By Amy Oliver
Last updated at 10:02 PM on 31st July 2011
When Tanya Vlach lost her left eye in a horrific 2005 car accident she was devastated.
As a popular visual artist in San Francisco, how could she carry on with her work? It would surely have an impact.
But after a bout of depression, Ms Vlach realised there could be endless artistic opportunities in a prosthetic eye that housed a tiny video camera.
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Eye cam: San Francisco artist, Tanya Vlach, is raising money for an intra-ocular camera prosthetic eye, after she lost her left one in a car accident
That idea is, of course, nothing new. Look at the Six Million Dollar Man, the 1970s TV series that created a bionic humanoid.
Arnie in the Terminator films is another example.
But Ms Vlach's planned intra-ocular camera is souped up for 2011.
Her dream is to make it web optimised, perhaps with its own app, so movement could be controlled externally.
Recovery: After a bout of depression, Ms Vlach realised there could be endless artistic opportunities in a prosthetic eye that housed a tiny video camera
Not much space: Whoever conjures up such a device only has 21 - 23mm in length to play with. The iris size is a tiny 12.25mm
Wish list: Ms Vlach's planned intra-ocular camera is souped up for 2011. She wants it web optimised and controlled by an external app
EYE 2.0: THE SPECIFICS
Current prosthetic eye
- Thickness: 8mm
- Length of Shell: 21 – 23mm
- Iris: 12.25 mm Diameter
- Pupil (Lens/aperture): 4.5mm Diameter
Specifications for camera eye
- SD at least, 720p HD
- MPEG-4 / H.264 Recording
- Built in Wireless Transmitter
- Bluetooth Wireless Method
- Remote Trigger
- Mini A/V out
- Firewire / USB / Mini HDMI
- Optical 3X
- Inductors: (Power Source)
External Mobile Application (app)
- Acts as remote
- Power source
- Feed
Wish List
- Wireless
- Sensors that respond to blinking enabling camera to take still photos, zoom, focus, and turn on and off.
- Dilating pupil with change of light.
- Infrared / Ultraviolet
- Geo-tagging
- Facial Recognition
- Water Tight
- Verisimilitude
She'd like sensors that respond to blinking, enabling the camera to take still photographs, zoom, focus and turn on and off.
The pupil would be sensitive to light change, dilating as a human eye would.
There would also be functions for geo-tagging and facial recognition.
Such a wish list doesn't come cheap. But Ms Vlach has already smashed her goal of raising $15,000 by early August, such is the interest from the science community, those other 'one eyeds' as she calls them, and beyond.
'While my prosthesis is an excellent aesthetic replacement, I am interested in capitalising on the current advancement of technology to enhance the abilities of my prosthesis for an augmented reality,' Ms Vlach writes on her website.
I discovered in a very traumatic and jarring way that you can lose life quickly and without warning- everything that you knew, your memories, your friends and family gone in an instant.
'This decision to implant a camera in my eye is like inviting a little cinematographer to live in my brain. This consciousness that I'm documenting what I'm observing enables me to be more present and engaged in every moment.'
Ms Vlach has plans for a graphic novel, an experimental documentary, a web series, a game, and a live performance all using the prosthetic.
But such a device could open up a world of opportunity elsewhere from the military through to personal shoppers, turning a disability into something positive.
01 Aug, 2011--
Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2020889/Seeing-future-U-S-artist-plans-replace-eyeball-lost-car-accident-webcam.html?ITO=1490
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