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| insh.world |
CYBORGS[PART 2]
In the last part, we had known about Neil Harbisson and Meow-Ludo-.... [ if you haven't read-...read here👉Cyborgs[Part 1] ]
In this journey, let us know about some more cyborgs
The name I am gonna take first is Kevin Warwick, a British engineer and vice Chancellor at the Coventry University of United Kingdom. You can call him insane. Why? People who does unusual tasks are usually called insane. Well, he is 'insane' because he is on the mission to become the world's most complete cyborg. The insanity doesn't lie in there. He never experiments on animals, you may call him a good person, a kind heart or whatever. But the reason is he loves experimenting on himself rather than on some monkey or a guinea pig.After all, don't blame him because he is known for his studies on direct interfaces between computer systems and human nervous system - an expectation from the 6th Generation.
His fame lies in the project he began. The project name is "Project Cyborg". Because he was called "Captain Cyborg" from that.
He began the first stage of his project in Aug 1998 in which he transplanted RFID [Radio Frequency IDentification] transmitter in his hand, through which he was able to control doors, lights, heaters etc in his proximity. Do you know what he said after first stage !? He said that the purpose of the stage 1 was to test the limits his body could bare and how effectively it could receive signal from micro processor.
The second stage of this experimentation began in March 2002. It was bit complex because this time it was related with the neural networks [quite like Brain Computer Interface - I am gonna write about it in future] A device which included BrainGate sensor was implanted in his left hand and interfaced through median nerve with Warwick's neural system. The microelectrode array consisted of 100 electrodes each as thick as human hair. Guess what! the experiment was successful [ not just because he is still fine😉] because the signals produced by the device was enough to enable a robot arm. That means using that implanted device he could have a robot hand operated. Listen there is something more exciting.. With that implant, Warwick was able to connect to the internet of Columbia University and from there , he was able to control the robot arm placed in the University and get the data from sensors at the fingertips. Not only that, he connected to ultrasonic sensor on the baseball cap and got extrasensory input [that is not a fair game, well, but it's good step ahead in the research]
He was not done yet. now he looked at his wife and an idea flashed on. He inserted similar device or say electrode array into his wife's hand too [you may think that is too much, but wait] and he truly achieved the thing which we people speak for fun; The "TELEPATHY" (by using internet for communication) [not by supernatural powers].
Now think, weren't there any side effects? Yeah, initially it was predicted that direct interfacing may impact on the neural network. But it was proved wrong, that means his brain accepted the new device and there wasn't any significant side effects and it was observed that nerve tissue grew around electrode array concealing the sensor.
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| Kevin Warwick source: Wikipedia.org |
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| Kevin Warwick and his wife Irena Warwick source:atlasobscura.com |
Here is a life story of another person, name- Jesse Sullivan. Job: Electrician, Country: USA. He was an electrician and had to work with electric lines carrying high voltage. In May 2001, he accidentally touched lines with voltage 7000-7500 V at his work place. Domestic supply would be around 230-250 V and that is sufficient to kill a person if touched for considerable time. Now, think about 7500 V! But thing is he did not die but the shock severely hampered his two arms. His arms were surgically removed in 2001,May.
After several weeks, he got bionic prostheses ( singular- prosthesis is an artificial alternative for any missing body part). Originally they were operated through nerves at the removed body part. But Sullivan developed hypersensitivity from his skin grafts [ or transplanted skin for joining the bionic arms). Later, he underwent surgery and the nerves connecting chest to arm were removed and the device was moved to the left of chest to operate using the nerve endings there. Yet his right arm is a traditional prosthetic arm.
His bionic arm is worth $6 million. Using his arms he could perform his daily chores like eating food, shave, put on his socks,shoes, mow his garden etc. He can do some tricky movements too like opening jar lid. He could now sense the hand touch by pressing on his chest.
A video here 👉https://youtu.be/ddInW6sm7JE
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| Jesse Sullivan |
#next week ; a female cyborg and many more.
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