Canadian Rob Spence replaces eye with video camera

TORONTO: Rob Spence, a Toronto-based film-maker, lost his right eye in a shooting accident on his grandfather's farm when he was a teenager. Now 36, he decided some years ago to build a miniature camera that could be fitted inside his false eye. A prototype was completed last year, and was named by a magazine as one of the best inventions of 2009. He calls himself "the Eyeborg guy". The eye contains a wireless video camera that runs on a tiny three-volt battery. It is not connected to his brain, and has not restored his vision. Instead it records everything that he sees. More than that, it contains a wireless transmitter, which allows him to transmit what he is seeing in real time to a computer. The current model is low resolution, and the transmitter is weak, meaning that Spence has to hold a receiving antenna to his cheek to get a full signal. But a new higher-resolution model, complete with stronger transmitter and a booster on the receiver, is in the works. He says: "Unlike you humans, I can continue to upgrade." The eye was built with the help of Steve Mann, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an expert in "cyborg" technology - the blending of natural and artificial systems with technology. Spence also has a version with a red LED light in the eye, like the robot from the Terminator films. As a film-maker, Spence wants to use the camera to record "truer" conversations than would be possible with a handheld camera. "When you bring a camera, people change," he says. "I wouldn't be disarming at all. I would just be some dude. It's a much truer conversation."