An eyeborg or eye-borg is a body modification apparatus which fits on the wearer's head, and is designed to allow people to perceive color through sound waves. It works with a head-mounted antenna that senses the colors directly in front of a person, and converts them in real-time into sound waves through bone conduction. [1]
The first eyeborg was created in England in 2003 by Adam Montandon in collaboration with colourblind artist Neil Harbisson. [2] The invention, under the heading Bridging the Island of the Colourblind Project, won a British award in Innovation (Submerge 2004) [3] and a European award in Content Tools and Interface Design (Europrix 2004). [4] In 2007, Peter Kese, a software developer from Kranj, Slovenia, made further developments to the eyeborg by increasing the number of color hues to 360 and adding color saturation through different volume levels. [5] In 2009, Matias Lizana, a student from Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya developed the eyeborg into a chip as part of his final year project. [6] The chip allows users to have the device implanted and to hear colors beyond the limits of human perception such as infrared and ultraviolet. [7]
Harbisson's Sonochromatic Music Scale (2003) is a microtonal and logarithmic scale with 360 notes in an octave. Each note corresponds to a specific degree of the color wheel. The scale was introduced to the first eyeborg in 2004. [8]
Harbisson's Pure Sonochromatic Scale (2005) is a non-logarithmic scale based on the transposition of light frequencies to sound frequencies. The scale discards color as being part of a color wheel and ignores musical/logarithmic perception so it can overstep the limits of human perception. The introduction of the new scale to the eyeborg in 2010, allows users to decide whether they want to perceive colors logarithmically or not. [6]
Since 2005, eyeborgs have been donated to blind communities in Europe, Asia and America with the aim of helping the blind develop the sense of color. [9] The first blind person to try out an eyeborg was Sabriye Tenberken followed by blind students from Braille Without Borders in Tibet and members of the Sociedad de Ciegos de Pichincha in Ecuador. [10]
In 2011, vice-president of Ecuador Lenin Moreno announced that his government would collaborate with the Cyborg Foundation to create eyeborgs and new sensory extensions. [11] In 2012, after lecturing at Escola Politécnica de Pernambuco in Recife, [12] the Cyborg Foundation signed a partnership to create eyeborgs and other new human extensions in collaboration with Universidade de Pernambuco in Brazil. [13]
Eyeborgs are currently being treated as body parts rather than as devices, and therefore are donated rather than sold. [14]
Color or Colour is the visual perception based on the electromagnetic spectrum. Though color is not an inherent property of matter, color perception is related to an object's light absorption, reflection, emission spectra and interference. For most humans, colors are perceived in the visible light spectrum with three types of cone cells (trichromacy). Other animals may have a different number of cone cell types or have eyes sensitive to different wavelength, such as bees that can distinguish ultraviolet, and thus have a different color sensitivity range. Animal perception of color originates from different light wavelength or spectral sensitivity in cone cell types, which is then processed by the brain.
Color blindness or color vision deficiency (CVD) is the decreased ability to see color or differences in color. The severity of color blindness ranges from mostly unnoticeable to full absence of color perception. Color blindness is usually an inherited problem or variation in the functionality of one or more of the three classes of cone cells in the retina, which mediate color vision. The most common form is caused by a genetic condition called congenital red–green color blindness, which affects up to 1 in 12 males (8%) and 1 in 200 females (0.5%). The condition is more prevalent in males, because the opsin genes responsible are located on the X chromosome. Rarer genetic conditions causing color blindness include congenital blue–yellow color blindness, blue cone monochromacy, and achromatopsia. Color blindness can also result from physical or chemical damage to the eye, the optic nerve, parts of the brain, or from medication toxicity. Color vision also naturally degrades in old age.
Achromatopsia, also known as Rod monochromacy, is a medical syndrome that exhibits symptoms relating to five conditions, most notably monochromacy. Historically, the name referred to monochromacy in general, but now typically refers only to an autosomal recessive congenital color vision condition. The term is also used to describe cerebral achromatopsia, though monochromacy is usually the only common symptom. The conditions include: monochromatic color blindness, poor visual acuity, and day-blindness. The syndrome is also present in an incomplete form that exhibits milder symptoms, including residual color vision. Achromatopsia is estimated to affect 1 in 30,000 live births worldwide.
The Yamaha V9958 is a Video Display Processor used in the MSX2+ and MSX turbo R series of home computers, as the successor to the Yamaha V9938 used in the MSX2. The main new features are three graphical YJK modes with up to 19268 colors and horizontal scrolling registers. The V9958 was not as widely adopted as the V9938.
A cyborg —a portmanteau of cybernetic and organism—is a being with both organic and biomechatronic body parts. The term was coined in 1960 by Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline. In contrast to biorobots and androids, the term cyborg applies to a living organism that has restored function or enhanced abilities due to the integration of some artificial component or technology that relies on feedback.
Neil Harbisson is a Catalan-raised British-Irish-American cyborg artist and activist for transpecies rights. He is best known for being the first person in the world with an antenna implanted in his skull. Since 2004, international media have hailed him as the world's first legally recognized cyborg, following the UK government's passport office's acceptance of his antenna as a body part. Publications like The Guardian have also described him as the world's first cyborg artist. His antenna sends audible vibrations through his skull to report information to him. This includes measurements of electromagnetic radiation, phone calls, and music, as well as videos or images which are translated into audible vibrations. His WiFi-enabled antenna also allows him to receive signals and data from satellites.
The Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral (ESPOL) is a public university located in Guayaquil, Guayas Province in Ecuador. ESPOL has five faculties or schools, fifteen research centers, and several associated centers providing twenty-six undergraduate and ten master's degrees.
The Cyborg Foundation is a nonprofit organization created in 2010 by cyborg activists and artists Moon Ribas and Neil Harbisson. The foundation is a platform for the research, creation and promotion of projects related to extending and creating new senses and perceptions by applying technology to the human body. The Cyborg Foundation was first housed in Tecnocampus Scientific Park (Barcelona) and is currently based in New York City. It collaborates with several institutions, universities and research centers around the world.
ColorADD is a sign code for aiding color blind people to recognise colors, developed by Portuguese graphic designer and professor at the University of Minho, Miguel Neiva. It consists of geometric shapes representing colors and color combinations. The app won the accessibility category of the 2013 Vodafone Foundation Mobile For Good Europe Awards.
Sonochromatism or sonochromatopsia is a neurological phenomenon in which colours are perceived as sounds. The phenomenon is created by the union between a brain and a colour-to-sound software or chip. People who report such experiences are known as sonochromats. The term was coined by Neil Harbisson to differentiate his experience of colour from people with chromesthesia or colour-to-sound synesthesia.
A cyborg antenna is an osseointegrated device implanted in a human skull. The antenna, composed of a wireless camera on one end and a wireless sound vibration implant on the other end, allows wireless communication and wireless transmission of images, sound or video from skull to skull. The antenna uses audible vibrations in the skull to report information. This includes measurements of electromagnetic radiation, phone calls, music, as well as video or images which are transmitted through audible vibrations. The Wi-Fi enabled antenna also allows the reception signals and data from satellites.
Moon Ribas is a Spanish avant-garde artist and cyborg activist best known for developing and implanting online seismic sensors in her feet that allow her to feel earthquakes through vibrations. Since 2007, international media have described her as the world's first cyborg woman or the world's first female cyborg artist. She is the co-founder of the Cyborg Foundation, an international organisation that encourages humans to become cyborgs and promotes cyborgism as an art movement and the co-founder of the Transpecies Society, an association that gives voice to people with non-human identities and offers the development of new senses and organs in community. Her choreography works are based on the exploration of new movements developed by the addition of new senses or sensory extensions to the dancer.
Cyborg art, also known as cyborgism, is an art movement that began in the mid-2000s in Britain. It is based on the creation and addition of new senses to the body via cybernetic implants and the creation of art works through new senses. Cyborg artworks are created by cyborg artists; artists whose senses have been voluntarily enhanced through cybernetic implants. Among the early artists shaping the cyborg art movement are Neil Harbisson, whose antenna implant allows him to perceive ultraviolet and infrared colours, and Moon Ribas whose implants in her feet allow her to feel earthquakes and moonquakes. Other cyborg artists include:
Miss Earth Puerto Rico is a national Beauty pageant in Puerto Rico.
Manel De Aguas Muñoz, known artistically as Manel De Aguas, is a Spanish cyborg artist and transpecies activist based in Barcelona, best known for developing and installing weather sensory fins in his head. The fins, formally known as 'Weather Fins', allow him to hear atmospheric pressure, humidity and temperature changes through implants at each side of his head. Depending on the changes he feels, he can predict weather changes as well as sense his current altitude.
The Documento Nacional de Identidad (DNI) (Spanish for 'National Identity Document') is the only personal identity card recognized by the Peruvian Government for all civil, commercial, administrative, judicial acts and, in general, for all those cases in which, by legal mandate, it must be presented. It is a public document, personal, and non-transferable and also constitutes the only title of right to the suffrage of the person in whose favor it has been granted. Its issuance is in charge of the National Registry of Identification and Civil Status (RENIEC).
YJK is a proprietary color space implemented by the Yamaha V9958 graphic chip on MSX2+ computers. It has the advantage of encoding images by implementing less resolution for color information than for brightness, taking advantage of the human visual systems' lower acuity for color differences. This saves memory, transmission and computing power.
CyborgNest Ltd is a company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. The start-up was the first in the world to commercialise sensory enhancement technology and created a wearable which used haptic technology (vibrations) to convey information to the wearer called NorthSense. The device was released in 2017 to connect wearers to the Earth's magnetic field.