© 2016 Brian Zak/nycpost
Brilio.net/en - Rob Spence, a Toronto-based filmmaker, replaced one of his eyeballs with a camera. At the age of 43, the man who calls himself the Eyeborg turned himself into a real-life version of a bionic hero.
Before you think that this guy is completely insane, you need to know that Spence actually has lost one of his eyeballs at age 9 due to a shotgun accident. At that time, he attempted to fire into a pile of cow dung and accidentally injured one of his eyeballs when he did not hold the gun properly. Since then, he had used a fake eyeball inside his orbital cavity.
26 years after the accident occurred, Spence has come up with a bizarre idea to remove his blind eyeball and replace it with a camera or micro-lens.
"Literally everybody [said] it as a joke people doing the surgery say, 'Oh, you should get an eye camera.' The idea is so out-there in pop culture and science fiction," he told The Post.
Spences eye-cam is able to record one to three minutes of video before the camera starts to overheat and needs to be removed from its socket. Nonetheless, he claimed that the three minute footage is quite enough to do an intimate interview without any help of bulky lenses or camera crews.
Its the same deal as Taxicab Confessions you get amazing footage if you get the release form after you do the interview, he said.
The eye-cam looks like a regular prosthetic eye with a camera inside. As the camera is not connected to the optic nerve, Spence cannot actually see anything with it. Yet still, the camera is equipped with a micro radio frequency transmitter, so that everything which is seen by the eye-cam can be played on a handheld monitor.
The eye-cam obviously has raised concerns about its privacy and safety just like any other hidden camera technology.
The two reactions are, Wow, thats so cool and, after a few moments reflection, but thats so creepy, Spence said. Ive actually started wondering, do we want to have a constant video of our lives? Its just another data set. And I dont know the answer, but I think no, we dont want that. But its coming anyway.
So far, Spencer has used his eye-cam camera to record the video of other peoples bionic arms and legs for a commissioned documentary about prostheses and cybernetics. Someday, he plans to switch to an advance eye-cam, so that he can film for hours at a time. He intends to use the micro-lens for film project with an emotional subject.
[Like] asking somebody what ... they think about love, but really look in their eyes, he says. If youre looking at somebody or especially get into eye contact a little bit, then it can get awkward, but interesting, and go a little further that way.
(brl/red)
