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Christ... technology is ridiculous...


Guest imported_El Mamerro

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Guest imported_El Mamerro

From this month's issue of Wired... I tried to find zesto's old thread on a similar article from the same mag, but couldn't find it...

 

 

 

 

Eyes in the Back of Your Mouth

 

The brain doesn’t care where visual input comes from. So why not see with a camera jacked into your tongue?

 

 

By Michael Abrams

 

 

_

 

Don’t fly by the seat of your pants. That mantra is drilled into every pilot’s head in flight school. It means pay no attention to the g-forces pushing against your ass; and keep your eyes on your instruments. If you don’t, and your plane is in a spin or a loop, you could get caught thinking down is up. But as aviation technology evolves, the cockpit is filling up with new instruments, overwhelming the pilot’s ability to take it all in at a glance. Luckily, the eyes aren’t the only way to see. Pilots can now sense other aircraft from a tiny zap on their shoulders. And they’ll soon be able to land a helicopter in a dust storm with infrared images lightly buzzing their tongues.

 

The fact is, visual information doesn’t have to go through the eyes to get to the brain. Our sense organs are mere input devices – wet USB ports. The basic premise, known as plasticity, is that the brain can adapt to new data channels by rewiring itself. It’s a short step from there to sensory augmentation and substitution. New devices are extending pilots’ perception of space, giving rudimentary sight to the blind, restoring balance to people whose vestibular systems have failed, even enabling orgasms. "A nerve spike is a nerve spike," says Paul Bach-y-Rita, professor of rehabilitation medicine and biomedical engineering at the University of Wisconsin. "The brain doesn’t give a damn where the information is coming from."

 

SEE FOR THE FIRST TIME, FLY BLIND, HAVE GREAT SEX

 

Bach-y-Rita has been experimenting with brain plasticity since the 1960s, but only in the last few years has the hardware become compact enough to create practical sensory input devices. His latest technology sends visual data through the tongue, which is jam-packed with nerves and coated with conductive saliva. A video camera worn on the forehead sends images to a laptop, which dumbs down the picture to 144 pixels. That signal is sent to a soviet-gray box, called a Tactile Display Unit, which converts the image to electrical impulses. The current winds up on a matrix of electrodes that tingle the image onto the tongue. In lab tests, the system enabled blind people to recognize letters, catch rolling balls, and watch candles flicker for the first time.

 

But a sensory substitution system needn’t be for substitution alone. Researchers at the Naval Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory and the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition used Bach-y-Rita’s ideas to cram a pilot’s brain with expanded spatial awareness akin to sight. Instead of electrodes on the tongue, the Tactile Situation Awareness System uses a flight suit embedded with as many as 96 transducers – mini-vibrators like the ones found in cell phones. The TSAS makes pilots less dependent on their eyes. "The visual workload has gone up so high that we’re seeing an increase in the number of human factor-related mishaps," says Anil Raj, who heads the program at the University of West Florida. Now pilots can gauge their orientation from a buzz on the torso. If the plane banks left, they feel a zap on the left. If the plane makes a 180-degree turn, the zap will travel from one side of the body to the other. It usually takes months of training before pilots can look at their altimeters, attitude indicators, and compasses and understand a plane’s location in space. With TSAS, it takes 10 minutes.

 

Bach-y-Rita is adapting the system for stroke victims and others who have lost their sense of balance. He’s also working on a sensor-filled condom that, in theory, could channel sexual stimulation to the tongue (most men who’ve lost feeling below the waist still get erections). A little more funding and the system may soon fit into a wireless retainer that can snap onto the roof of the mouth. Videogamers will have a sixth sense. Navy SEALs, who complain that night-vision goggles destroy their eyes’ natural ability to adjust to the dark, will scan dark beaches with their taste buds. Pilots will vibrate their way home. And the blind will see.

 

 

 

 

 

 

WE CAN NOW SEE WITH OUR FUCKING TONGUES, PEOPLE. THIS IS NOT RIGHT.

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Guest Dyptheria

i wouldn't mind being able to see with my dick. during sex i could get a good view of the penetration. close inspection of the punani. i already think with my dick, may as well see with it too.

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Guest imported_El Mamerro

I don't know dude, I've seen medical pictures of what it looks like inside that thing, and it's hardly arousing stuff...

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Guest imported_El Mamerro
Originally posted by Dirty_habiT

Nonnonon... I was referring to ol' dickeyes' comment about not using 92 some odd percent of his/her brain.... I dunno about you hombre, but I'm using most of my brain.... you sit there and vedge out if you want.

 

Once again... DO THE MATH, then understand the joke...

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Originally posted by Dyptheria

i wouldn't mind being able to see with my dick. during sex i could get a good view of the penetration. close inspection of the punani. i already think with my dick, may as well see with it too.

 

 

 

Originally posted by El Mamerro

PEOPLE. THIS IS NOT RIGHT.

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damn interesting shit.

 

guy I know from college lost his hearing in a freak electrical accident at roughly the age of 3 or 4. Just last year the doctors were able to implant some kind of system that allows him to hear again. First thing he said.....SHUT UP! its too loud! I can't even imagine not being able to hear for 30 years....and then able to again. He had migraines for the first few weeks. Having a hard time filtering everything out.

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Originally posted by loudhardfast

if we are only using 8% of our brain than im not surprised that it is able to adapt to the things they were talking about in that article. imagine what the other 98% is capable of.

 

 

yeah, it could be used for things like basic math! think of the possibilities.

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Originally posted by loudhardfast

if we are only using 8% of our brain than im not surprised that it is able to adapt to the things they were talking about in that article. imagine what the other 98% is capable of.

 

 

OMFG YOU PEOPLE ARE RETARDED. HE MEANT TO SAY IT LIKE THAT,

IT WAS MEANT TO BE FUNNY. TO ME, IT WAS... UNTIL THE HORSE WAS

BEATEN PAST RIGOR MORTIS BY A RETARD NAMED COMP

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Guest imported_El Mamerro

Um, so yeah, anyways... I really urge everyone to pick up this issue if you can, it's probably the best I've ever read. The cover story (more like group of related stories), about the recent convergence of science and religion, is absolutely amazing, a must-read for people who like to be involved in science vs. religion arguments. Go git. Beer,

 

El Mamerro

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