCD viewer. Absolutely incredible.

Watch the video from Sky News below, but be warned that it is slightly graphic. If you can’t handle someone installing and removing an artificial eye, consider this your warning.

Just astonishing that this is even possible. But really, this is more of a general achievement in miniaturization, not bionics. Endoscopic cameras with wireless transmitters are now commonplace; the enclosure and ergonomics of the device would be the hard part of this build. What’s yet to be accomplished with an artificial eye is hooking it up effectively to the visual cortex, and that is still years away from being practical — at least, for producing any kind of detail. Existing cortical microelectrode arrays just don’t have the density required, and as a result produce something only loosely definable as an image.

The timing of this new info is part of a media push for the new Deus Ex game (of GameStop infamy), in which cybernetics and prosthetics figure prominently — which doesn’t diminish the wonder of the thing, in my opinion. They also produced a short documentary about prosthetics and research in that field that’s worth a watch as well. It’s a very exciting field and the best bit is that they’re creating things that truly improve people’s lives. A prosthetic eye is a long way off, but it’s people with passion and dedication, like Spence and his team, who drive innovation, regardless of how far off the “final” product might be.

More information can be found at the Eyeborg Project’s home page.

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Samsung Galaxy S II U.S. Variants Pose For The Camera

Jordan Crook studied English Literature at New York University before entering the tech space. Prior to joining TechCrunch, Crook dabbled in mobile marketing and mobile apps as well as doing device reviews for MobileMarketer and MobileBurn. Crook is fascinated with alternative energy production and greentech. She is now a writer for CrunchGear. ? Learn More

We’ve heard quite a bit about the Galaxy S II, which isn’t all that surprising seeing that it sold 3 million units in its first 55 on the market. As people from other parts of the globe got to experience the wonder that is the GSII, we here in the States played the waiting game. But it’s so close I can almost taste the Gingerbread.

On August 29, Samsung will finally unveil the GSII’s U.S. iterations in the Big Apple for T-Mobile, Sprint, and AT&T. If you haven’t already heard, Verizon is holding off on the GSII. In the lead up to the event, this image was leaked to PocketNow, which shows all three little beasts posing for the camera.

They’re all a bit different in design, most notably T-Mobile’s Hercules. If what we’ve previously heard about the Hercules is true, T-Mobile’s Galaxy S II will sport a larger 4.5-inch Super AMOLED Plus display, as opposed to the original GSII’s 4.3-inch screen.

Of course, T-Mobile’s variant may not be called the Hercules. We actually don’t know what any of the carrier names will be, although we sure have heard quite a few: the Attain (AT&T), the Within (Sprint), the Function (Verizon), and even the Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch (also Sprint?). What a nasty mouthful, right?

Either way, it doesn’t really matter what the phone’s called because it’ll be a hit no matter what. Just take a look at the specs: a dual-core 1.2GHz processor, Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread, TouchWiz 4.0, 8-meagapixel rear camera (1080p video capture), 2-megapixel front-facing shooter, and a 4.3-inch 480×800 Super AMOLED Plus display.

Of course, things like screen size may be different from one carrier to the next (read: Hercules), but all in all those should be the specs we’re looking at. There’s also one minor change in the U.S. variants compared to the international version, which would be the loss of that snazzy little home button. Instead, the phones will sport the same four buttons we’ve grown used to on Android.

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