Collaborate Disseminate
Scientists could almost build a whole mini-body out of the mini-organs that have been grown over the last few years. But cell development has traditionally been tricky to study, thanks largely to the difficulty in getting sensors in there wit… Continue reading Harvard team grows cyborg mini-organs out of stem cells
Every technological advancement seems to have a sharp inflection point, a time before which it seems like any early adopters are considered kooks, but beyond which the device or service quickly becomes so mainstream that non-adopters become the kooky ones. Take cell phones, for example – I clearly remember a news report back in the 1990s about some manufacturers crazy idea to put a digital camera in a phone. Seemingly minutes later, you couldn’t buy a phone without a camera.
It seems like we may be nearing a similar inflection point with a technology far more complex and potentially far …read more
Continue reading The Cyborgs Among Us: Exoskeletons Go Mainstream
If you read almost any article about powered human implants, you will encounter the same roadblock, “it could be so much better with more powerful batteries.” Our fleshy power systems are different from electrical systems, but we are full of moving parts, so [Xudong Wang] and fellow researchers have harnessed that power (Sci Hub Alt) and turned it right back into something else our body understands.
The goal of this project is to control obesity by tricking the vagus nerve into thinking we are full as we digest our current meal. The treatment has already been proven with battery-powered implants, …read more
Some plants react quickly enough for our senses to notice, such as a Venus flytrap or mimosa pudica. Most of the time, we need time-lapse photography at a minimum to notice while more exotic sensors can measure things like microscopic pores opening and closing. As with any sensor reading, those measurements can be turned into action through a little trick we call automation. [Harpreet Sareen] and [Pattie Maes] at MIT brought these two ideas together in a way which we haven’t seen before where a plant has taken the driver’s seat in a project called Elowan. Details are sparse but …read more
Of all the fictional cyborgs who turn against humanity to conquer the planet, this is as far from that possibility as you can get. These harmless mushrooms seem more interested in showing off their excellent fashion sense with a daring juxtaposition of hard grid lines with playful spirals. But the purpose of this bacteria-fungus-technology hybrid is to generate electricity. The mushrooms are there to play nurse to a layer of cyanobacteria, the green gel in the photo, while the straight black lines harvest electricity.
Cyanobacteria do not live very long under these kinds of conditions, so long-term use is out …read more
Does your employer want to turn you into a cyborg? Was this phishing test devised by an evil genius? And how did a cinema chain get scammed out of millions, time and time again…?
All this and much more is discussed in the latest edition of the award-wi… Continue reading Smashing Security #104: The world’s most evil phishing test, and cyborgs in the workplace
Sarah Petkus is rethinking how we use technology to communicate sexuality. Continue reading This Cyborg Suit Reacts to Sexual Arousal with Spinning Nipple Propellers and Whispering Vagina Speakers
We are swimming in radio transmissions from all around, and if you live above the ground floor, they are coming at you from below as well. Humans do not have a sensory organ for recognizing radio signals, but we have lots of hardware which can make sense of it. The chances are good that you are looking at one such device right now. [Frank Swain] has leaped from merely accepting the omnipresent signals from WiFi routers and portable devices to listening in on them. The audio signals are mere soundwaves, so he is not listening to every tweet and email …read more
If smartwatches and tiny Bluetooth earbuds are any indications, the future is with wearable electronics. This brings up a problem: developing wearable electronics isn’t as simple as building a device that’s meant to sit on a shelf. No, wearable electronics move, they stretch, people jump, kick, punch, and sweat. If you’re prototyping wearable electronics, it might be a good idea to build a Smart Internet of Things Wearable development board. That’s exactly what [Dave] did for his Hackaday Prize entry, and it’s really, really fantastic.
[Dave]’s BodiHub is an outgrowth of his entry into last year’s Hackaday Prize. While the …read more
Continue reading Turn Yourself Into A Cyborg With Neural Nets
Biohacking is the new frontier. In just a few years, millions of people will have implanted RFID chips under the skin between their thumb and index finger. Already, thousands of people in Sweden have chipped themselves to make their daily lives easier. With a tiny electronic implant, Swedish rail passengers can pay their train ticket, and it goes without saying how convenient opening an RFID lock is without having to pull out your wallet.
That said, embedding RFID chips under the skin has been around for decades; my thirteen-year-old cat has had a chip since he was a kitten. Despite …read more
Continue reading Ask Hackaday: What Is The Future Of Implanted Electronics?