Filmmaker to Get ‘Bionic’ Eyesocket Camera

Documentary filmmaker Rob Spence is planning to outfit his prosthetic eye with a tiny wireless camera. His “EyeBorg Project” is intended to raise awareness of surveillance society in general, and of Toronto specifically, which is infested by 12,000 such cameras.

According to his press release:

In order for the project to be successful the smallest, lightest, power efficient technologies had to be found and implemented. The world’s smallest CMOS cameras—1.5mm square are being used, small enough to be lost in a sneeze. The video signal is being transmitted wirelessly to be recorded elsewhere by an RF Transmitter that’s smaller than the tip of a pencil eraser, and lithium polymer battery technology is powering the eye. Kosta envisions that the data will be sent to a backpack to be recorded.

Rob is currently working on a documentary film about the Eyeborg Project and the experience of living with a bionic eye. He hopes it will raise questions and build awareness regarding issues around surveillance in our society.

I can’t help but think that this is going to upset the MPAA if Spence happens to go to a movie.  And what if he’s caught looking at a bridge or an airport? Will the TSA apprehend him and force him to pop his eye out? And what’s next — bionic hearing? Where’s Oscar Goldman?

This project will likely raise many issues beyond the surveillance one, but I’m sure we’ll all keep an eye out for the documentary.

Be seeing you.

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